NAIT researcher creates cheese from oats

Blue cheese, ice cream, doughnuts, miso and meat substitutes are all creations that a NAIT researcher has made from oats that are all vegan options.

“I’ve developed everything from vegan, gluten free doughnuts, to vegan ice creams with oats,” said Kolskog.

Maynard Kolskog is a research chef at NAIT who partnered with General Mills to experiment with oats. He explains that a focus on plants and grains is the future of food sustainability, which he says will be an essential priority in the next 10 years.

“There’s a lot of potential there. Right now we’re a raw commodity economy  and I think as far as value added goes we’re just beginning to catch on now, but I think this has a lot of great potential as far as creating a sustainable economy for Alberta,” said Kolskog.

The development of food research has shifted from science experiments to a chef’s cooking to ensure that flavour is not an afterthought with food experimentation. However, Kolskog said that he does not expect to see his creations served in restaurants, due to the time it would take to recreate the products. 

Some other food research Kolskog is working on includes spices and seasonings derived from fruit pulp, dried mushrooms and insects, as well as fermented haskap berries that he will use to create a barbecue sauce.

A new culinary research space is currently under construction at NAIT and is set to open this summer. Once opened, Kolskog will be moving into the new research kitchens and he hopes to secure licensing to develop healthy edibles with cannabis oil and hemp proteins.

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