Best Vegan No-Cheese Sauce

When I first switched over to a healthy plant-based lifestyle back in 2013, one thing that I really missed was CHEESE. Cheese for pizza, tacos, baked potatoes, lasagna, and so much more. That’s why I came up with this amazing best vegan cheese sauce recipe ever!

This is the BEST cheese sauce because it’s…

• Versatile and can be made with cashews OR white beans
• Flavor-packed
• Creamy
• Cheeesy
• Veggie-loaded
• Customizable
• Low-fat
• Vegan
• Oil-free

Vegan Cheese Options

Though there were a few packaged vegan cheese sauces available, all of them were loaded with artery-clogging saturated fat, and that is something I was trying to avoid. I had already been able to bring my blood pressure and cholesterol down dramatically (from 220 to 141, and my husband’s from 305 to 157), and we needed a healthier option.

One day I was browsing vegetarian online recipe sites and found a beautiful picture of a cheese sauce but, unfortunately, when I looked at the ingredient list it too had some unhealthy ingredients like coconut oil. Did you know that coconut oil is 90% saturated fat? Lard is only 40%!

Since most of the ingredients were from whole food plant-foods, I decided to try Terri Tweaking it to see what I could come up with. After only about 30-minutes playing around with it in the kitchen, it was amazingly delicious. It’s by far the best vegan cashew cheese sauce!

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Best vegan cheese sauce recipe ever with Three Versions

Originally, I made it with 1/2 cup raw cashews.

Now, I sometimes sub out white beans–like navy beans or cannellini–to lower the fat content even more. For those avoiding nuts completely, this is a terrific nut-free cheese sauce.

Nowadays, I mostly make with a combination of the two–1/4 cup cashews + 1/4 cup white beans. It has a warm creamy texture with less fat. This easy vegan cheese sauce has so many options!

Ingredients for vegan cheese sauce

Incredibly some of the ingredients used to make this amazing cheese sauce are…

• potatoes
• onions
• carrots
• cashews (and or white beans)
• nutritional yeast flakes
• lemon juice
• spices

How to make vegan cheese sauce

• I have a Vitamix blender and so don’t take the time to soak my cashews. That thing is powerful and everything that goes into it comes out creamy. However, if your blender isn’t jet engine speed, soaking the cashews in warm water for at least 30-minutes before adding to this recipe will help this recipe come out more creamy. 
• In a medium pot, bring about 3 cups of water to a boil. Place potatoes, carrots, and onion in a pot and allow to cook until veggies are tender approximately 15 minutes. Cooking time will vary based on how small the veggies are diced.

• When veggies are tender, drain and place them in a blender. NOTE: reserve 1 cup of the broth, and add to blender. Add all the remaining ingredients, and blend until smooth.

• Now, it’s ready to use in nacho cheese dip, mac-n-cheese, topping for steamed broccoli, or anything else you need a creamy, cheesy sauce in. This recipe makes approximately 1 quart and can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

InstantPot instructions

Yes! You can also use your InstantPot to make this cheese sauce!

Simply add the potatoes, carrots and one cup of water to your Instant Pot. Set on MANUAL for 12 minutes.  Once finished, allow to naturally release for 10 minutes then add all other ingredients to a blender and process until smooth.  Easy-Peasy!

RECIPE CARD BELOW

Tips to remember when making this vegan cheese sauce

• Soaking cashews or not. I have a Vitamix blender and so don’t take the time to soak my cashews. That thing is powerful and everything that goes into it comes out creamy. However, if your blender isn’t jet engine speed, soaking the cashews in warm water for at least 30-minutes will help this recipe come out more creamy.
• Potatoes to use. You really can use almost any variety of potato. I love to use russets, red potatoes, or even sweet potatoes. Just make sure they are cooked until soft.
• Save that broth. One of the steps of this recipe is to boil the potatoes, onions, and carrots on the stove. Remember to save some of that broth for adding to the blender.
• Tweaking to your taste preference. Most likely this cheese sauce will come out amazing as soon as you dip that spoon into the blender (after it has stopped, of course) to give it a taste. However, if it needs a little tweaking, first try adding a little more salt or nutritional yeast, as those two ingredients can make a big difference, in my opinion. 

Other uses for this cheese sauce

Who doesn’t love pasta? This vegan oil-free cheese sauce is amazing on mac and cheese as well. It’s the perfect comfort food and can even be made gluten-free by using brown rice pasta.

Just add salsa to this cheese sauce, and you’ve got delicious Nacho Cheese Dip to serve with tacos and nachos. It’s amazingly delicious!

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Follower Comments

This is so delicious and easy to make. I’ve been making it now for months so thank you for the recipe. I love it so much that when I’m chopping up the veggies I just chop double the amount and freeze for next time. It makes this easy recipe even easier!–Mary W.

I just made this cheeze sauce. I doubled the recipe and tweaked it a bit. It is fabulous…I added 1/2 cup cashews and 1/2 cup white beans as I doubled the recipe as I said so I needed 1 cup anyway.

Then when I was done blending all the ingredients with the 2 cups of veggie water which was prefect consistency, I added about 2 to 3 tbsp or so of jarred pickled jalapeños and pulsed the blender to break into small pieces. Then sauce was still very warm from blending so long in the Vita Mix..

And then when I poured it all into a jar to cool, I added several tbsp of salsa to the sauce for even more flavor and it is pure heaven…it will be so delicious over baked potatoes or chili, or on pizza or Mac and cheese or with baked chips, broccoli or other veggies or just about anything one would use warm cheeze s sauce with.

Thanks for the base recipe. But if you like a little spice the pickled jalapeños pulsed and the salsa added really puts it over the top. have to quit spooning it out of the jar and eating it.–Diane

No-cheese sauce nutritional Information

1/4 cup serving (WITH BEANS):

• 5 calories
• 28 carbs
• 0.14 grams fat
• 1.9 grams of protein

1/4 cup serving (WITH CASHEWS):

• 41 calories
• 4.6 carbs
• 1.8 grams of fat
• 2 grams of protein

Recipes that use this cheese sauce

• Loaded Potato Skin Bites
• Vegan Chili Cheese Fries
• Vegan Cheddar Broccoli Soup

Other amazing vegan cheese recipes

• Best Vegan Cheese Sauce
• Cashew Vegan Mozzarella
• Nacho Cheese
• Sweet Potato Cheese Sauce
• Vegan Ricotta
• Vegan Parmesan Cheese

Plant-Based Vegan Starter Kits $27

Best Vegan Cheese Sauce

Yield: 10

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

I use this cheese sauce for everything--nachos, tacos, pizza, baked potato and steamed veggie topping, and so much more!

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Ingredients

• 1 cup potatoes, peeled & diced
• 1/4 cup carrots, diced
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 1 cup broth from veggies
• 1/2 cup raw cashews, (or 1/2 c white beans)
• 4 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 pinch paprika
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, optional

Instructions

1. I have a Vitamix blender and so don't take the time to soak my cashews. That thing is powerful and everything that goes into it comes out creamy. However, if your blender isn't jet engine speed, soaking the cashews in warm water for at least 30-minutes before adding to this recipe will help this recipe come out more creamy. 
2. In medium pot, bring about 3 cups of water to a boil. Place potatoes, carrots, and onion in pot and allow to cook until veggies are tender, approximately 15 minutes. Cooking time will vary based on how small the veggies are diced.
3. When veggies are tender, drain and place them in blender. NOTE: reserve 1 cup of the broth, and add to blender. Add all the remaining ingredients, and blend until smooth.
4. Now, it's ready to use in nacho cheese dip, mac-n-cheese, topping for steamed broccoli, or anything else you need a creamy, cheesy sauce in. It makes approximately 1 quart and can be stored in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks.

Recommended Products

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• 
  Vitamix 5200 Blender, Professional-Grade, 64 oz. Container, Black
• 
  Pure Natural Nutritional Yeast Flakes

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 10
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 57 Total Fat: 2.3g Fiber: 2g Protein: 3g

To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.

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