I love to experiment with my cooking. A lot of the time the results are happy and the children and husband eat what I have made with no complaint and sometimes, if I have struck really lucky, they say I can make it again. Sometimes it doesn’t work out so well and my taste testers are not shy at telling me where I have gone wrong.
Because my son and husband are allergic to cows milk, I often try to make things that will work for them, that are dairy free.
Cheese sauce, a good one, is the eternal quest. I haven’t quite found the perfect one, yet, and I have tried to make my own and variations of cheese sauce, both with no diary ingredients and goats cheese (which the boys can tolerate) and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
I came across this sauce when I was at the Allergy & Free From show recently. I am always up for trying new things and I have liked and enjoyed some Ilumi products before so I thought I would give it a try.
It is gluten free and dairy free so it’s ideal for those with dairy allergies and gluten intolerance, as well as being suitable for vegans.
Ingredients
Cornflour, Maltodextrin, Flavourings, Salt, Onion Powder, Emulsifiers (Sodium Polyphosphate, Trisodium Phosphate),
Pepper Extract.
It is very easy to make up, you simply need the contents of the sachet and the alternative milk of your choice (I used non sweetened soya milk, but may try it with goats milk the next time)
It mixes easily, I used a whisk, to make sure the consistency was smooth, and it only takes a few minutes to thicken up.
So far so good?
So what does it taste like?
It’s a tricky one, because cheese sauce, to me is hard to replicate. There is something about a creamy, smooth, cheesy, melty sauce that simply cannot be replaced by a dairy free substitute.
This sauce is good. I don’t think it is cheesy per say. It has a smokey taste that a lot of cheese products that are alternatives have, and it’s tasty. It isn’t “cheesy” like a cheese sauce but it is a nice sauce, and it works well if you are looking for a white sauce with a good flavour.
I would use this again, and I think I would probably add either some vegan cheese or some other flavours to make it work with what I wanted to serve it with.
It worked well with smoked haddock and vegetable rice for dinner and the husband approved and declared it delicious, so it is a product I will buy and use again.
So, the final verdict would be that is works as a sauce, and could be used as a cheese based sauce if you worked with it and it does work if you want a tasty, smokey sauce.
Not quite perfect, but not a bad find.