Vegan Welsh Rarebit Two Ways – Mushroom and Tomato

Gooey melted vegan ‘cheese’ on top of soft mushrooms or tomatoes on toast!

Welsh rarebit is basically cheese on toast but traditional recipes mix ingredients in with the cheese such as beer and mustard. We always used to have this delicious lunch served with slices of tomatoes under the cheese and a big splash of Worcester sauce on top! Traditional recipes are all vegetarian so I didn’t need to replace any meat in my vegan version, but I did need to replace the cheese!

I have never bought vegan cheese before so headed to a health food shop and bought two varieties which I thought would work well on a rarebit. I also chose these two because they were very different colours and so would be easily differentiated once cooked.

I have to be honest, I tried a bit of each brand just on its own before melting it and it was not an enjoyable experience. The Toffuti mozzarella was floury, bland and had a weird texture and the Cheezly non soya cheeze was a better texture but had a very non cheese flavour. Although straight out the pack I didn’t really enjoy them I actually thought that once melted the flavours got better and obviously the texture issue was gone. I enjoyed eating the rarebits and you can always use your favourite brand of vegan cheese instead of these ones!

The two vegan cheeses I tried

Both ‘cheeses’ melted nicely

Welsh rarebit is not actually a welsh dish, it was created in England and the name is a play on “welsh rabbit”. I did some research and as far as I can tell the dish is named Welsh rabbit because back in the 1700s poor people in England could only afford rabbit meat from the butchers whereas poor people in Wales could only afford cheese and no meat. So this cheese on toast dish was a bit of a cruel dig at the welsh poverty. Not very nice! But delicious 🙂

I followed a more traditional recipe for my mushroom version and added some Wholegrain mustard and a splash of water (not beer) to my cheese before pouring it onto the bread. For the tomato version I actually spread the English mustard onto the bread and left the cheese plain.

You can play around with different ideas with terms of flavours, the possibilities are endless 🙂

Makes 4 slices of toast

Vegan, gluten free

For the mushroom topping:
2 slices granary gluten free bread
2-3 mushrooms – sliced thinly
2 big slices of vegan cheeze
1 teaspoon Wholegrain mustard
Splash water

Toast one side of the bread then lay the mushroom slices onto the untoasted side. In a bowl add the cheese, splash of water and wholegrain mustard and melt in the microwave for 20- 30 seconds. Give it a good stir then pour it over the mushrooms and put back under the grill until the cheese has browned and the mushrooms have wilted.

For the tomato topping:
2 slices granary gluten free bread
2 tomatoes – sliced thinly
1 teaspoon English mustard (or more!)
2 handfuls vegan mozzarella

Toast one side of the bread then spread mustard on the untoasted side and lay the tomato slices on top of the mustard. Scatter over the grated mozarella and place under the grill until the cheese has melted and the tomatoes have cooked.