Daiya Vegan Cheezy Mac Review

Macaroni and cheese is one of my all-time favorite munchies. Whenever we go out to eat, I am known for ordering macaroni and cheese. I love trying out new restaurant's versions of the old classic. I am not sure that I'll ever find a restaurant with vegan mac and cheese as delicious as the real thing... but I wondered if I could at least find something to stand in for the Kraft kind I make at home. Then, at the grocery store not long ago, I stumbled across this.

I know that Daiya is a brand that makes dairy-free cheeses, but I had never seen a vegan mac and cheese made by them, or anyone else, before. I decided to try it. 

If you want to take a look at the box, with the nutrition information and ingredients and all that, here you go. 

The ingredients seem simple enough. The pasta is made of rice, and the cheese is made from a bunch of random ingredients mixed together to imitate actual cheese. The only alarming thing I see on the ingredients is the sodium. That seems to be a reoccurring theme for prepared foods... the sodium! No wonder I'm always thirsty!

Anyways... the preparation for this cheezy mac is similar to the usual kind that you'd make at home. You boil the water and add the pasta. The only difference is that instead of having to add milk and butter to the powdery orange stuff like you do with Kraft mac and cheese, this cheese sauce comes already made in a little packet. You pour it in after draining the pasta. 

I tried the pasta without any cheese sauce first. I noted that the taste and consistency was about the same as regular pasta. The noodles were a little smaller than the elbow noodles in Kraft, though. They were like very small shells. 

When I mixed the cheese sauce in, this is what it looked like. 

Its hard to see in the photo, but the orange color wasn't as bright and artificial looking as most boxed mac and cheeses are. Other than that, it looks like the usual mac and cheese. 

Then it was time for the taste test. 

It tasted a lot different from Kraft and other boxed mac and cheeses. But that is not to say it wasn't good, or cheesy. In fact, it reminded me more of homemade mac and cheese, or the kinds I've had in restaurants. Maybe because the consistency and taste of the cheese sauce is more like a homemade cheese sauce. It was pleasingly gooey. And the taste was closer to a sauce made with real cheese than to a sauce made from milk, butter and a powdery substance. 

Was it good? Lets just say, I went back for seconds. In fact, I ate the entire box! 

One of the important things to remember when trying new foods is that, if you go into it wanting it to taste like something you're already familiar with, you'll probably be disappointed. If I had expected this to taste just like Kraft or other boxed mac and cheeses, I probably wouldn't have liked it. But I tried it with an open mind, and I was glad I did! I will definitely be keeping my cabinets stocked with Daiya Deluxe Cheezy Mac!