Alternative Ingredients

Milk

Growing up with Milk (drinking, for cereal, cooking, etc.), milk was a very challenging ingredient replace. We tried several types of plant based milks over the years, such as almond, pea protein, oat, etc. (we try to avoid soy based milks, but thats another conversation). The issue with all of these milk alternatives were the taste, texture, and subpar results when cooking with them. One can get accustomed to the taste, but they are not a great substitute for cooking as they don't perform the same. But recently we found an alternative called NOT MILK that looks, tastes, and cooks like milk. In two side-by-side glasses, there are subtle differences, but by far this is the most dairy like alternative we have ever come across. The objective of this product was to leverage AI to emulate milk using only allergen-free plant-based ingredients. And I believe they have succeeded. Reading the ingredients, its soy free and includes some odd ingredients such as pineapple juice and cabbage juice. But those ingredients add those flavor elements to complete this product. Whether drinking out of a glass, with a bowl of cereal, or an ingredient in pancake batter or to make an Alfredo sauce, it performs and tastes very well. The only place it fell short was when we try to whip or foam it for coffee. It tastes great in coffee and we always add it in lieu of cream, but don't expect it to foam up like real milk or other milk alternatives.

Where to find: In the SF Bay area, we pick it up as either Whole Foods or Lunardi's. Check their website for other retailers that carry it.

Eggs

I'm going to touch on two aspects of eggs. One as a substitute as an ingredient for recipes (as a binder) and another product as a true substitute for breakfast.

Flour

Finding an allergen -free gluten-free all purpose flour that doesn't have an aftertaste was challenging.