Non-Dairy Cooking (substitute, diet, butter, vegetable)

[ConeyIsBabe]

I'm very interested in tips for substituting non-dairy food in traditional recipes ~ for example ~ MACARONI & CHEESE

I also exclude soy products from my diet so that restricts the options more. I've tried those fake cheeses made of soy, almond, etc. and they are AWFUL

Does anyone have any ideas ?

[Chava61]

I would check out kosher recipe books as they quite often substitute dairy products for non-dairy ones if it is a food item that will be consumed with meat products.

[Cliffie]

There is no real substitute for a totally cheese-based dish like mac & cheese. It is going to taste fake at best and vomitose at worst. My suggestion is to not even try. Cultivate a taste for foods that have nothing to do with dairy -- like guacamole sauce, vegetable soup, things like that.

You can make a great nondairy pumpkin pie using a block of tofu in place of the canned milk junk. Wait, that's soy -- my co-worker brought me in a nondairy key lime pie for my birthday made with coconut milk -- it was heavenly. I am waiting for her to give me the recipe!

Are there specific recipes you are looking for?

[MommaKD]

I use the Daiya mac and cheese recipe (slightly altered, I don't thicken it with flour or use nutritional yeast and I add garlic powder and some chicken stock along with almond milk) and while you know it isn't dairy it's actually pretty good and everyone in my family loves it. Daiya is really the only acceptable cheese substitute I've found for my dairy allergic kids. You can adapt just about anything to be dairy free, I use unsweetened almond milk for a lot of cooking but I still prefer soy for baking. Earth Balance is a good non-dairy butter alternative and they offer a soy free variety. A lot of it really depends on experimentation and altering things to your taste, eventually you just get used to going without it.