When it comes to vegan cheese, it seems like people have a lot of very strong opinions on the subject. Whether you love or hate it, it’s definitely a controversial topic. Many people find the whole idea of a ‘fake’ non-dairy ‘cheese’ really unappetising, and to be fair, a lot of vegan cheeses on the market are! What’s different about Ferme Fermentino, is that it’s not trying to replicate the flavour of dairy cheeses, but to be used instead of, with its own distinctly unique flavour. Ferme Fermentino is an Italian fermented cashew ‘cheese’ made using only cashews, water & salt. Through the fermentation process, the cashews develop a really creamy, rich & cheesy flavour. Ferme Fermentino comes in lots of delicious flavours including paprika, herbs & flowers, black pepper, chives & a plain cashew spreadable. You can use the ‘cheese’ just as you would any normal cheese. They go beautifully on crackers as part of a cheeseboard or just for a little snack. You can also spread them on toast, use them to cook with and make lovely creamy sauces. They’re super versatile and completely delicious!
We first tried Ferme’s products a few weeks ago at their UK launch event, and we loved it so much we just had to do a blog post on it to share with you! Ferme is currently available to buy in Wholefoods, hopefully expanding to other stores down the line. For this post, we’ve paired each cheese with specific ingredients to create a dish we would eat in our everyday lives.
FERME: CASHEW SPREADABLE
This is their plain fermented cheese with no extra added seasonings. It’s just cashews, water, salt & lactic ferments. We added this to a Buddha bowl, which is something we eat a lot! It was a Mexican inspired bowl filled with roast sweet potato, black beans, avocado, lambs lettuce, cucumber and tortilla chips. The cashew ‘cheese’ acted almost like a dressing and really complimented all of the other flavours in the bowl. You could also spread this on toast, bagels or in a sandwich topped with your favourite toppings!
FERME: HERBS & FLOWERS
The Ferme Fermentino with herbs and flowers is the perfect thing to have with crackers. It has such a delicate aromatic flavour that really shines when eaten in such a simple way. You could bring this as a contribution to a cheese board for a large gathering, or just keep it tucked away in your fridge when you need a late-night snack or midday craving! This flavour comes in a block, unlike the spreadable cashew, however, it would still be considered a soft ‘cheese’ and spreads onto crackers easily.
FERME: CHIVES
We first tried this flavour at the Ferme UK launch event when the chefs cooked us up a huge batch of delicious risotto. It really demonstrated just how versatile a Fermentino can be when used to cook with. On the evening, the chef did a brilliant job making up an amazing dish that simply blew us all away! It was so creamy and bursting with complex flavours. They very kindly sent us off with a little goody bag from the evening filled with practically everything needed to make this at home. This was such a simple dinner to make, all it consists of is the cashew Fermentino ‘cheese’, risotto rice, black olives, veg stock, onion, olive oil and some salt and pepper. You can see the full recipe on their Instagram page. I can definitely see myself in the future whipping up a portion of this after a long day at work. If you’re not into risotto, you could add it to some pasta or top any of your favourite dinners with it. I love that it transforms one-pot dishes like risotto or pasta without having to get out the blender and making a cashew cream up yourself. You can easily make a tasty dinner that’s brimming with flavour.
FERME: PAPRIKA
If you’ve seen our recent post: Four Delicious Vegan Toast Topping Ideas, you’ll know we love a good piece of toast! One of our favourite toast toppings is vegan cream cheese with cucumber. We decided to do a take on that using Fermes paprika Fermentino and topping it with cucumber ribbons and dill. As we said before, this product doesn’t taste like normal dairy cheese, and it’s not trying to either! It is however filled with just as much flavour and can be used in similar ways. This Fermentino was made to be spread on toast in our opinion! It’s quite a rich flavour, so the cucumber and dill help to offset this.
It’s so refreshing to see a vegan dairy cheese replacement on the market that doesn’t have a never-ending list of weird sounding and unhealthy ingredients. Ferme Fermentino is just simple, natural and plant-based ingredients, fermented to create a deliciously unique flavour. We’re excited to see how this product changes the market of dairy alternatives, we definitely think it will be for the better!
Disclaimer: The Ferme products were gifted to us, however, the opinions are all our own, and the thoughts given are 100% honest.
Have any of you tried Ferme Fermentino? We’d love to know what you thought of it, leave us a comment below, or find us on social media.