Seeking Ideas for Cooking with Soy

Lactose intolerant kids can still enjoy cheese. A good rule of thumb: The harder the cheese, the older it is, and the lower the lactose.

We do the dairy free thing over here also...and every place we've lived we've been able to find soy cheese and milk, along with a growing list of other non-dairy options, in the refrigerated section of the health food area at every major grocery store. Even Wal-Mart carries some I believe.
As for recipes, all you need to do is substitute the dairy items. It's not difficult. Soy/rice/almond milk takes the place of cows milk, etc. No need for something 'special'.

i make my own cheese and although i have never used soy you may want to try to make it out of soy. this is my recipe. 1 gallon milk, 2 renet tablets ( can be found in health food stores) follow the directions on the renet tablets or if you can find the liquid renet it works faster. after you let it sit for an hour the milk is curdled and you stir it to break up the curds. and let it sit for another half hour. then you put a cheese cloth into a large colander and pour everything into the lined colander in the sink and let it drain out when most of the whey is out pull up the sides of the cheese cloth and gently squeeze more whye out and let it sit . do this until you have as much of the whey squeezed out of the curds then tightly twist the cheese cloth and put it in a glass baking dish. cover a heavy brick in foil and set it on top of your little package and refrigerate. it should take a couple of days to get a soft cheese. make sure you frequently pour out the whey out of the baking dish. if you want to have a harder cheese just leave it under the brick longer.

You can substitute the milk on a 1:1 ratio of soy to reg. milk. Another thing I like to use in recipes is rice milk. It works really well in baked goods. Just make all your favorite recipes but use rice milk instead of reg. milk.
I can not have milk products and have one child who is on soy and another on rice milk. Soy milk, rice milk and goat milk alternatives can be found at health food stores like Whole Foods and Sprouts. Also look on-line for lots of alternatives. Best Wishes!

Not to be a total drag, but I would do research on soy. It's a genetically modified, highly processed food in this country and very hard to digest with estrogen mimics. Here are two links:
http://www.wholesoystory.com/
http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html

Lastly, if she is lactose intolerant, that means her body doesn't produce lactase to help her digest the lactose. Lactase IS present in raw milk. So many lactose intolerant folks CAN drink milk. Many can also eat cheese, especially hard cheeses. And yogurt/kefir, as well, since the lactose is already digested by the many wonderful bacteria present.

If your daughter is truly allergic to milk (the milk proteins), I would encourage you to look for REAL food for her. Read ingredients. Why do you want her to have milk? For the calcium? Consider real bone broth, which is how much of the world gets their calcium. Good luck!

B., there's a great soy product called Tofutti "better than cream cheese", nice for sandwiches, handy for thickening soups. It comes plain and with variations like garlic flavor; available at Safeway as well as health food stores. Not expensive...Good luck. C. V.

Both Sprouts and Trader Joe's have soy cheese, but don't expect much, they taste awful!

Hi B.!

Like some other mom's have suggested, I would go to Trader Joe's and/or Sprouts for anything you are looking for. And I'd like to add that pretty much any grocery store sells Lactose Free milk if you want to get that instead of soy for cooking/drinking.

Good luck and many blessings to you and your family.

A.

Is your son having a hard time tolerating cheese because typically cheese has very low to low lactose levels and he may be able to tolerate a little cheese just fine. Good luck and sorry I am not much help with soy cheese.

Hello B.,
We use silk for everything just like milk. and you can find soy cheese at sprouts and whole foods! they also have soy butter.
Good luck.

My husband has a milk allergy, and is also a cheese lover, so I feel your pain... decent soy cheese is hard enough to find and really GOOD soy cheese is next to impossible...
Here's what we've found over the past 5 years...
Whole Foods (grocery store) has a great selection of soy products, including cheeses and ice cream.
Almond cheese is actually pretty good, and is milk (lactose) free. They have it at Whole Foods, too...
Trader Joe's has great soy ice cream -- the product line is pretty new, but expanding. Their soy milk is good, too (and much more reasonably priced than the brands carried at most grocery stores).
Tofutti's "Better Than Cream Cheese" is great -- their "Better Than Sour Cream" isn't bad. You can find both at Trader Joe's.
Most importantly... You've got to go by trial-and-error when shopping for new soy/lactose-free products. Have patience and keep the faith! It can be tedious at first, and you'll probably end up throwing away some "perfectly good", expensive food (because TRUST ME, some of it looks fine, but is practically inedible) but once you find a few "staple" products you actually LIKE, it'll get easier and you won't feel so limited.
Good luck!

Hi there! My daughter is lactose intolerant as well. All I do is replace the soy milk (or lactose free milk, which tastes like regular milk) where recipes call for regular milk. The soy yogurt seems pretty good--soy cheese is a little disgusting. Since sheis 12, have you thought about using lactaid pills? My daughter is still too young for that, but just a thought...then she can enjoy her cheese once in a while. I shop at Fry's, and you can find any of the soy products in the health/natural food section--there is a refrigerated section there. Smoothies are yummy with the smoothie tofu, frozen berries, and a little fruit juice in a blender. Good luck!

Hi B.,
I am not sure where you are located but Sprouts Farmers Market has a nice selection of soy cheeses. They have the slices and also shredded style. I use the cheddar and mozzarella flavors. I really enjoy the cheddar in my chicken chili. It melts and stretches just like the regular type cheese. They are a tad pricey but worth it. I bet Wholefoods grocery store carries soy cheeses too. Good luck.
J.

We were having the same problem with my niece...and although time consuming, my sister now has two dairy goats. And she milks them daily and turns their milk into drinking milk for the kids and then into cheese too. They love it. Now..it takes lot's of time and such but it's a much cheaper alternative to Soy products. and I prefer it to soy...

Hi B.,
If you go to whole foods or any natural/health food store, you will find soy cheese. My kids love soy milk, and sometimes I use it in smoothies instead of fruit juice. You can go online to find recipes, luckily these days a lot of folks are feeling lactose intolerant and their are many options out there.
Have fun with the challenge!

I have some experience in this area. My son doesn't eat gluten or dairy so treat making can be a challenge. If lactose is the only issue, you can make most cookies and treats substituting cow's milk for soy or almond milk (I like the almond milk for baking). You can also get non-dairy margarine in sticks so you can just follow the recipe and use non-dairy ingredients. Many health food stores have these ingredients - and some even have non-dairy chocolate chips. I found non-dairy choc. chips at our local grocery co-op yesterday. In a big city like Phoenix, you should be able to find a store that carries a variety of non-dairy milks (almond, rice, etc.) butter and cheeses. There is even almond cheese that I have heard is preferable to soy cheese for many lactose intolerant people. Many, many products are available with dairy free alternatives these days - many more than when I was a dairy allergic child - so you'll have a variety of options for your daughter.

Trader Joe's is a fantastic resource for soy cheeses and other milk-free products. I believe they even sell lactose-free milk.
Good luck

Hi B.,

There is a super vegan website called vegweb.com. I know that your daughter probably isn't vegetarian, but none of the recipes on here call for dairy. If they use an egg substitute you can always use just regular eggs.

The milk substitute our daughter likes a lot is the Pacific organic Almond milk, vanilla. Organic soy is really good for women. Almond milk is full of great brain food!