Ingredients:
300g flour
200g spread (I used Pure Sunflower spread)
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
2 tbsp water
1 tsp salt
100g Vegusto No-Moo Mild Aromatic
50g Vegusto No-Moo Classic
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 - In a small pot mix the flaxseed and the water and let it rest a bit until it gets gooey.
2 - In a big bowl mix all the ingredients together. You'll need to use your hands at some point.
3 - Let it rest in the fridge for 30-40 minutes.
4 - Using a dough roller open the dough and cut it using a small round cookie cutter.
5 - Bake it at 180C for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Hi Vanessa. first of all, these look amazing and totally scrumptious! Unfortunately, when I checked the Vegusto cheese ingredients, I saw it contains carragenaans. This can be found increasingly often in vegan products, because it's vegetal and it thickens the food, making it more palatable as well... However, it's proven to be quite dangerous. It can cause pain and inflammation in the stomach. Most worryingly it is also correlated to cancer (more info can be found here: http://bit.ly/S4ITg1 and here http://bit.ly/L75fbJ).
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there is any vegan cheese that doesn't have carragenaans. I have also left a comment on the Vegusto page. I think if more people are aware and complain, they might come up with an alternative.
Thanks for info, I didn't know about carrageenans. I raised the concern with vegusto and am waiting for their reply. Unfortunately I can't say about other vegan cheese as vegusto is the only one I normally use.
DeleteI've got the following reply from Vegusto:
DeleteVegusto use 100% un-altered carrageenan only.
In tests where they used un-altered pure carrageenan there were no side effects.
Only in degraded forms they showed negative results. For the food industry only non-altered carrageenan is allowed to be used.
You can check this information on the link below,
http://www.zusatzstoffe-online.de/pdf/scf_carrageen.pdf
Thanks Vanessa, I didn't know there were two types of carragenaan. However, I found this article that mentions recent studies by Dr Joanne K. Tobacman proving that undegraded carrageenan - the type used in foods - is still not safe. Here is the link if you want to have a further look at the article: http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA401181/Is-Carrageenan-Safe.html
ReplyDeleteI will have to read more to make up my mind. I find it very interesting as carrageenan offers lots of possibilities. For me, now, I would have a bite or two and I wouldn't worry, but it's not something I'd like to eat regularly or that I would consider giving to a child at the moment.
Anyway, thanks a lot for looking into this!