The Best Vegan Cheese Sauce
This is the Best Vegan Cheese Sauce you will ever try. It is simple and easy to make you will not even know its not the real thing.
It is made using cashews, nutritional yeast, and oh so good!
Not only is it dairy-free, gluten-free, but it is oil-free, and kid-approved. And is a great addition to a plant-based diet.
There are so many great ways to enjoy this oil-free vegan cheese sauce.
Here are some recipes that we made using this amazing vegan cheese sauce.
Plant-based Broccoli Mac and Cheese
Loaded Portobello Mushroom Nachos
The possibilities are endless.
This Vegan Cheese Sauce is so close to regular cheese, it is still surprising that it is dairy-free, and not the real thing. And the best part it is part of a whole foods plant-based diet.
And for those that are looking for a nut-free option, you can try our Vegan Cheese Sauce made using potatoes and carrots.
The key to making this recipe is using the right Nutritional Yeast. We recently ordered some Noochy Licious Nutritional Yeast from Gloriously Vegan that adds a great flavor to this Vegan Cheese Sauce. It is a great source of plant-based protein with 14g of protein per ounce of serving.
Noochy Licious Nutritional Yeast
Here are some other recipes that we have made with Noochy Licious Nutritonal Yeast
Plant-based Broccoli Mac and Cheese
Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna with Cashew Ricotta
Easy Plant-based Chili Cheese Fries
To make this recipe even more simple, I used my Vitamix Blender. We have been Vitamix owners for over 8 years, and decided that we needed to add another one to the family. We decided on a Certified Reconditioned Vitamix Venturist V1200.
What I love about the Certified Reconditioned Vitamix Venturist V1200 is that you can heat up the cheese sauce by blending it on high saving you extra time and less dishes to wash.
If you do not have a high speed blender that heats up the sauce as you blend it, you can the sauce mixture to a large sauce pan and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes. I have also found that if I am using it for Mac and Cheese, I can take my newly cooked and drained pasta and add the cheese sauce over the noodles and the warmth of the noodles heats up the sauce quickly.
The Best Vegan Cheese Sauce
This Vegan Cheese Sauce is easy to make and goes great with mac and cheese and makes a great nacho cheese sauce.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups of Raw Cashews
- 1 Lemon, Squeezed
- 1 ¾ Cup of Water or as needed
- 1 TSP Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt
- ½ Cup of Nutritional Yeast
- 1 TSP Chili Powder
- 2 Garlic Cloves
- 1 TBSP of Dijon Mustard
- ¼ TSP of Red Pepper Flakes
- 1 TSP Black Pepper
- 1 TSP Turmeric
Instructions
- In a high-speed blender or food processor, add in the cashews, lemon juice, salt, nutritional yeast, chili powder, garlic cloves, Dijon mustard, red pepper flakes, black pepper, turmeric, and water. Blend until smooth and creamy. You can adjust the ingredients to your taste.
- You can warm up the cheese sauce by blending it on the soup option on a Vitamix or add it to a sauce pan on low heat. Stir to keep it from sticking. Serve it as a dip, on top your favorite noodles for mac and cheese or as a nacho cheese sauce.
You can store any unused amount in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Enjoy!
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #cleanfoodmama on Instagram. Cheers, friends!
Here are some of the products we used to make this vegan Cheese Sauce recipe.
Stephanie Collazo, MS, CHC is the founder of Clean Food Mama, to help you get more plants into your diet. She shed 170 lbs by incorporating a whole foods plant-based diet and loves empowering other women to create healthy habits for themselves and their families.
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In the recipe for the best vegan cheese sauce, water is listed in the ingredients but not mentioned in the preparation. I’m assuming you add it with the rest of the ingredients, but you might want to clarify your recipe.
Yes, thank you for letting me know. I have updated the preparation directions. Wishing you the best.
If you don’t have cashews, can you use another nut?
Crystal, thank you for your question. We have not personally tried another nut with this recipe, but we are planning on trying different substitutes and will let you know. In the meantime, we also have a nut-free plant-based cheese sauce on the blog that uses potatoes and carrots. Here is a link to it https://cleanfoodmama.com/cheese-sauce/. Please let us know if you have any more questions. Wishing you all the best, Stephanie
Made for 2nd time, 1st time I didn’t use correct measures. However, while this doesn’t taste bad, it doesn’t taste much like cheese and it doesn’t look like yours at all???
Everyone’s taste buds are different, and we are so happy you tried the recipe. In our house we also like to tweak our recipes too. You might try adding in more nutritional yeast to the recipe to help give it more cheese flavor. Wishing you all the best.
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