Magical Vegan Cashew Cheese Sauce
This creamy vegan cashew cheese sauce (or should we say vegan cashew “cheese” sauce?) is delicious and healthy and will enliven any meal it touches. If you’ve ever had Yumm sauce (shoutout to our Pacific Northwest peeps!), this sauce is a little bit like that, but better! It’s as easy as tossing everything in a high-speed blender or food processor and hitting “start.” One warning, though: once you’ve made it and know how easy and addictively delicious it is, there’s no going back. Unlike other vegan sauces, there’s no arrowroot powder or other hard-to-find thickeners, and it’s oil-free! It’s easy, tasty, and the best part about this sauce? Topping veggies with a healthy pour of this vegan cashew cheese sauce just might get your kids to actually eat them. You’re welcome.
Is Soaking Cashews Necessary?
Soaking the cashews ahead of time is the one thing about this recipe that takes a little foresight. It softens them up, which means they blend easily and make for an ultra-silky cashew cheese sauce. However! If you have a Vitamix or similarly powerful blender and are pinched for time, you don’t have to soak them. Your cashew cheese sauce might be a smidge less creamy, but the final product will still be killer.
Vegan Cheese Sauce Ingredients
This sauce is made with pretty straightforward pantry items that you might already have at home. The one specialty ingredient that you might not have come across is nutritional yeast (see our note below), a magical ingredient that gives a lot of vegan recipes that umami flavor often found in meat and cheese products. You’ll need to gather the following ingredients to make this rich and creamy vegan sauce:
Cashews, soaked for three hours
Tomato paste
Nutritional yeast
Smoked paprika
Chili powder
Chipotle peppers in adobo
Fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
Garlic
Kosher salt
Is Nutritional Yeast Good For You?
YES! It’s the combination of the rich, savory umami of nutritional yeast and creamy, good-fat filled cashews that gives creamy vegan cashew cheese sauce its gloriously cheesy taste. If you’ve ever experimented with vegan cooking, you’ve probably encountered nutritional yeast—you may even know that it makes the world’s greatest popcorn topper, and therefore always have a container of it handy. If you’re not familiar with it, here’s what you need to know:
Nutritional yeast is not the same as the yeast you bake with. Do not—we repeat DO NOT—substitute a packet of dry active yeast for the nutritional yeast called for in this recipe. They’re not at all the same. Conversely, nutritional yeast’s leavening ability is deactivated when it is processed, so you can’t bake with it. But that’s okay, because it’s full of flavor and its main reason for existence is to add umami to your food! This is nutritional yeast.
Nutritional yeast is super good for you! It’s especially important for vegans and vegetarians, because it’s one of the very few sources of B12 that is not derived from an animal product. Just one tablespoon offers about 40% of your daily recommended dose of B12.
The taste! It’s not just for vegans, it really is delicious. Our best comparison—and one you’ll hear a lot—is that it’s similar in flavor to parmesan cheese. A sprinkle of nutritional yeast lends a super satisfying dose of unctuous umami to any dish.
What Can I Put Cashew Cheese Sauce On?
We love to drizzle this sauce on everything! If you need a few suggestions may we recommend one of these great recipes? Break out the tortilla chips, because vegan cashew cheese sauce is the best topping for nachos. Might we suggest subbing this in for vegan nacho cheese sauce the next time you make our Texas Nachos? You can give Sweet Potato Tacos or Loaded Sweet Potato with Chipotle Cashew Cream a generous drizzle. Cashew cheese sauce loves vegetables! Use it as a little dipping sauce for Roasted Carrots, Roasted Cauliflower, or Steamed Broccoli and feel like vegetable royalty. How about using this sauce for a dairy-free cheese sauce version of our Creamy Turkey Pasta with Almonds? You can also keep it classic, and add cashew cheese sauce to our Quinoa Bowl. Like we said, versatile!!
Some Other Saucy Recipe Favorites
Tools You’ll Need
A fine mesh sieve or colander to drain the cashews (a nut milk bag will work too!)
An airtight container for storage (a Mason jar works perfectly)
Did You Give This Vegan Cheese Sauce A Try?
If you make this vegan cheese sauce recipe, we’d love to hear about it! Be sure to snap a photo, add it to your Instagram feed or stories and tag us @themodernproper and #themodernproper if you do. Also, feel free to leave a comment on the post and tell your friends where you discovered the recipe.
