In my kitchen - April 2014

I am linking this post in to Celia's monthly In My Kitchen event at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.

In my kitchen, there is So Good's new almond and coconut milk. I try to test new non-dairy milk products in order to update my non-dairy milk review table, and this one was a delightful discovery. I actually enjoy it plain, which is very unusual for me with milk. While it is sweetened, it is also lower in sugar than So Good's regular almond milk. 

The downside? It does contain carrageenan. It's getting harder and harder to avoid that ingredient in commercial milk alternatives.

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Carrageenan, more non-dairy milk reviews, and homemade cashew nut milk

I have made no secret of my joy at Almond Breeze reaching Australia last year. Their unsweetened almond milk took me from someone who drank, perhaps, 500ml soy milk in a week to someone who is getting through 2L of almond milk in the same time frame.

You may imagine my dismay, therefore, when I read Angela's recent post on carrageenan over at Oh She Glows. Like Angela, I hadn't given any thought to carrageenan before having its possible effects pointed out to me. And like Angela, I was horrified to discover that it is used in vegan and organic foods (as well as non-vegan and non-organic ones) despite controversy over whether it is safe for humans to consume.

If you aren't familiar with carrageenan and haven't read Angela's post, I would recommend it. She also includes links to several articles and reviews that may help you make up your own mind about whether or not carrageenan is something you want to consume. In brief, my reading suggests that:

1. Carrageenan is derived from red seaweed and is used as an emulsifier and thickener in many dairy and dairy replacement products.
2. Carrageenan has two variants: a low molecular weight, "degraded" form and a high molecular weight, "undegraded" form.
3. Degraded carrageenan is indisputably a carcinogen in rodents, and has been found to trigger inflammation of the colon in rodents in a way that mirrors irritable bowel disease (IBS) in humans.
4. Undegraded carrageenan does not have these harmful effects, but every tested sample of undegraded carrageenan has had some level of contamination by degraded forms of the substance. In some cases this level of contamination reaches 25%.
5. In light of (3) and (4), there have been suggestions that humans with IBS avoid all forms of carrageenan.

I don't have IBS, but I am still going to be avoiding carrageenan from now on. I am thus quite devastated that my beloved almond milk has carrageenan listed in the ingredient list. Unfortunately, all forms of Almond Breeze milk (at least those distributed in Australia) include carrageenan. I sent an email in to the company to express my dissatisfaction over their use of the ingredient, but haven't received a response and don't really expect to. I also found it particularly unfair that I discovered carrageenan in Almond Breeze products the very same week I discovered chocolate almond milk at the supermarket.

Update, 16th April 2013: I received an email in response to this post from the Australian Director for Blue Diamond Almond Breeze. He kindly took the time to explain the safety of food grade carrageenan, but the fact remains that food grade carrageenan is often contaminated with degraded carrageenan. After an email exchange on that issue, he indicated that he would read more on the topic and discuss with his American colleagues. It's not often I have that level of interaction with a company and whatever the outcome from here, I am delighted that they are at least considering their use of carrageenan and that they took the time to email me.

This could have been so good...

Can you spot the problem ingredient in the ingredient list below?

Carrageenan: third line of the ingredients.

I drank the above anyway, supposedly in the name of research, but my enjoyment was certainly compromised by new-found awareness of the ingredient list. This was a pity, because the milk could have been delightful - full-flavoured chocolate, sweet without being sickly, and creamy without being 'milky' in a traditional sense.

Alas, I moved on and have now crossed Almond Breeze off my drink list. This left me with the task of finding a replacement option for my coffee, and to a lesser extent smoothies and cereal. Initially, I thought I'd jump to Australia's Sanitarium So Good unsweetened almond milk. Sadly, they too include carrageenan in the ingredient list. There is no carrageenan in the sweetened Sanitarium almond milk and so that is what I have been using over the past few weeks.  As of mid-2013, there is also carrageenan in the regular, sweetened Sanitarium almond milk.

I then thought I would return to the unsweetened So Delicious coconut milk I reviewed in December 2011, but alas! It is no longer in any supermarkets near me, including the one I found it in back then. And also! It has carrageenan in it too. 

This week I switched back to soy milk and tried Vitasoy's Vita Cafe low fat soy milk. It has the advantage of coming in regular 1L cartons and 3-packs of smaller, 240ml tetrapacks. The latter are useful if you aren't sure if you'll like the milk, and/or want to take it to work.

I did actually like this, and it has been working in my coffee, which is something I've struggled with when using soy milk in the past. (I think my discovery of how to heat milk, and the need to use a reasonable amount of milk, may have helped with that.) At the same time, I would rather be drinking nut milk. I get enough soy in other forms. Update: See my note at the bottom of the post regarding carrageenan actually being included in this milk, but listed in the ingredient list as vegetable gum 407.

This return to milk frustration led me to try my hand at milk making once again. I haven't done much since I made hemp seed milk last November, largely because I have been happy with Almond Breeze. This time around, I tried cashew milk, because I had cashews sitting spare and I don't much like them on their own.

Basic cashew milk

Makes 3 cups cashew milk

This is a 'thin' milk, similar to low-fat or non-fat dairy milk in texture. If you like creamy milk, use less water to nuts or more nuts to water.

Vegan

Ingredients

1/2 cup raw cashews

3 cups water

Method

Soak the cashews in the 3 cups of water for 4 hours, or longer, in the refrigerator.

Transfer the nut/water mixture to a blender and process until creamy, about 30 seconds.

Strain the mixture through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth, and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Retain the nut 'pulp' left after straining for use in baking, if desired.

It's a magical process, milk making. 

As with homemade hemp seed milk, I liked the experience of making this and I liked the result. The consistency was about right for me, it was satisfactorily not sweet, and it worked fine on cereal and in coffee. The downsides of the homemade route are that it will only last a few days, it's a bit harder to take a container into work for the week, and you don't get the added calcium that comes with commercial non-dairy milk varieties.

At this point, I don't feel like I have hit upon a 'perfect' replacement for Almond Breeze. I am keen for more non-dairy and non-carrageenan options to hit Australian shelves.

I have also updated my non-dairy milk comparison spreadsheet to include a column for whether or not carrageenan is present, and to incorporate chocolate Almond Breeze and VitaSoy vita cafe. I am repeating it  below to highlight just how many milks do include carrageenan.

Update: Thanks to Mel from Veganise This, I know now that VitaSoy vita cafe does include carrageenan, but it is listed as vegetable gum 407. I am quite horrified by this. I have double-checked the other milks I've listed below as not including carrageenan, and they don't have carrageenan or vegetable gum 407 listed in their ingredient lists.

Submitted to Healthy Vegan Friday #34.

What milk do you use? (Please give me more ideas!) 

Do you avoid carrageenan?

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Product reviews: Moccona vanilla coffee, Ouma muesli rusks, Woolworths curried pumpkin & corn balls, and Sanitarium unsweetened almond milk

I am pleased to say that, as of yesterday, I have finished work for 2012. One of the advantages of my workplace is that we don't get Western Australian public holidays off during the year (which doesn't always feel like an advantage...) but then get those days off in lieu between Christmas and New Year. Generally we get a bonus day or two as well, to allow everything to shut down for at least 10 days over the Christmas period. Although Christmas Eve isn't usually included in this holiday stretch, it has been made a holiday this year because it falls on a Monday. I think this is brilliant.

Last week was a bit frantic as I rushed to finish everything I wanted to before Friday, but having ticked of most of my To Do list (the remainders can be done over the break with minimal effort), I am feeling like a child on summer holidays. My plans for the break involve lots of reading, sorting wedding and honeymoon photos into albums (we have the photos and the albums, but they are not yet in unison), 'big task' cleaning (windows, blinds, scrubbing grout), a few days out of Perth with Mr Bite and his family, and some time with friends. I think the 10 days will fill themselves up with no trouble.

I am looking forward to getting to these...

Despite my holiday mood, I am veering off Christmas for today's post. Product reviews feel slightly out of place at this point in the year, but they are starting to build up. What is more, all of today's products are ones that I have enjoyed trying. I am hoping they might appeal to some of you too.

Moccona vanilla infused coffee

To start at the simple end, there isn't a lot I need to say about Moccona's new flavoured coffee range, other than that it is good. In addition to vanilla, there are hazelnut and caramel flavours which I intend to try in due course. I have been enjoying the vanilla variety as a slightly sweeter alternative to regular coffee,  and I like it very much.

And that is all I have to say on that.

Ouma muesli beskuits (muesli biscuit rusks)

One of our local Woolworths supermarkets has recently added a South African food section to their store. I was interested to see the new range of foods in general, and intrigued by these rusk biscuits in particular. 

The rusks have a simple, vegan-friendly ingredient list, including wheat flour, muesli, sugar, vegetable fat, and baking powder. They are quite dense and one rusk is equivalent to two plain biscuits in nutritional value, but I found them extremely enjoyable with a cup of tea.

They are definitely a product for dunking in your tea (or any hot drink), and if you are someone who likes to dunk, I think you may well enjoy these. Since buying this first box, I have finished it, bought a second, and finished that too! I am definitely a biscuit dunker, and I definitely like these.

Woolworth's Macro vegetarian curried pumpkin and corn balls

One of the major frustrations in my life at the moment is the trend for Australia's two main supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, to drop independent brands in order to stock their own in-house range. Thus, I feel hypocritical even reviewing these new vegetarian balls from Woolworths. I should really have boycotted them in protest, but instead negotiated with myself to buy them as well as the other (non-Woolworths) brands I usually buy.

Conscience aside, I liked these balls. I liked their taste, I liked their texture, and I liked that they could be microwaved and ready to eat in one minute.

Their ingredient list includes chickpeas (at 62%), pumpkin (29%), corn (9%), and various spices including paprika, cumin, garlic, parsley, and curry powder. They were reminiscent of falafel, and just spicy enough to provide a flavour kick without being so spicy you need to worry about serving them to children, husbands, or guests with unknown taste buds. Nutritionally they are comparable to many veggie burgers: five small balls provide 150 calories, 6.4g fat and 3.9g protein. I would like more protein, but that is something that characterises many vegetarian products.

There are a number of other products in Woolworths new vegetarian range, so I may get to some of them in due course too (conscience permitting). For now, I have enjoyed these balls plain, in rolls / English muffins, and with salad.

Sanitarium unsweetened almond milk

Australia is starting to have quite a collection of almond milk options. I have been enjoying unsweetened almond milk from Almond Breeze since it appeared in April this year. When Sanitarium released an unsweetened option of their own, I thought I should give it a try.

Nutritionally, this is almost identical to the Almond Breeze variety. Both are supplemented with calcium (Almond Breeze provides slightly more) and both have negligible protein. However, I liked the taste of this far less than the Almond Breeze equivalent. I am not sure why, given how similar the ingredient lists are, but it tasted chalkier and generally less appealing. 

I have added the nutritional information for this to my spreadsheet comparing different non-dairy milks. For now, I will be sticking with Almond Breeze, but am still grateful to Sanitarium for broadening their milk options. It's a nice trend in the market.

So there we have it - four new (to me) products. Have you tried any? Would you like to?

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5 things I would like to make

This is a short-list of foods I've thought about making for some time, but not quite got around to. I'm hoping that by listing them here, I'll be motivated to give them a try sooner rather than later! My goal is to try all of them before the end of the year.

Rice paper rolls

I love these, but I don't love the $5 price tag per pack of 3. I have actually made them before, but it was some years back and I was a bit put off by the fiddly-ness. I think I've gained patience with age, so I'm hoping a repeat effort might prove more successful.

My favourite type are vegetarian with slightly spicy tofu mixed in with the vegetables. And mint.

Vegan chocolate mousse

One of my favourite childhood food memories is of discovering mousse. It was a joyous day!

Although there are lots of recipes for vegan chocolate pudding out there, I want to create the fluffiness of mousse. 

This texture would do just fine. As would this one.

Yum!

Almond milk

I'm not sure if I would make this on a regular basis, but I'd like to try it at least once. Again, the financial savings would be big. Being able to make the amount I want would also be nice, seeing as I rarely get through a tetrapack of milk in the recommended time.

Another motivator is that almond milk isn't that common in Australia. I've only ever seen one brand, and even that sometimes isn't available. I suspect the lack of variety contributes to the steep price tag.

Source

Yoghurt coated banana chips

These are also uncommon in Australia - to the extent that I have never been able to find them, despite searching hard. Readily available in English supermarkets and health food stores, they're one of the foods I most miss when I return from UK holidays.

Source

They aren't the healthiest substance around, so if I could figure out a way to reduce the sugar and saturated fat, that would be an added bonus. If not...well, I think I'd settle happily enough for the original.

Dairy free yoghurt

As I've mentioned before, I struggle to find dairy-free alternatives to yoghurt that appeal to me. The few soy varieties stocked near me are fruit flavoured and sugary.

I like plain, pot-set yoghurt and would love to make a soy variety at home.

I've also heard of coconut yoghurt in the US, which I find rather intriguing. I noticed this recipe for coconut milk through Oh She Glows today, so if I could generalise from that to yoghurt that would be fun too.

Do you have things you would like to make, but haven't yet got to? Or any tips for me regarding the above?!

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