About
Hi! I’m Sophia, the owner and chef of Vegan Canteen. We are a fair wage vegan food business with the belief that eating a plant-based diet shouldn’t break the bank or increase the carbon footprint. Keep things simple, keep things delicious! Our future is not just plant-based, but plant-forward!
We are very excited to announce our plant-based cheese powder that we have been perfecting over the past year. It’s a shelf-stable vegan cheese powder that you can use to make your own vegan cheese sauce! Think delicious gooey vegan mac and cheese! Use it to spice up kale chips or salads, use it as a dip for veggies, pour it over vegetables! Even make your own spreadable cream cheese. There are so many ways to incorporate this yummy product into your meal planning! Perks of backing our kickstarter will include a set of recipe cards to help you get creative in the cheese lab!
That already sounds awesome but just wait —
We also have a version of the vegan cheese mix that you can use to make your own block cheese at home. No special equipment or high-speed blenders required! Shred it, slice it, melt it, sandwich it up!
As a professional vegan chef, this cheese powder has become a staple in my kitchen, just as I know it will become essential in yours. You can make as small or as large of a portion as you need. Have a vegan friend or family member coming for dinner? This will knock their socks off! Make a customizable amount for wherever your meal-planning may take you.
The Cheese
The cheese powder is super easy to use and requires not much more than bringing a pot of water, or plant-based milk, to a simmer for a few minutes and giving it a stir. To make the block cheese you just need to pour the warm mixture into a mold and chill overnight.
It’s made of sprouted quinoa, lentils, beetroot based lactic acid and dehydrated organic vegetables, making this cheese mix a healthy alternative to other vegan cheese products on the market. This plant-based cheese powder is soy-free, oil-free, gluten-free, nut-free and fat-free.
We developed this powdered cheese while working on our cultured cashew cheese products. We wanted to create a vegan cheese that does not rely on importing cashews and coconut oil, is low in fat, and is free from many common allergens. We also very much understand that for many people cashew cheese and even other types of vegan cheese on the market are simply cost-prohibitive. Our powder is a cost-friendly alternative that is shelf-stable and does not require refrigeration or cold shipping.
Flavours
We are going to begin production and shipping with 3 flavours:
– Classic Cheddar
– Smoked Applewood
– Tex-Mex Nacho
The Environment
With our vegan cheese powder, we wanted to create a vegan cheese alternative that has a low carbon footprint and also tastes great. Our Cheese is not relying on importing cashews or coconut oil, it’s actually made with a lot of ingredients grown right here in Canada. Our packaging will be made from compostable materials. Because the powder is shelf-stable it means no refrigeration is required during transport or storage, which helps our product have a much lower carbon footprint than other vegan cheese products.
The Details
Each package of our cheese powder is 140 grams and will make over 1kg, or two pounds, of either cheese sauce or block cheese. It’s great for mac and cheese, a nacho dip, a veggie dip, to make a grilled cheese, on top of your veggie burger. The block cheese can even be grated and sliced.
We are going to offer two styles of vegan cheese powder as rewards for this project. One is the cheese sauce, available in three flavour options, and the other is the cheddar-flavoured block cheese powder.
Packaging for the vegan cheese powder will be 100% compostable.
Nutritional Info:
Kickstarter perks
We will begin shipping the powders in January. With each backed shipment, we will also include a set of limited edition recipe cards with some of our favourite recipes to make with the cheese powder mix. These recipe cards will only be a perk for the Kickstarter backers. Some of our fun and easy to make recipes for the powder will be for block cheese variations, cream cheese, the ultimate mac and cheese sauce, a meltable block cheese you can shred and slice.
Serving ideas
Here are a few ways to use our cheese powder: Mac n’ cheese, nacho cheese dip, grilled cheese sandwiches, lasagna, baked in a casserole, sprinkled on top of salad, baked as a powder topping on kale chips, cheese sauce for vegetables, taco night, plus more!
Shipping
We are currently only shipping in Canada. Once our online store is launched we will finalize distribution for USA.
Ingredients
Cheddar Sauce Powder – nutritional yeast, sweet potato, lentils, sprouted quinoa, brown rice, lemon, vegan lactic acid, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic powder, onion powder, chickpea miso, chives, paprika, annatto, mustard powder, xanthan gum, tapioca starch, salt, pepper
Smoked applewood – nutritional yeast, sweet potato, lentils, sprouted quinoa, brown rice, lemon, vegan lactic acid, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic powder, onion powder, chickpea miso, chives, paprika, annatto, mustard powder, xanthan gum, tapioca starch, salt, pepper. The powder is cold smoked with real applewood.
Tex-Mex Sauce Powder – nutritional yeast, sweet potato, lentils, sprouted quinoa, brown rice, lemon, vegan lactic acid, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic powder, onion powder, chickpea miso, chives, cumin, coriander, tomatillo, ancho pepper, paprika, annatto, mustard powder, xanthan gum, tapioca starch, salt, pepper
Cheddar Block Cheese Powder – nutritional yeast, sweet potato, lentils, sprouted quinoa, brown rice, lemon, vegan lactic acid, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic powder, onion powder, chickpea miso, chives, paprika, annatto, mustard powder, xanthan gum, guar gum, agar, tapioca starch, salt, pepper
We don’t foresee many risks that come along with a new product. We have already finalized the recipe after several rounds of taste testing and trials. Customers have continually asked how and where they can repurchase it. We are an established business and have secure production kitchen space. We come from 20 years of experience running kitchens, including commercial production kitchens. The main objective of our Kickstarter campaign is to fund the design and packaging so that we can sell the powdered cheese mixes in retail stores and markets. Once that is established we will seek to expand distribution outside of Canada.