This Sweet Potato Cheese Sauce is packed with wholesome ingredients, amazingly delicious, and diabetes-friendly. Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, and dairy-free.
Begin by peeling and dicing the sweet potatoes. They can be a little tricky to peel, so a potato peeler may be just what you need to keep those fingers safe.
Dice up the onion and carrots. Personally, we usually have baby carrots on hand for snacking, so I tend to just include a few of those and don’t even cut them up.
Place the diced vegetables in a stockpot with enough water to cover them well. Cook on medium-high heat until they are tender which should be around 15-minutes depending on the size of the chunks of potatoes.
Once they are cooked, drain the water from them but reserve 1 cup of the broth to use in the recipe.
Next, add all the ingredients–cooked sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, and cashews (or white beans), along with the spices and seasonings in a food processor or blender.
Allow it to process in the blender until creamy smooth. It will continue to thicken as it cools and especially after refrigeration.
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Notes
The original recipe for this vegan cheese sauce calls for 1/2 cup of raw cashews. However, some folks are avoiding nuts due to allergies or the fat content, so white beans can be used instead.The white beans will need to be a softer variety such as northern beans, navy beans, or white kidney beans. Garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) are just not soft enough to allow the sauce to be nice and creamy. 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.
You really can use almost any variety of potatoes. I love to use russets, red potatoes, or yellow potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Just make sure they are cooked until soft.
To reduce a little bit of fat, try using 1/4 cup white beans+ 1/4 cup cashews. I like to use at least a few cashews because it comes out the creamiest.
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.
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.
Keeps in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Freezes well but will need to be put back in the blender for a spin after defrosting to get creamy again.