A Vancouver woman is ready to help you savour your food with her plant-based queso.
In early July, Zara Goldberg launched K-So Queso, a vegan cheese dip made from organic ingredients that are locally sourced.
Goldberg came up with the idea when her friends' vegan son could not enjoy cheese-based foods and felt stuck with his vegetables.
"It was a labour of love to marry the cheese and vegetables," Goldberg told V.I.A.
She watched YouTube videos constantly to come up with a recipe for a plant-based queso.
"I would take bits I liked and leave the bits I didn't."
She made modifications to make her queso as "whole food and powder-free" as it could be.
When she felt like she found the perfect balance, Goldberg was delighted to see the reactions of people sampling her K-So Queso at various pop-up artisan markets.
"It was quite something," Goldberg described.
The K-So Vegan Queso is made of organic and local ingredients such as carrots, potatoes, garlic, and tapioca flour. Other than the queso having no preservatives or additives, it is also dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, and gum-free.
Right now, the Vegan Queso is the only product that K-So offers, however, Goldberg plans to spice up some taste buds with a chili oil queso next.
She loves having the Queso with quesadillas and suggests enjoying it with a variety of your favourite foods.
"You can pair K-So Vegan Queso with nachos, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, pizza, burgers, crackers, and even use it as fondue," she said.
Goldberg, who also works as a server, founded and runs K-So by herself but attributes the community around her to assisting with the business.
"There are many, many helping hands. I could not do it alone."
K-So is available to buy online for shipping or pick-up in Vancouver at 1768 Cook St.
