Follow Your Heart Vegan Mozzerella

I haven't eaten cow's milk cheese in about 4 years (maybe longer...), so go ahead and take this post with that particular grain of salt.

When you can't eat cheese, you find great alternative pizza toppings, because giving up pizza just isn't an option in our home.  We have made some amazing pizzas with cheese-free pesto, hummus, spicy peanut sauce, bbq sauce, and all other manner of medium to cover the top of the pizza and bring it all together.  These are all great replacements.

But...  An ooey, gooey, cheesey pizza is another story.  A story I like to hear every once in a while.  When I discovered Daiya I was thrilled and made many pizzas with it.  However, there is a slight aftertaste with Daiya, and the cheddar is cheddar-y, but I don't get the white Daiya's flavor as much as cheddar-less.

Then I tried Follow Your Heart Mozzerella.  Again, it's been years, but it actually has that luscious mozzerella flavor.  A tiny tang, a mellow and rich flavor that just makes you want some fresh basil and ripe tomatoes.

Night before last, we went out to dinner and got a "vegan greek" pizza with pesto, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, and spinach... then it had little cubes of tofu for the "feta."  Well, looking like cheese and tasting like cheese are not the same.  So last night we had to remake the pizza ourselves and use follow your heart shredded on top instead of cubes of tofu.  Yes, we ate pizza two nights in a row.

I tried out a new "pizza crust yeast" that worked pretty well.  I know it's great because I didn't have to wait for it to rise, and it did get a great chewy/fluffy texture with a great crisp to it too- it just doesn't seem right to me that it could do all that.  It literally took longer to preheat the oven than to have the dough completely ready for the oven!  You should definitely try out this yeast though, if you get the chance.  This is the stuff.  I wouldn't buy it on Amazon, but if you buy it from my link I get a few cents, so why not post it that way?

I've heard some people say they don't like Follow Your Heart because it doesn't melt, but as you can see from my picture, it not only melts, but after a couple minutes on broil it browned.  I've never had melting issues with it on pizza or in grilled cheese (garlic sautteed greens and this mozzerella make an AMAZING grilled cheese to go with tomato soup).