Easy Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce is made with soaked, raw cashews, blended with water, nutritional yeast and spices; and warmed on the stove until it reaches nacho cheese perfection! Optional but good: Add Sriracha to taste or keep it mild for kids with sensitive palates. Serve nacho cheese sauce with chips, or even drizzle on steamed broccoli or baked potatoes!
Last week, we ate at the Veggie Grill near us. Oh my goodness, I could eat there every day! Unfortunately (or fortunately, for the budget!), it’s a good 25 minutes away, so we really don’t get there often enough. We do live near Portland, THE Mecca for vegan food, but it’s far enough that with 3 kids and traffic, we rarely make it to the city for good vegan eats.
Anyhow, we got the nacho appetizer to share, and that’s when I started thinking about the fact that I really needed to up my nacho game. I was anxious to come home and try to re-create the nacho cheese sauce they had. It was SO good. And mild enough that I knew my kids would totally go for it.
I do have a tried and true recipe on the blog for Vegan Queso Dip with Cashews that is somewhat similar to this one. It’s amazing and a real crowd pleaser, but it is quite spicy and has chunky tomatoes and green chiles in it, which my kids aren’t crazy about. It’s also thicker, and makes for a better dip with chips than a pourable sauce.
I hope you love this Easy Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce! It’s:
- Creamy and rich
- Mild, but spice adjustable
- Pourable; not too thick
- Kid-friendly
- Easy and Quick to prepare
- Versatile: Enjoy with chips, on a baked potato or drizzle on steamed vegetables!
Want more delicious vegan Mexican recipes? Try any of these:
Ultimate Fully Loaded Vegan Nachos
Cauliflower Walnut Mushroom Taco Meat
Roasted Vegetable Enchilada Casserole
If you make this recipe, let me know how it goes! Rate it, leave a comment and tag a photo @noracooksvegan on Instagram or find me on Facebook. Enjoy!
Easy Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw cashews
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice (from about 1 large lemon)
- 4 cups water, divided, plus more as needed to thin
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
- 1-2 teaspoons Sriracha, optional
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, optional for color
Instructions
- Soak the cashews: You can either do a quick soak, or soak the cashews for several hours or overnight. To quick soak, simply boil water in a tea kettle or on the stovetop, cover the cashews with the boiling water and set aside for 10 minutes. Drain.
- Blend: In a high powered blender, add the cashews, lemon juice, 3 cups of the water, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, and the salt. Add optional turmeric to make the cheese more yellow/orange.
- Warm: In a medium saucepan, add the cheese sauce from the blender. Using a whisk, warm over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it begins to bubble and thicken. Add the last cup of water, depending on how thick or thin you want the sauce to be.
- Add more salt to taste, and Sriracha if using, depending on your spice preference. If the cheese sauce sits for a while, or you refrigerate the leftovers, it will thicken. Simply warm it again on the stove, adding water as needed to thin. Serve over tortilla chips, steamed broccoli, baked potatoes and more.
Video
Notes
- Raw slivered almonds may be able to subbed for cashews, but they will need to be soaked very well. If you need a nut free cheese sauce, check out my Nut Free Vegan Cheese Sauce.
- You do really need a high powered blender for this cheese to get smooth and creamy. A food processor or regular blender just won't be able to get it very creamy. I use a Vitamix blender and love it.
Nutrition
This is perfect! So yummy! How long can this last in the refrigerator in a mason jar?
Thanks Crystal! It will keep for up to 5 days, just give it a good stir or whisk before using it again. I often add a little water, stir and warm it up before enjoying again. It can get a little thick in the fridge.
AMAZING!!! Nora, you did it! This recipe is spot-on Delicious!! Thank you for sharing your yummy creations!! My baked potato and veggies were soooo good! This lady is dancing with Joy!
You are welcome, Johnnie! Wish I could see you do your happy dance! I’m so glad that you are enjoying the nacho cheese sauce! It is so delicious with potatoes and veggies! Thank you for taking time to share your awesome review! Happy cooking!
Was great. I used on the best vegan enchilada recipe. My only problem was that having addied 3 cups of water the cheese sauce did not thicken as much as you show in your picture. Do you have any suggestions for next time I make it other than adding less water? I do live at 6300 feet but am not sure this should make a difference and rather than all purpose flour I used bread flour. Could that be the problem? Thanks for any comments you make.
I’m glad you enjoyed it Steven. Did you use a high-powered blender, such as a Vitamix? The cheese sauce right after blending is not as thick as in the pictures; it gets thick when you warm it on the stovetop (Step 3 of the instructions). Cashew based sauces thicken when heated, so I account for that in the water-cashew ratio here. I do warm/thicken the nacho cheese sauce before using it in the enchiladas, so maybe that’s the piece you are missing? I don’t think altitude would be a problem here.
Thanks. I did use a Cuisinart but I may not have ground the cashews enough since there were still bits if it in the cheese sauce when i stirred it. I will try it again in the next day or two and ground more thoroughly.
Thanks
Oh yeah, I don’t think the Cuisinart has the ability to blend nuts into cream, but I could be wrong. You may not be able to get as creamy of sauces as you could with a Vitamix or Blendtec blender. You can try soaking the cashews for longer in boiling hot water, perhaps an hour or a few hours to get them as soft as possible before blending. Then blend for a few minutes and see how creamy you can get it. There should not be any little pieces of nuts left, just a silky-smooth cream sauce.
Hey I’ve made this before but honestly I prefer green enchilada sauce so if you could make one that has green enchilada sauce that will be great or just let me know what I should use instead
Thank you so much! Very easy!
QUESTION: What is the serving size? I forgot to measure the final product.
I know it yields 12 servings and the nutrition facts are for 1 serving.
Thank you to anyone who can answer this for me.
I topped my chili and tater tots with this sauce and loved it!! I haven’t had real queso in years, so this was a fun and enjoyable experience ☺️