This vegan cheese sauce is so creamy and amazing you won't believe it's made with a healthy vegetable base! A huge hit even with dairy eaters.
This is absolutely the best vegan cheese sauce recipe. It's made in a blender and perfect for mac and cheese, baked casseroles and anything else that requires cheese sauce!
This recipe was originally published on 7/8/2015
It's pure magic how you can take vegetables and create this incredibly creamy healthy cheese sauce, without even using milk! I know you probably doubt me, but I promise you need this. I have used this strategy to make my vegan white cheese sauce and my vegan nacho cheese sauce with success!
Ingredients
The gooey base of this cheesy vegan sauce comes from potatoes. When you blend cooked potatoes at high speed, it creates a stretchy texture.
I figured this out one day when I was making the pizza crust for my Thai Chickpea and Veggies Pizza and used a blender instead of a food processor.
You will notice this vegan cheese sauce has no nutritional yeast. I am not a nutritional yeast fan, and I don't really think it tastes cheesy, but if you like it feel free to add some in!
Here is what you need to make this recipe:
- Potato
- Red pepper
- Orange carrot
- Sweet or yellow onion
- Raw cashews
- Garlic
- Lemon juice
- Chickpea miso
- Ground mustard seed
- Paprika
- Sea salt
How to Make Vegan Cheese Sauce
Thank goodness this recipe is so easy to make, because it's in our regular rotation! Here are the steps you need to follow:
- Load all ingredients into a blender.
- Blend on high until you get a creamy gooey consistency.
- Use nice and hot!
Preparation Tips
When it comes to creating the best vegan cheese sauce, there are few key things to remember:
- If you have a regular good blender instead of a high speed one you can still get creamy awesomeness by grinding the cashews with a coffee grinder first. Grind them dry and simply add to the blender with everything else.
- You can also soak them overnight before boiling with the veggies, but this still may not give as creamy of a result as the grinding.
- You can thin out the consistency of the vegetable cheese sauce with some extra liquid.
- Use either water, dairy free milk, water from the boiled veggies, or pasta water if making mac and cheese.
- When you measure the veggies, measure them packed in not just loosely scooped up.
- Start with a little salt, and once everything is blended taste the cheese sauce. Add more salt if necessary.
What to Make With This Cheesy Vegan Sauce
This plant based cheese sauce recipe is amazing with everything! Seriously there are SO many things you can do, so little time. Here are some of my top faves:
- Mac and cheese of course, SO good.
- Drizzle it over veggies, okay maybe it's more of a drench than a drizzle.
- Enjoy as a dip with chips, crackers, or veggies, or apple slices.
- Load it onto a baked potato.
- Nacho cheese dip, I add chopped nacho jalapeño slices.
- Top your favorite tacos.
- 7 Layer Taco Dip.
- Roasted Poblano Mac and Cheese.
- Mexican Nacho Burger.
- Smother Oven Baked Fries.
- Pair with Vegan Pigs in a Blanket.
- Top Vegan Scrambled Eggs.
- Use on your favorite homemade pizza.
- Include it in your favorite dairy free cheese casseroles.
- Eat it with a spoon...Don't judge, just try it.
Substitution Suggestions
I tried a variety of combinations for this dairy free cheese sauce, I did after all spend years of trial and error, and the ingredients listed are the best for creating the correct flavor and texture. Here a few swaps you can experiment with:
- If you can't have cashews you can try other nuts such as macadamias, walnuts, or pine nuts. Just note that the flavor will be affected.
- For a completely nut free sauce try white beans or sunflower seeds. (I didn't care for the sunflower seed version but others have.)
- You can also leave out the cashews without replacing, but the texture will not be as thick and creamy.
- Red potatoes are suggested but any other starchy potato will do. Avoid sweet potatoes or other root veggies.
- Chickpea miso has the right flavor, white miso can be used but the taste will be more mild. Some have even completely left it out and still liked the flavor!
Flavor Suggestions
You can adapt this recipe to make different flavors of vegan cheese sauces. Any time you mix in an addition, start with a little and blend in more a little at a time until you get the flavor you want.
If you want chunks of the add ins, pulse them in instead of blending, or stir in with a spoon.
- Salsa
- Jalapeños - fresh or pickled
- Taco seasoning
- Chili seasoning
- Chives
- Roasted red peppers
- Sun dried tomatoes
- Broccoli (cooked and chopped)
- Caramelized onions
- Vegan sausage
- Mushroom bacon
- I prefer this vegan cheese sauce without nutritional yeast, but for those that are a fan feel free to shake some in.
Make Ahead and Storage Tips
- Prep this vegan cheese sauce recipe in advance by cooking the veggies and roast the garlic. Store in the fridge in an airtight container until ready to use.
- Store the prepared cheese sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- You can freeze this for up to 3 months so you can have vegan cheese sauce at your fingertips any time!
- When you defrost, leave it on the counter all day so it can slowly come to room temp.
- Feel free to return the defrosted sauce to the blender
- You can reheat this in the microwave or in a pot with a splash of nondairy milk (I use cashew) and mix well. Add splashes of milk and mix until you have the right consistency. It may need more salt depending on how much milk you add.
How to Make Vegan Cheese Sauce in an Instant Pot
Instead of boiling the vegetables, you can use your pressure cooker.
- Put all the ingredients (except for roasted garlic and lemon juice) into an instant pot with 2 cups of water.
- Set it to manual high pressure for 5 minutes.
- Let it naturally release.
- Blend in a high speed blender until smooth.
Common Questions
There are a number of recipes out there that all use different methods for creating cheese sauces with only plant-based items. This recipes uses potatoes, veggies, cashews, and seasonings to create a thick and creamy sauce.
There are some plant-based store bought cheeses available, but it's best to make your own with whole foods!
Many use dairy free milk and nutritional yeast to capture the cheese flavor, but I've had better luck with veggies and chickpea miso.
This sauce for one! Vegan Parmesan is also really easy to make and tastes so good!
More Vegan Cheese Recipes
Now that you know how easy it is to make your own homemade vegan cheese sauce, you need more varieties to try! Here are more plant based cheese recipes I know you'll love:
Best Vegan Cheese Sauce Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked potato (about 3-4 potatoes, see note)
- 2 tablespoons cooked red pepper (about ⅓ of a medium sized pepper)
- 3 tablespoons cooked orange carrot (about 4-5 baby carrots or one medium sized)
- 5 tablespoons cooked sweet or yellow onion (about ½ a small)
- ½ cup raw cashews (see note)
- 1 teaspoon roasted garlic (about 2-4 cloves, depending on size)
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- ¾ teaspoon chickpea miso (see note)
- ½ teaspoon ground mustard seed
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt (can use less or more depending on taste preference)
- Your favorite pasta if making Mac and Cheese
Instructions
- Roast the garlic by peeling and wrapping it in tin foil with a splash of veggie broth. Roast at 400 F (205 C), in a regular or toaster oven, while you cook the veggies.
- Put potatoes (peel if you don't want specks of skin), red pepper, carrots, onion and cashews in a pot and cover with water. If you don't have a high speed blender and are grinding the cashews, then don't boil but grind them dry and place them in the blender.
- Cook over high heat until water boils, about 15 minutes if uncovered. Turn heat to medium and boil another 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
- When done, drain water (keeping some to thin out sauce if prefer a thinner sauce), separate veggies and put the cashews in the blender. I use a fork to fish out the veggies, then drain the cashews over a pasta strainer.
- Measure out the needed amount of each veggie and place each in the blender. Add the rest of the ingredients.
- Blend on high until you get a creamy gooey consistency. If you have a tamper tool use it to help mix the sauce as it blends. If you don’t have one, then you will need to stop and push down the ingredients every once in a while.
- If you want to thin it out, add some of the reserved cooking water, 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the desired consistency. Use nice and hot!
To make the ultimate Mac and Cheese:
- Cook your pasta according to package directions.
- Drain pasta reserving about 1 cup pasta water.
- Add the pasta back into the pot and add desired amount of cheese sauce.
- Then add pasta water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing well in between additions, until you get the desired consistency for your Mac and Cheese. If your pasta is too starchy (as some gluten free pastas are) you can also use regular water or even non dairy milk to do this. Add salt if needed, it most likely will since the sauce is no longer as concentrated. Devour!
Notes
- Makes 3 ½ cups sauce. Serving size for nutrition info is ½ cup.
- Nutrition info is for cheese sauce only.
- I used red potatoes but any starchy potato will work, just don’t use sweet. It also won't work to substitute with something that is not an actual potato (such as another root vegetable).
- If you are not using a high speed blender, you can grind the dry cashews into a fine powder using a coffee grinder (do not boil them for this method). You can also soak them overnight prior to boiling with the veggies or just boil them with the veggies.
- You can make this nut free by eliminating the nuts, however you will lose some of the thickness and creaminess. It will still be pretty good in taste, but just lacking some of those elements. You can also try subbing with another nut if you are allergic to cashews, I suggest walnuts or macadamias, however the flavor will be different. I did try it with multiple nuts and liked the taste of the cashews best.
- If you don’t have chickpea miso, you can try using a white miso although it will be a little more mild in flavor so you may need more. See the comments for others that have tried using white miso.
- I did not add any liquid to this when I made it, but depending on what you use it for, you may want to thin it out with some water, water from the boiled veggies or pasta water if making mac and cheese.
- You can reheat this in the microwave or in a pot with a splash of nondairy milk (I use cashew) and mix well. Add splashes of milk and mix until you have the right consistency. It may need more salt depending on how much milk you add.
- You can also freeze leftovers in a freezer safe container as it freezes great. Defrost slowly when ready to eat. You may think it didn't freeze well, but as you heat it up the consistency comes back!
- Cook the veggies and roast the garlic. Store in the fridge in an airtight container until ready to use.
- This can be mixed into any baby food or be used for a toddler as a dip. You could also just blend the veggies on their own for baby.
Recipe by Veggies Don’t Bite, visit our site for more great plant-based recipes.
Nutrition
Nutrition and metric information should be considered an estimate.
Mary
I just made this tonight and OMG I can’t stop eating it!! I’m newly vegan and trying to transition the rest of the family( I have 5 kids). So I’m trying to find things they will enjoy and obviously Mac and cheese is a staple in their diet ha. This recipe will def be made on a weekly basis! Thank you so much.
veggiesdontbite
I'm so happy to hear you love it Mary! Thanks so much for telling me!
Txgril
This cheese sauce is AMAZING!! So, so good! I may or may not eat it with a spoon... 😉 and I’m not vegan. My family also loves it, which I love, since I’m trying to move them towards a more plant based diet. I use the Instant Pot method and it could not be easier. Thank you so much for posting this!! (Also not a fan of nutritional yeast.)
veggiesdontbite
I'm so happy you liked it!! I have another cheese sauce based off of this one coming in the next few months too!!
Luvs2Cook
I tried this “exactly” as written - this didn’t taste ANYTHING like cheese. All I could taste were potatoes and mustard, and I measured all ingredients exactly.
I tried doctoring it up to no avail. It couldn’t be saved. Just tasted like mustardy potatoes. Half of the mustard would’ve been more suitable to my tastebuds, but it couldn’t be fixed no matter what. I couldn’t even bring myself to use it in another way. The taste was unbearable.
Had very high hopes for this. On to another recipe I guess. Don’t like to use a lot of nutritional yeast, so I’ll keep searching (yes, even adding that didn’t make it any cheesier).
Glad others had success. I just couldn’t get over the overwhelming potato taste that dominated the flavor.
veggiesdontbite
Hi there, sorry it didn't work out for you. I am guessing that there was some miscalculation on the potato or other ingredients however because I wouldn't say the potato taste is overwhelming. I have made this hundreds of times, as have others, and the only time the potato taste came through was when I accidentally put too much in (it happens even to me sometimes). What kind of potato did you use? Also, the mustard is definitely not overwhelming. My sharp white cheese sauce has more mustard for that sharp flavor so I can see that there, but here it is only 1/2 a teaspoon so perhaps it was the brand or again, something with another ingredient that wasn't measured correctly. Either way, not recipe is for everyone and I hope you find one you like.
Shanta
Everyone loved it! Huge win for our family since sometimes I have to make two different dinners!
veggiesdontbite
So happy you loved it Shanta!! And yes girl, no more making two different dinners!
Brittany
Where did you get the chickpea miso?
veggiesdontbite
I get mine at Whole Foods. But you can use another kind of miso too! If you look through the comments a lot of people have used others!
Jaime
This is my first time EVER commenting on any blog, and I’ve been reading blogs and scouring the internet for recipes and other info for years. I just had to comment because this sauce is DELICIOUS and I am so grateful for you sharing it. My favorite thing about this recipe is my non vegan, queso loving, skeptical husband LOVES it. He told me if he hadn’t seen what was in the blender prior to blending, he wouldn’t believe it was healthy. So thank you, thank you, thank you, for helping me to provide yummy food for my husband (and me!) that is also healthy. I plan to make “Mac ‘n cheese” with this sauce and my husband will also be eating it on top of broccoli in his lunches this week. I’ll look forward to trying more of your recipes. Thank you again! 😊
~ Jaime from California
veggiesdontbite
Oh my gosh Jaime! Thank you so much for such an amazing review! I am thrilled you guys like it as much as we do!! I hope to be able to wow you with more recipes in the future!
McKinlay
This is AMAZING. I literally made this two days in a row because I was SO stoked about it. I used it over brown rice pasta for mac and cheese and YAY YAY YAY. Finally a delicious whole food cheese that does NOT use nutritional yeast!!! This is a gem. It totally feels like you are eating decedent homemade mac and cheese...because you ARE. But it has all sorts of benefits because of the veggies! I also only had smoked paprika and used that and it was literally delish. THANK YOU.
veggiesdontbite
Hi McKinlay! I am so so happy you love this cheese sauce as much as we do! I love the idea of adding smoked paprika too. I bet it was amazing!! Thank you so much for being here and your amazing review.
Bea
Wow this is fantastic...really has a lovely savoury flavour and I love the texturex. The only problem is, it will all be gone before it gets to the macaroni..
veggiesdontbite
Haha!! Thank you so much! I'm thrilled you loved it!
Jeannette
This is the first nacho cheez sauce I found that was perfect! I only had yellow miso and used one teaspoon because I think chickpea is a little stronger. Anyway, I used it for our quesadilla and taco salad lunch today. Im so happy i found this recipe, and so glad its good, because I cannot stand nooch! Tomorrow I'll use some of the leftovers for pasta and see if that quenches the mac and cheese desires!
veggiesdontbite
Thank you SO much Jeannette! I am so happy you liked it! I so appreciate you leaving a comment and rating!
Paul
You know he said that it doesn't have a taste advantage, right? You put a few things in completely opposite of what was written in the original post.. I'm all for defending your recipe and giving the reason you make it the way you do. However, if you are going to reply at least actually pay attention to what was written in the comment
veggiesdontbite
So, I'm not quite sure what you are referring to but yes. This is exactly what I said. I thanked him for saying it tasted JUST like the vegan cheeses out there without veggies because to me that is a complement. That I can create a veggie filled whole food based cheese that doesn't taste like it has veggies. Not every recipe is for everyone, I do not like those with nutritional yeast at all, and some people do. To each their own. I have many many people that rave about this recipe so clearly it's a hit for them.
Joan
Your response to David was spot on. He's the one who missed the point. You wanted a recipe that didn't use nutritional yeast (which, by the way, I still really enjoy and appreciate).
We loved this recipe however! Anytime we can find a recipe using more veggies we're thrilled! Thank you for sharing your hard won successful recipe!
veggiesdontbite
Thank you Joan! We all have different tastes which is what makes creating recipes for my audience so great. I love other bloggers recipes as well and it's not a one and only thing. I take no offense when someone doesn't like something, there are many others who do. I am definitely more whole food focused and appreciate those that are as well! Thank you for all your support!
David Fisher
Full marks on color and texture, but does not have a taste advantage over far simpler and less costly recipes using cashews, lemon juice, and nutritional yeast.
veggiesdontbite
Hi David, I'm happy you like the texture of the cheese sauce. I will have to disagree on the advantages however. This recipe doesn't use as many cashews as others, and it is filled with healthy vegetables. My goal for this cheese sauce (as I talk about in the post itself) is I wanted something whole foods based and healthy that could taste amazing as well. So while I'm glad you think it tastes like the others out there that have no veggies, I do believe this one is a better choice based on all the healthy goodness it has inside. Also cost wise, veggies are cheaper than cashews and since this relies on the veggies for a bulk of the recipe, I'd be surprised if it is more expensive to make considering most cheese sauces out there are mostly cashews. I'd like to point out too, as I said in my post, I am actually not a nutritional yeast fan when it comes to cheese sauces. I do not think it tastes cheesy at all. So for me, this was a big no. I wanted to create a cheesy flavor without it. So overall, it comes down to what you want. I think the people that love this recipe, love that it has a health benefit along with amazing flavor. Thanks again for giving it a try!
Angel
I don't normally leave comments or feedback, but I just had to! This is definitely the best cheese sauce for Mac and cheese! I've tried multiple recipes and they all tasted good or okay but not cheesy. This is spot on! Especially when all together with pasta and for me- a lot of ground pepper, it tastes just like the real thing. I couldn't find chickpea miso or even regular miso paste at local store, I did find miso broth concentrate and it came out great! Thank you for this recipe! I plan on sharing it with everyone!
veggiesdontbite
I'm so happy to hear you liked it Angel! Thank you so much for your support!
Cheryl W
This sauce is excellent! It isn’t difficult to put together and the consistency and taste are just right.
I only had brown rice miso but it didn’t effect color . Definitely a keeper! Thank you for your work developing these recipes.
veggiesdontbite
I'm so happy you liked it!! And thank you for the great review!
Lindsay Shreeve
Best cheese sauce I’ve ever made!!! I have 6 kids so I doubled the recipe and threw all the ingredients into the instant pot with 2 cups of water (I put the garlic in raw). Set it to manual high pressure for 5 minutes, let it naturally release them blended in a high speed blender till smooth. So thick and creamy and delicious. I ate multiple spoonfuls straight out of the blender and my toddler licked it clean after that. Can’t stop thinking about it, it was that good!
veggiesdontbite
Thank you SO SO much Lindsay! I love that you let me know how it worked in the instapot! I will add this to my notes! I am so happy you love this as much as we do!
Kevin G
WOW! Best cheesy recipe ever! I've tried several others, but this is by far the best! Good work on perfecting the recipe! It seemed complicated and I wasn't sure about getting the amounts correct, but it was just delicious! I did deviate a little - I didn't have regular paprika, so I used smoked paprika and I thought it added a nice mild smokey flavor that was very enjoyable. I also could not find chickpea miso, so I used some Light Sweet Miso. Still the best cheesy sauce. Thank you. and my mac & cheese loving kids thank you too!
veggiesdontbite
I'm so happy you liked it Kevin! And thrilled your kids did too! Thank you so much for being here!