What is the best cheese substitute for Vegans?

I love cheese. I put cheese on nearly everything and it's the hardest part of switching from vegetarian to vegan. What's the best thing to use to suffice? I tried soy cheese from my supermarket (they only carry one kind) and it looks like a bag of shredded carrots, is dry and does not melt. Any suggestions? Thanks.

or - Can someone offer some recipes for substitutes?

Redwoods make a melting vegan cheese - doesn't quite melt the way dairy cheese does - feel like taking a blow torch to it some times, but lacking a blow torch I turn the grill up high - there's a technique to it but it tastes lovely when you master it! They also have some delicious non-melting vegan cheeses.

Another good variety is Scheese. This does not melt from my experience (but maybe I just haven't mastered the technique!), but it does taste more realsitic than many I have come across.

Tofutti do a range of vegan cheese slices - these are heavenly when melted (I prefer them that way) - it softens and even bubbles away like normal cheese would at a high temperature. Don't just put it on and expect to melt though unless your food is unbleivably hot - it'll start to melt and then decide it's done. Put it under some heat for a bit for the best results. (The same people also make the best vegan cream cheese in existence!)

Some vegan cheese sauces can taste very bland - I add some garlic, paprika and occasionally some herbs and suddenly it tastes rather nice!

I was a cheese addict when I was a vegetarian, and hated vegan cheese to begin with. Cutting out all dairy cheese does ensure that eventually it tastes normal - I can't acutally remember exactly what cheese tastes like (I've only been vegan for three years), and don't miss it at all.

The best of the worst are the ones made by "Follow your heart". You *can* get a good Parmesan substitute from foodfight.com (an online vegan grocery) but otherwise it's tough. There are recipes available to make your own subs at home and the best of those are the cashew based ones. My 'normal' practice is to use the recipes found in "The new Farm Vegetarian cookbook" for pizza etc. The recipe found their for a 'grilled cheese' really works well!

Edit:

Here's a 'passel' of links ;-)

Edit: I have tried most of the recipes in the links. I still prefer 'manipulating' the recipe from the cookbook listed above<g>.

kinda gross, but cottage cheese

Do you have a Trader Joe's by you? I've had their soy mozzarella and you can almost not tell the difference. It looks perfect too. Also, since I only eat raw food, I make a lot of stuff out of nuts (nut milk, etc.) and you can actually use that to make cheese as well. Here's some more info:

http://www.supermarketguru.com/page.cfm/...
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PS, as for the exploding cow myth... Cows, like humans, only produce milk at certain times. And, like humans, cows don't explode if the milk is unused. (Can you imagine pregnant women hurrying to have somebody drink their breastmilk before their boobs blow up?) However, there are horrible hormone treatments, unsafe for cows and for the people who later drink their milk, that cause nasty things to happen to cows. Perhaps not explosions, per se, but not much better. All the more reason to be vegan. :)

Really it depends on what you are making that you want to substitute cheese. If you are making a sandwich or some kind of burger then you could do some kind of aoli, tapanade or hummus. But these wouldnt work too well if you are topping off a pizza. You are most likely just trying to replace flavor with flavor. The other option would be to just keep eating cheese, since that seems to be your one vice in your diet. But thats a personal decision for you to make.

No animals died in the process of making cheese, so eat it!

If we didn't milk cows, they would explode!

Cheese is a good source of proteins, calcium and few fat soluble vitamins.
Considering that you are a strict vegan, you can make up for these nutrients by taking supplements. But nevertheless, these supplements are indirect mode of having animal or animal derived products in a different form.
Its for you to decide, which route you wanna take.