• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs
  • About
    • Press
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

Here’s Jonny’s… vegan cheese!

August 13, 2018 1 Comment Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized, Vegan

Two years ago Jonny Moore designed and sold kitchens. Now he’s one of the UK’s top vegan cheese makers. From his tiny kitchen in Northamptonshire, he’s founded a thriving food business, the Naturally Vegan Food Company which manufactures vegan cheeses.

Despite sounding like a contradiction in terms, vegan cheese is improving all the time. I even served Minister for the Environment Michael Gove and his wife journalist Sarah Vine a vegan cheese board when I catered a supper club for them at the end of last year. They were pleasantly surprised. At the moment the Naturally Vegan Food Company makes four cheeses:

  • 1 Smoked Vegan Cheeze Ball (150g)
  • 1 Vegan Cheeze Ball (150g)
  • 1 Creamy Classic Cashew Cheese Spread (180ml)
  • 1 Italian Cooking Cheese (300ml)

Jonny is originally from Manchester but when he met his long term girlfriend Zareen, he moved down to Northampton. I visited him at his kitchen in Northampton and asked: What started him working in food?

I got a job at The Cheese Hamlet in Manchester and got really passionate about cheese. But I became vegan after a trip to India, which really inspired me. My girlfriend Zareen became vegan in the ’90s then, motivated by the badger cull, she went completely vegan in 2010.Which meant I went completely vegan in the house. We obviously had to make meals that both of us could eat. Then I gradually went vegan all the time.

Is that because Zareen served vegan food?

Actually, I do most of the cooking.

Jonny made a fantastic vegan dinner and breakfast while I stayed with him, using local vegan products. There is a whole host of small producers in the vegan world but the supermarkets are starting to wake up to this demand. Jonny comments:

The thing about vegan food, you really have to work on flavours. When you are vegetarian, you can throw a bit of cheese on top, can’t you? When you are vegan you really have to work on your food.

Was it difficult to set up the business? How did you come up with pricing?

I looked at other artisan cheese makers and went under their price so my cheez ball is £5.75. I wanted it to be quite accessible for everybody. Not a lot of people can afford lavish cheese. We also do a £26 cheese selection box, with all four cheeses, including delivery. It was an unbelievable seller at Christmas, and in the Yumbles top ten products. It’s been mentioned in the Guardian and the Independent.

From a non-chef point of view, how did you learn how to make a vegan cheese?

I experimented. I went and looked at an American site The Modernist Pantry had a cheese-making process. I made about 100 cheeses. I did the market research and changed the product to what people wanted. It did hit a sweet spot – there’s a need for more vegan cheeses.

Your cheeses are all very flavoursome.

Vegan cheeses can be quite bland and plasticky. Onion powder, almonds, nutritional yeast, lactic acid, cashews.

You could use the creamy cashew spread on a jacket potato or in a bechamel sauce. You could add tapioca flour to it, to make it more stringy. You can cook with it if you use a low temperature.

I love your vegan parmesan.

It’s nutritional yeast, cashews, garlic powder. I’ve had an Italian guy who was passionate about his parmesan and he endorsed it. Sprinkle it on at the end.

When I was writing V is for Vegan, I made about 12 different cheeses. I prefer the nut cheeses to the coconut.

Everybody says that, yet there is a big market for the coconut-based cheeses.

The mouthfeel isn’t great on coconut-based ones. There are three basic types of vegan cheese so far: nut cheese, coconut butter cheese and soy cheese. Have you had recipe development?

No, I just worked on it myself. There was a bit of trial and error. With the original cheese ball, it wasn’t selling, then I added tomato powder to it, which made it sweeter, and it started selling well. It’s all about pumping up the flavour.

With the chilli ball, it was too hot for people at first. We had to calm that down.
You eat it and then ten seconds later you get the chilli. We added more oil, then the oil sits on your tastebuds and dilutes the chilli.

You were literally in your kitchen, playing around with all these ingredients, just working it out. Jonny, this is your business, right?

It is but Zareen helps me out.

Jonny’s house is full of various types of packing material, ingredients and cool boxes. Plus a postage franking machine. With those little gel packs it can stay cool for 48 hours. You sell most of it through Yumbles online?

Yes. We aim to deliver the next day in most of the UK. For certain parts of Scotland, it’s two days but that’s like 5% of our deliveries. If you spend over £20 then you get free delivery. So for the taster box, it’s free delivery.

Have you got it in any shops?

Friendly Foods in Wolverhampton. The Daily Bread in Northampton. We are looking at Glasgow.

There’s a massive vegan scene in Glasgow.

My American vegan writer friend Terry Hope Romero loves British vegan cheeses. Because American vegan cheeses are like American cheeses, a bit plasticky.

Where do you get your ingredients? Do you buy in bulk? Though I’ve noticed sometimes it’s actually cheaper to buy in the supermarket.

Yes, it’s been trial and error. For instance, the mustard. If you try those two mustards, they are completely different. Powder isn’t as good as French mustard. We use fresh, not powdered. I use a mild French mustard, sweet and tangy.

It’s very interesting to hear all this, the process.

Partly it’s health and safety, I have to get in touch with my suppliers and have products certified as fit for consumption. It’s easier with high street supermarkets.

I don’t really buy from bulk anymore. I was buying big tubs and there was loads of husk. Now I buy my cashews from Lidl.

I’m always seeing restaurateurs going into Lidl.

I was buying 25 kilo tubs, but the quality wasn’t there.

Also nuts go off very quickly. I found when I used to buy big things of pine nuts and cashew nuts, they went off. I keep them all in the fridge. Especially pine nuts. Has anyone made a pine nut vegan cheese?

I did try but it’s so expensive. Then it’d be £10 for 150g.

You could make little ones.

Or coat them?

How many cheeses have you sold so far in two years?

Let me grab my phone and work it out. I can tell you how many online orders I’ve had. I reckon it’s 6,000 cheeses. I usually sell at least 100 cheeses a week. At shows I’ll sell 200 cheeses. 9,000 cheeses over two years.

At Christmas I sold over 1,000 cheeses all sold in that kitchen. I had to get me cool boxes, and kept them outside.

It’s like my home restaurant in winter: I use the outside as a fridge.

We need to do a vegan cheese and wine evening. I work with winetrust100.co.uk who do a lot of vegan wines.

What are your goals now?

Jonny is pretty clear on this:

  • Try and get into other vegan products.
  • Get premises, expand.
  • Spread the vegan message.
  • Get involved with grass-root charities, animal sanctuaries.

You and Zareen’s vegan thing is about animal welfare and the environment?

I’ve always liked animals. My family are big animal lovers. She does a lot of work for animal sanctuaries, fundraising.

Does she want to join you in the business eventually?

Yes. I don’t like to push the animal rights thing… I go for a gently gently approach, or people switch off.

I agree. I think the best way of spreading the message is making delicious food. Is there anything you miss?

Jonny laughs and says:

Cheese and ice cream.

Buy it at Yumbles.

Follow The Naturally Vegan Food Company on: Facebook |  Twitter | Instagram

Recent posts

Japanese sweet potatoes

February 28, 2021

kosho pic: Kerstin rodgers/msmarmitelover.com

New citrus recipes: using bergamot, blood orange, yuzu and pomelo

February 6, 2021

Psychic pizza, a true story

January 24, 2021

Previous Post: « Recipes for a heatwave
Next Post: Picnic at Waterlow Park »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. asharpknife

    August 18, 2018 at 1:29 pm

    Aw, refreshing that he's honest enough to say he still misses non vegan cheese even though vegan cheese is literally his whole business at the mo. An old colleague of mine from the early days at Black Cat is now making vegan cheeses in North London, under the name Black Arts Vegan, if you're interested in trying a local one.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
I had one leek, one potato, but that’s enough to I had one leek, one potato, but that’s enough to make a leek & potato soup. I added garlic, rosé & Parmesan. I made a storecupboard salad from a cucumber & a tin of sweet corn. (Always have sweet corn in your pantry- it makes a tomato/sweet corn salad, or a tuna sweet corn salad or Thai style corn fritters) which I dressed with lemon juice & avocado oil. I also made garlic bread: a tiger loaf sliced almost to the bottom- room temp butter mixed with salt & minced garlic- wrap in foil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. A simple leftovers lunch.  #leftovers #lockdownlunch #london #pantryessentials #soup #sweetcorn #garlicbread #supperclub #covidcooking #bubblelunch
Couscous and bulghur wheat are so brilliant when i Couscous and bulghur wheat are so brilliant when it comes to quick lunches. Especially if you bung them in the rice steamer. They take literally minutes to cook and are fluffy and perfectly done. I mixed in a tin of tuna and some preserved lemon, a few spring onions and a little tahini dressing. Served with a carrot and mandarin salad. I’m trying to use up the bottom drawer of my fridge and dried goods in my pantry before I do more shopping. Preserved lemons are one of my pantry essentials.  #pescetarian #couscous #ricesteamer #lockdownlarder #supperclub #lunchformybubble #londonlockdown
Baked cauliflower ‘wings’ for lunch. Easy. Bre Baked cauliflower ‘wings’ for lunch. Easy. Break into florets. Dip into batter of flour and fizzy water with sweet smoked paprika and salt. Lay on oven tray ( covered with parchment or silpat) and bake for 30 mins in hot oven. Then brush with butter and bake for another 5 mins or so. I served with a dipping sauce of yoghurt and lime marinade from @granluchito and more salt. #vegan #vegetarian #cauliflower #supperclubchef #recipe #5aday #lockdownlunch #baked #cauliflowerwings
Today I made tofish and chips for my bubble. My da Today I made tofish and chips for my bubble. My daughter and her boyfriend are working here everyday while their new flat upstairs is having the builders in. I like it because I have someone to cook for and I get a bit of company. Although in reality it’s 3 people sitting silently at their laptops all day. Today I did hear the high court session where a woman has sued Labour to find out the names of people who leaked a report. Anyway tofish is marinated firm tofu with one side covered with nori kelp and deep fried in batter. It really does taste fishy, and the nori looks like fish skin. Will do again. #supperclubchef #londonlunch #vegan #tofishandchips #tofurecipes #deepfried #handcutchips #homecooked #recipeoftheday
Another #lockdownlife activity, learning to darn. Another #lockdownlife activity, learning to darn. This red wool cardigan was shredded by moths. I’m trying both visible and invisible mending. The sleeve I darned in the traditional way. The holes I edged with embroidery cotton, making a feature of ‘moth lace’. All v Prince Charles don’t you think? He’s into patching and saving old clothes.  #visiblemending #darning #moths #longlonelynights #covid #lockdown #recycling #upcycling #ecofashion #redcardigan
Did that internet recipe doing the rounds- baked f Did that internet recipe doing the rounds- baked feta with tomatoes. I added red peppers, olive oil, garlic. Bake for 20 minutes then mix together - the feta forks a creamy sauce. Stir in freshly cooked pasta. Basta! #easyovenrecipes #bakedfetaandtomatoes #bakedfetapasta #supperclub #londonlockdown #coronacooking #vegetarian #justaddpasta #bakedfetacheese
Making thin crepes with lemon and sugar and banana Making thin crepes with lemon and sugar and banana and maple syrup. Using a cast iron crêpière I bought in a french supermarket years ago. For lunch we had savoury crepes with cheese and garlic. Apparently savoury crepes are ‘ middle class’! Who knew? #pancakes #pancakeday #shrovetuesday #crepes #bananapancakes🍌 #supperclub #londonlockdown #eatingwithmybubble
I’m cooking a lot of Asian food right now. It’ I’m cooking a lot of Asian food right now. It’s quick, hearty, tasty and healthy at the same time. Here I cubed leftover firm tofu, the whites of spring onions, mushroom stems, red pepper fried in groundnut oil, a little garlic, run out of ginger, some chilli bean sauce leftover from a jar, some soy sauce, a little teriyaki sauce from @misotasty . Then I boiled black soba noodles for 5 minutes, rinsed them in cold water, slung them back in the stir fry pan al dente. Another 5 minutes on the stovetop, I served them with the green parts of the spring onion, and a squirt of Yuzu paste from @misotasty. Served as a quick office lunch to my ‘son-in-law’ @jamescalmus who is here working while builders make an unholy noise in the flat above. My daughter and he will be moving in above when the work is done at the end of March. It’s scary buying a place for the first time- and dealing with builders- and blowing the last of your money. I remember when I bought my second flat, I was so broke I couldn’t afford a bed, and slept on the carpet for 3 months. #moving #firsthome #london #supperclub #mybubble #asianfusion #sobanoodles #tofurecipes #homecooked #lockdownlife
Heart shaped pasta parcels stuffed with cheese fro Heart shaped pasta parcels stuffed with cheese from @latuapasta one of the meal kits I’ve been trying recently. It comes with a jar of tomato sauce. The perfect dish for a nervous cook trying to impress a love. Myself I’m a corona loner as per usual. It’s ok, I’m used to it. Post- menopause I don’t have the longing I used to experience which made me needy and desperate with regards to ‘having a relationship’. Yes it does get lonely but actually I also feel a kind of relief. Happy Valentine’s Day to those who have romantic love and an even happier v day to those who don’t...
#valentines #valentinesday #vday #mealkits #foodoflove #freshpasta #valentinesdinnerathome #london #supperclub
Another Facebook marketplace find- this gorgeous g Another Facebook marketplace find- this gorgeous green velvet armchair which is also very comfortable-£50. The fire is lit 🔥 my broken ankle is propped up and I’ve a lovely cup of tea. #facebookmarketplace #recycling #upcycle #interiors #edwardianflat #londoninteriors #cosyhome #supperclub #greenvelvet #velvetarmchair #interiorsonthecheap
Pomelo candied peel is so fragrant. Instructions: Pomelo candied peel is so fragrant. Instructions: pare off the zest in longish strips, making sure there is no white pith. Then cover the peel with cold water, bring to the boil, then drain. Repeat this step twice more. This gets rid of the bitterness.  Then add 200g caster sugar and 400ml water to the peel. Simmer until the peel has absorbed all of the syrup. Then pour granulated sugar into a bowl; prepare a rack with parchment paper underneath to catch drips. Carefully extract each strand of peel and dip it into the sugar, then lay on the rack to dry out. Leave the peel 24 hours. Keep any sugar left over from the pan, and bowl, which will be lemon/pomelo scented, to use in baking. #supperclub #citrus #pomelo #candiedpeel #recipe #baking #lockdownlife #covidcooking #slowcooking #londonlife
My lady cave, my she shed, my recycled summerhouse My lady cave, my she shed, my recycled summerhouse. I’m going in for #shedoftheyear !
Everything made from stuff found in skips. #london #shed #shedlife #lockdown2021 #woodburner #bedinshed #throughtheroundwindow #supperclub #recycled #dumpsterdiver #ecobuilding
Black pepper firm tofu from @misotasty who are now Black pepper firm tofu from @misotasty who are now doing craft tofu. You fry the tofu cubes in cornflour then make a rich sauce with red pepper and black pepper, garnish with spring onions. Yet another fab thing to do with tofu! #tofurevangelist #tofurecipes #supperclub #blackpeppertofu #chinesenewyear #yearoftheox #chinesefood #covidcooking #lockdownlarder #vegetarian
Hot and sour soup with soft tofu from @misotasty j Hot and sour soup with soft tofu from @misotasty just the thing for a snowy day. Ate this on Sunday with my bubble. Persuading people that tofu is good to eat one meal at a time!  #tofu #tofurecipes #hotandsoursoup #soup #winterfood #supperclub #londonchef #homemade #recipes #vegan #vegetarian link to recipe: http://secret-garden-club.blogspot.com/2013/02/herbs-jackie-magazine-and-hot-and-sour.html?m=1
Japanese sweet potatoes from Miyazaki. They are th Japanese sweet potatoes from Miyazaki. They are the best I’ve ever had- small, dense, fluffy silky and sweet. I baked them in the oven and served with smoked trout and creme fraiche from @natoora “ Sweet potato is highly nutritious. It is high in fiber and will activate your intestinal system, and a white sticky substance “jalapin” that can be found when sliced, will help with digestion and help regulate your intestinal environment. Since its antioxidative vitamin C and antioxidative carotenoid are not lost by heating the sweet potato, experts say it is good for health and beauty. “ #sundaylunch #supperclub #sweetpotatoes #smokedtrout #pescetarian #japaneseingredients #oyatsuimo #miyazaki #yaki-Imo
Pomelo, cucumber and gadogado peanut dressing. So Pomelo, cucumber and gadogado peanut dressing. So refreshing! Pomelo is, along with mandarins and Citron, one of the original citrus fruit from which many others were bred. It’s rather like a grapefruit ( which bred with bitter orange, is a descendant) but sweeter, firmer, drier and more meaty in texture. It’s quite a pfaff to prepare as you have to take all the membrane and pith off- that’s the bitter bit. The pith can be turned into a poor mans cutlet, a Cuban steak, when times are tough. The peel can be candied. this citrus lasts a long time in the fruit bowl. #citrus #citrusrecipes #pomelo #wintersalads #gadogado #peanutdressing #supperclub #lockdownrecipes  #saturdaylunch #februaryfood #vegetarian #vegetarianrecipes
Flammkuche is a kind of German or alsacien pizza- Flammkuche is a kind of German or alsacien pizza- very thin. I got this flammkuche with a topping of nutmeggy bechamel, mushrooms, mozzarella & pesto as a #mealkit from @amelie_restaurants. Even the keenest cooks get sick of their own food! It’s really delicious and quick to prepare. #flammkuchen #pizza #vegetarian #lockdown2021 #lockdownfood #foodsolutions #covid_19 #newnormal #dinnerin10minutes #londonlife
Blood orange, fennel and dill salad with mustard d Blood orange, fennel and dill salad with mustard dressing. Easy peasy winter citrus salad. Best to use a mandolin to shave the fennel. #supperclub #covidmenu #citrus #bloodorange #wintersalad #lockdownlarder #valentinesday❤️ 💛💚🧡
Tarte au bergamote 💛done with puff pastry rathe Tarte au bergamote 💛done with puff pastry rather than shortcrust because that’s what I had ready made and hurty ankle meant I didn’t have wherewithal to make own pastry. I used zest and juice of a bergamot and zest and juice of 2 lemons 🍋. This bergamot I actually grew! #bergamot #citrus #tarte #tarteaucitron #supperclub #winterdesserts #sour #sharp #sweet #lockdownfood #covidcookery 💛💛💛
Made kosho with my incredibly expensive @natoora Y Made kosho with my incredibly expensive @natoora Yuzu (£12.80!) using the zest, 1 deseeded green chilli and some @maldonsalt in the pestle and mortar. It’s good to sprinkle on rice, noodles, soup. #condiments #citrus #yuzu #japanesefood #londonchef #supperclub #yellowfood #winterfood #seasonal #chilli #msmarmitelover
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2021 msmarmitelover