Vegan Cheese Sauce

This ultimate vegan cheese sauce recipe is super creamy & crazy delicious!

Vegan Cheese Sauce

Deliciously cheesy - that's how I like my recipes! This vegan cashew cheese sauce recipe is definitely a stunner for your next dinner party—imagine having a bowl of it on the table!—so I can only recommend taking some time to seriously decorate the cheese bowl and make it the centrepiece!

I've served my cheesy bowl with croutons, apple crackers and chutney, but if you simply want an indulgently cheesy bowl to dip some crackers or veggies in, you can, of course, skip making the croutons and crackers. You might even want to use this as a nacho cheese sauce and pour over tortilla chips for a Mexican feast! 

When it comes to the chutney, however, I'd highly recommend giving this a go - it's a fantastic addition to this cheesy dip and the flavours complement each other just perfectly! You can find the recipe for the chutney here.

What you'll need to make this Vegan Cheese Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

• Potatoes & Carrots: On the one hand these are creating the wonderful colour of this amazing vegan cheese sauce, but also help thicken the texture and the potatoes give the sauce the sticky gooeyness that we all love from melted cheese.

• Cashews/Cashew Butter: vegan cheeses made from nuts are some of my favourites! Cashews are perfect for this. They add some healthy fats to this recipe and make the sauce wonderfully creamy.

• Nutritional Yeast: oh good old nooch, how I love thee! The best invention of the last century (or is it even older?)! Nutritional yeast flakes are what make the sauce taste extra cheesey and it's a vital ingredient for all kinds of vegan cheese recipes. You can get yours from local health food stores or simply order it online. I get mine from BuyWholeFoodsOnline.

• Coconut Milk: the addition of coconut milk helps add volume to the sauce without making it too watery, as coconut milk is so wonderfully creamy! We're only adding a small amount, so don't worry - your cheese sauce won't be coconutty.

• Spices: I love using sea salt, garlic and onion powder in this recipe. They create a wonderful flavour for this cheese sauce! Make sure to use powders over fresh garlic or onions as this will blend much smoother with the rest of the ingredients.

• Tomato Paste: the tomato paste helps add the perfect cheese colour to your sauce! It also adds a light natural sweetness to the dish, that comes from the tomatoes.

• Pickle Brine & Lemon Juice: this is definitely a hack to take your cheese sauce to the next level! I love adding pickle brine and lemon juice to add some acidity to the sauce, that's not only balancing the flavour profile but also comes with rich flavours itself. Yum!

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil: adding a little oil to the recipe makes it extra creamy and also helps your blender create the perfectly smooth & cheesy sauce.

• Tapioca Starch: tapioca starch is a magical ingredient that will make your sauce absolutely goo-ey! It's often also referred to as tapioca flour, so don't worry: these two are the same thing. Two important things to note about using tapioca flour/starch: Firstly, you need to mix it with a little water before adding it in with the rest of the ingredients - otherwise you might get lumps - and secondly, tapioca needs to be heated to activate its goo-ey character.

Equipment

• Blender
• Saucpan

How to make Ultimate Vegan Cheese Sauce

To start with you'll want to peel and chop your carrots and potatoes before cooking them in slightly-salted boiling water. When they're soft, drain them - and that's the tricky part over!! 🙂

Now go ahead and take all your ingredients (except the tapioca starch) and put it in your blender and put it on a high speed until you've got a smooth paste. 

Next, mix your tapioca starch with 5 tablespoon of water and add the mixture to the blender and put it on high speed for another minute. 

Your sauce is practically ready, you just need to put on a low heat for five minutes and keep it warm until you're ready to serve. 

How to serve vegan cheese sauce

Vegan cheese sauces are perfect for a variety of dishes. They're perfect for dipping, as well as the base for a cheesy pasta dish.

Why not serve this crazy delicious sauce in a large sharing bowl! Decorate with avocado, gherkins, cucumber, carrot shreds and raspberry & red onion chutney.

Here are a few other ideas of how to use this delicious vegan cheese sauce:

• vegan mac & cheese
• cheesy pasta bake
• potato gratin
• vegan cheese dip
• cheesy broccoli

You might also enjoy these recipes:

This recipe is:

• 100% vegan
• oh-so-creamy
• naturally gluten free
• super goo-ey
• mega cheesy
• addictive
• simply delicious!
• dairy free

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📖 Recipe Card

Love making scrumptious sauces? Check out these other vegan sauce recipes - here are some of my favourites: 

• Pineapple Curry BBQ Sauce
• Vegan Teriyaki Sauce Recipe
• Vegan Big Mac Sauce