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This delicious, creamy cheese sauce is entirely plant-based. It’s perfect for vegans, vegetarians, and everyone else who likes good food!
This versatile cheese sauce is made using vegetables, seasonings, and nutritional yeast. You can use it as a dip, to make vegan mac and cheese, or seasoning it to make nachos. It’s a blank canvas waiting for your culinary artistic touches!
How To Make Vegan Cheese Sauce
For this simple vegan cheese sauce without nuts, you need the following ingredients:
- potatoes
- carrot
- chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- water
- vinegar (regular or apple cider)
- salt
- lemon juice
- nutritional yeast flakes (do not confuse with the yeast you use to make bread)
- onion powder
- garlic powder
- cayenne
To make it, you start by cooking the potatoes and carrots in a pot of boiling water until they become soft.
Once they become soft, drain them in a colander.
Next, add the cooked vegetables, chickpeas, water, vinegar, and lemon juice to a blender or food processor.
Blend or process on HIGH until they are well combined.
Add the salt, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, and a dash of cayenne and process or blend until it becomes smooth and creamy.
You can use the sauce immediately or refrigerate for later. If it thickens up too much in the refrigerator, whisk in water until desired consistency. Re-heat in the microwave.
Vegan Mac and Cheese
To make mac and cheese, boil macaroni noodles according to the directions on the box.
Meanwhile, make the Vegan Cheese Sauce. Once the macaroni noodles have finished cooking, drain them, and then stir in the cheese sauce.
Vegan Nacho Sauce
To make Vegan Nacho Sauce, prepare the vegan cheese sauce according to recipe directions. In step 4, also add 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika. If you like the taste of cumin, you can also add 1/2 teaspoon.
Once the sauce is smooth and creamy, you can add chopped jalapeños for a spicy nacho cheese sauce or leave them out for a more traditional nacho sauce.
Easy Vegan Cheese Sauce
Equipment
- Pot
- Blender or Food Processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup potatoes diced large
- 1 cup carrots diced large
- 1 cup chickpeas
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- dash cayene
Instructions
- Boil the carrots and potatoes until they become soft.
- While the carrots and potatoes are cooking, combine the salt, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne and set aside.
- Drain vegetables and rinse with cold water in a colander.
- Place the vegetables, chickepeas, water, vinegar, and lemon juice in a blender or food processor and process until blended. Add the seasoning blend and process until smooth and creamy.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Veggie Sauce
This sauce can also be used to top cooked broccoli or cauliflower. Think of it a healthy way to get picky eaters to eat their veggies.
Other meat-free recipes you might enjoy at Southern Kissed:
