MozzaRisella - the Alternative Vegan Cheese Selection

Monday, July 15th, 2013

If you love cheese then the hardest thing about going dairy-free is giving it up...

So when we discovered MozzaRisella on the Venice Bakery pizzas at the London Allergy & Free From Show this year, we had to investigate further.

MozzaRisella comes in three varieties: -

MozzaRisella
The ideal alternative to cream cheese; 100% vegan. Unique taste, excellent on its own or with warm starters. Produced from germinated brown rice and with top-quality natural ingredients.

SmokeyRisella
Germinated whole grain rice and turmeric for a refined, inimitable taste. Delicious on its own or with cold and warm dishes.

CreamyRisella
A fine and exquisite taste based on germinated whole grain rice, light and easy to spread, which makes it ideal as snack between meal or as a 'cream' for vegetables or other side dishes.

The packets are all quite firm but we would recommend opening them to slide the 'cheese' out or cutting the end of the packet with a sharp knife to avoid squishing the contents out of the tubes. Creamyrisella

I must admit, on its own MozzaRisella was never a favourite of mine but I decided to taste test each variety 'raw' out of the packet.

The CreamyRisella is very creamy and on its own, although a little rich tasting, it is extremely palatable and would work well in any recipe or situation that required a soft cheese. Pop it on a jacket potato or spread it on some warm toast and you could be in 'Philadelphia' heaven.

It melts well onto hot food without the need to apply extra heat due to its soft consistency, although it also held its shape to be cut into slices when cold from the fridge. A good alternative to soft dairy cheese.

The SmokeyRisella is a slightly darker colour and has a good smokey flavour. Again, pleasant from the packet on its own and just as good on a pizza. However, once cooked it did appear to lose its smokey edge.

The SmokeyRisella is a lot firmer than the CreamyRisella and easily sliced to top a tomato based pizza. It melted incredibly well and went hard again once cooled. It did lack the stringiness of a good chunk of mozzarella but texture aside it worked.

Grill it with a slice of ham on rye bread and add a dash of pepper for a delicious open toastie.

Eating the MozzaRisella Original raw did not reproduce the same delight as the others and this was less palatable on its own; leaving quite a powdery after taste. It worked just as well as the SmokeyRisella on the pizza but was our least favourite of the three flavours.

All three varieties melted extremely well and when grilled as slices on a pizza they held their shape on the outside while oozing with creaminess on the inside. For a cheese alternative we have tried a lot worse and when we get as good as the Venice Bakery in making pizza with MozzaRisella we will be very happy indeed.