Product Review: Wayfare Foods "We Can't Say It's Cheese"
Saturday, October 9, 2010 at 8:04PM 
A few months ago, we had a vegan festival here in OC that was pretty whatevs... for all the hype it only had a few vendors and random organizations as well as some hippies on a stage singing Bob Marley covers, that part was actually kind of nice. I did, however, come up on a great new product there that I was unaware of prior to this event: Wayfare Foods' "We Can't Say It's Cheese". Wayfare can't say it's cheese, because it's not, but when used properly this oatmeal-based substitute can be very deceptive.
Wayfare's "We Can't Say It's Cheese" comes in four flavors: Cheddar, Cheddar Dip, Hickory Smoked Cheddar, and Spicy Mexi-style Cheddar. The kind people working the Wayfare booth were nice enough to give me one of each to review and as soon as I got home I started testing out the possibilites.
For being oatmeal based, this "cheese" is extremely more melty than what you might expect. The original cheddar flavor is just that, a basic cheddar flavor that tastes incredibly close to real cheddar (from what I can remember). I used this in grilled cheese sandwiches, and it was a bit runny, so for those I prefer Daiya cheddar. I did, however, make some amazing vegan mac and cheese with the original cheddar flavor that turned out nice and creamy. I threw some Italian-style vegan breadcrumbs on top and baked it for a bit for some extra crunch, which was delicious.
Vegan mac and cheese using Wayfare's classic cheddar.
The cheddar dip is a little softer and geared more towards dipping veggies and crackers than being used in a recipe. It works great hot or cold, and was featured on the snack table at the Lion's Share Industries launch party in Seattle.
The hickory smoked cheddar spread works really well on toasted/baked sandwiches. One of my favorite creations with this style was an Arby's style roast Tofurky sandwich on an onion bun. I cannot explain how good this was, and it was a total fluke that I just happened to have those ingredients in my kitchen when I was testing Wayfare's products.
Arby's style roast Tofurky using Wayfare's hickory smoked cheddar flavor.Lastly comes the spicy Mexi-style cheddar flavor, which was also amazing. I made some nachos with it and it spread around the chips better than Daiya does. Here was the best find though: I made a vegan quesadilla using half of this spread and half Daiya cheddar, and it was mindblowing! The Daiya gave it nice consistency and made it stick together well while the Wayfare spicy cheddar made it nice and creamy with each bite. I highly recommend making a vegan quesadilla like this if you have access to both Wayfare and Daiya.
Wayfare "We Can't Say It's Cheese" as well as their "We Can't Say It's Sour Cream" are both available at most Whole Foods and all Mother's Markets. A gigantic thanks to the nice people at Wayfare for their generous hookup, now get off the computer and go buy some of this stuff!
Reader Comments (6)
This cheese sounds amazing! Can I tell you that you have evil food porn pics? (even though I despise using that word) May I????
Hahaha... food porn? Maybe. Evil? I'm not sure about that. HEHEHE (evil laugh and grin)
Love your site by the way. ;)
Thanks a bunch Noelle!
Just to refresh your memory in a public and completely creepy way- one of the first conversations we had was about this crap. Britt kept texting me to be like EAT THIS CHEESE, ZOMG, DO IT, KYLE DOES (her texts had more typos, obvs, cause..she's her)...and I had to ask you if you actually enjoyed it.
I'm going to guess if you liked it, it's gross :]
also..evil grin? sexy as hell
I need to stop using your blog like it's text messages or email