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!
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”1AaDabKO” upload-date=”2020-04-30T14:30:58.000Z” name=”Easy Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce” description=”Easy Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce, perfect for drizzling over tortilla chips, broccoli, baked potatoes and more!” player-type=”static”]
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
Hi! I just made this, tastes so good…excited to try it over some chips! I can’t have dairy due to my daughter being sensitive/allergic. My sauce is slightly chunky. I soaked my cashews over night. I have a ninja blender. Should I have blended for longer?
I have heard this before with the ninja blender, it doesn’t seem to do a great job making creamy sauces from nuts, but I’m not sure as I have never had one. But yes it sounds like you should have blended for longer. Make sure you don’t see any pieces of nuts, some blenders will take longer than others. Thank you!
Thank you! I will try that next time. Can’t wait to make it again!
Making your vegan nacho cheese sauce for your “Best Vegan Enchiladas”. What did I do wrong? Followed the recipe to a “T”, but cheese sauce never got thick. Flavor wonderful, but never thickened up. Help please. New vegan. Love your recipes.
Hi! I wonder if you used a high powered blender like a Vitamix? The other thing I wonder is if you heated the nacho cheese sauce before you used it? Because that step is important to thicken it. It’s quite watery until heated and whisked.
The best vegan cheese !!! Thank you so much for all these recipes!!!
You’re welcome!
I love this Nacho cheese sauce, I have to hide it from the non-vegans or it miraculously disappears. Have made it several times and it is always a hit. Even took it to a Super Bowl party where no one realized it wasn’t dairy cheese. I told them after it was all gone.
Thanks,
Laura
That’s so great! Thanks so much!
First time to ever make vegan cheese and this recipe is the first one I’ve tried. It was super easy and delicious! My husband and I loved it on chips, and my nachos. We will be using this to do mac & cheese on some days. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I’ll add sriracha sauce on my own serving because the hubs doesn’t like anything out of the ordinary.
I’m so glad you all liked it! Thank you!
I made this today and it was so easy to make. Very delicious. Thanks alot for the recipe
You’re welcome! So glad it was delicious!
This sauce is awesome
I’m so glad you like it!
Made it today, delicious taste. Poured it over leeks and koolrabi. Do not know the name in English. Easy to make too.
So glad it was good!
It says 120 calories per serving, but does not give you the serving size.
The nutrition information is an estimate only and is for 1/12th of the overall recipe. It’s probably approximately about 1/4 cup but I don’t know exactly, sorry!
This was delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
Great flavor!! My first time making a vegan cheese recipe. I tried to use it over nachos as I used to with cheddar. While it baked, the chips absorbed the moisture. So basically. I made nachos casserole. If I used this in enchiladas would the tortillas absorb or would it say “cheesy”.
Looking for advice
Oh yes, I would not bake it with chips. For nachos, drizzle it over chips instead of baking it. If you use it inside enchiladas, it will stay cheesy. In fact, I have a recipe for Vegan Enchiladas where I use it here.
Thanks you for this recipe! I can’t even believe how good this turned out. I didn’t even use the nutritional yeast and it was so good. I used it on Enchiladas instead of cheese (added right before serving). My husband, to my great surprise, raved (and raved) about it. Don’t hesitate to try this recipe!
Thanks for the wonderful comment! I’m glad you loved it.
I’ve made this multiple times and it is the best! My husband, not vegan or plant based at all, absolute loves it too. It tastes just like that terrible for you nacho cheese and I love that it’s full of healthy ingredients.
I add a generous amount of turmeric to give it a bright yellow color, and just a heads up it is a huge amount of sauce!
Thank you for the awesome recipe.
Thanks for the wonderful comment! I’m glad you all enjoy the recipe.
Easy and delicious! My first time making plant based cheeze sauce and wow, tasty! I followed the recipe as written but added a little can of diced green chilis (not drained) while I was cooking it on the stove top and it made it like a bomb queso! Thank you for the recipe!
Just made this! Turned out amazing. So happy I now have a quick and easy cheese sauce. I didn’t measure out the sriracha whoops lil too spicy but still drool worthy.
I’m glad it came out amazing!
This is delicious! Thank you for sharing ?
You’re welcome!
This is amazing!
Thank you.
Is there anything is can use in place of the nutrition yeast?
There is nothing to use in place of it, but you can leave it out if necessary.
Delicious, versatile, and so easy! Having it on Beyond Sausage tomorrow, and on purple cauliflower tonight! Thanks.
You’re welcome! Glad it’s delicious!
can you freeze it?
Yes, though you may want to re-blend it once thawed, as it may be a little chunky after freezing.
I made this tonight…my first attempt at making any non-dairy cheese anything, and I couldn’t be more pleased! I’m extremely sensitive to dairy proteins, and commercially available vegan cheese products are both exorbitantly expensive and not at all tasty. We used some with the recipe as written, and then added Chipotle Rotel to the rest. Yummy! Now I can’t wait to try other vegan cheese recipes.
Thanks so much for your contribution!
You’re welcome! I’m glad you found something that works well for you. 🙂
Made this for dinner tonight for some friends who can’t have dairy. They couldn’t stop talking about how good it was. I love how easy this recipe is. I did up the spices a bit and added chunky salsa, so good. Thanks for a delicious recipe.
You’re welcome! Glad everyone enjoyed!
Is this GLUTEN FREE CHEESE TOO?
Yes, it is gluten free.
This was delicious! I did add a couple of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce because we like things pretty spicy. I am excited to use the rest to make your enchiladas tomorrow. Very addictive. I have a list of recipes that are non vegan guest approved and my husband and I agree that this definitely made the list.
I hope you enjoy the enchiladas! I love the spicy additions to the cheese sauce.
Hi there! I can’t wait to make this tonight! I was just wondering, I know it makes 12 servings but how big is each serving? ?
I’m not exactly sure, but I think about 1/4-1/3 cup per serving. You could divide it by 12 when you make it if you really need to know. 🙂 Thank you and enjoy!
I made this for the first time today and Im wondering how long will this keep in the fridge?
It will keep for 4-5 days in the refrigerator. Thanks!