Vegan Paneer?

[Jenica]

Paneer, as many of you may know, is sort of an Indian farmer's cheese. It's very light and slightly chewy and in my opinion not really replaceable with tofu in most dishes. I have scoured the net for a good vegan recipe but I can't seem to find one. It's very simple to make with dairy milk and I miss it immensely. Has anybody tried making it with soymilk? Or have any other suggestions?

Also I'm looking for a vegan recipe for khoya (any thickness), a sort of highly condensed milk (also Indian), if anybody has ideas.

[Casey]

One of the dishes I miss the most since becoming vegan is saag paneer. I've tried making it with tofu instead of paneer, but it's just not the same. All the veganized Indian recipes I've seen just say to substitute cubed tofu for the paneer, so I've never seen a recipe to actually make vegan "paneer". I know that's not much help, but let me know if you figure something out! :D

[alexis]

Isn't paneer made by mixing lemon juice or vinegar with dairy milk? At least that's what I remember from this Indian cookbook I saw years ago. Maybe it can be made the same way with soy milk.

[PikkuMyy]

Vegan Paneer

Follow Your Heart, makers of everyone's favorite Vegenaise! make vegan - melts almost like it has casien but doesn't - cheese in several flavors. We buy them fresh here in San Francisco. THey are so fresh they don't last long once opened (unlike Soya Kaas, which lasts a while.) This cheese when raw is not unlike Feta in consistency, and my husband and I cut it into salads like feta. I think the Mozarella would make a good paneer substitute if you can find a store that carries it.

Also, there's a Belgian company called Belsoy that makes regular soymilk found in our local health food stores. However, they also make a heavy cream out of soy which is extremely thick - like real heavy cream. I buy it in small containers from veganstore.com

It's not condensed milk but it is much thicker and you can make lots of neat recipies (like Thai iced tea and coffee) as well as sauces, icing, whipped cream, into coffee, etc. I highly recommend it. It's not really sweet so for Thai iced tea you'd need to add a bunch of melted sugar.

Emily

[Jenica]

Alexis -- Yes, that's roughly how paneer is made (with heat of course also). I have thought about trying it with soy milk but I'm not sure it'll hold together as well as milk paneer does. Perhaps a little agar or guar gum or something else in the mix will do the trick...I'll let you know what I find out. :)


Emily -- I didn't know Belsoy made a heavy cream! I have been dying to find a company that did so I could play around with it. We love their puddings so I'm sure the cream will be great too. Usually we use a mixture of half Silk soy creamer / half soymilk for recipes where we'd use cream but even that is sometimes too sweet and not thick enough. Thanks for the tip. I'll have to ask for it down at the co-op. :D

Unfortunately I'm not very fond of the Follow Your Heart cheeses but I never thought about using them to substitute for paneer. Definitely worth a try. :)