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
Incredible! My go to.
This a wonderful sauce. Could you provide the serving size for the Nutrition info? Thanks!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! The nutritional info is for 1/12th of the recipe, or about 1/3rd cup.
Deliciousness!
Made Mexican Nachos,
With Soyrizo and Pico de Gallo!
What a Great Combo!
I accidentally used 1T of Paprika instead of the 1 t but it still turned out great..
Recipe Measurement goes a long way.
Have enough left over to use on another recipe.
Thank you ?
Hi Lili. Glad you found the recipe delicious! Thank you for sharing!
First time making vegan cheese and OH MY GOD!! This recipe is incredible! Super easy and quick to make with amazing flavor, best cheese I have ever had. Thank you for sharing this!
Hi Dani. You are welcome! I’m glad you loved the cheese sauce! Thank you for taking the time to share!
My favorite vegan cheese sauce recipe! I love it on tacos and nachos.
Hi Carlie. I’m glad you love the cheese sauce! Thank you!
Hi, will this taste as good if use white beans in place of the cashews?
No, it won’t taste nearly as good, but it might work. I haven’t tried it.
At first I thought it tasted too lemony but after I thickened it on the stove, it was perfect! This is delicious!!
Hi Jeannene. I’m glad the cheese sauce worked out for you and that you enjoyed it! Thank you!
This was amazing! Definitely hit the spot and it was super easy to make. I used it on a broccoli and cheese baked potato. I’m the only vegan in my family and my dairy loving meat eaters even enjoyed it. I love your recipes! Keep up the great work!
Hi Crystal. I’m so glad you love my cheese sauce! Thank you for using my recipes, and for taking the time to share your awesome comments!
Oh my goodness. I made a nacho bar for New Years yesterday. Our family is not vegan, but we cannot do any dairy (which makes nachos really difficult, LOL! :)… I made two nacho cheese sauces to accommodate all of our guests…one with regular cheese/milk and one without (this one). I am not kidding. This one was better than the other nacho cheese sauce I made (all homemade with grated cheddar…no Velveeta, etc.). I tried both and this one was so incredible! The taste, the texture, everything! This is amazing! I would highly recommend! This is for SURE on our regular rotation! I cannot wait to try it on a baked potato! Thank you so much! This was wonderful!! No one felt like they were missing out on any fun last night!
Hi Nicole. What a fun idea! I’m glad the cheese sauce was a hit for everyone! Thank you for sharing!
How long does it last in the fridge?
I’d say about 5 days, maybe a few more.
My husband and I went vegan in April, and your recipes have been such an amazing guide during our transformation to vegan eating!! My sister has always recommended your recipes and said the other day that you “never fail her!” 🙂 This has been the case with us as well, with this cheese sauce becoming the staple of our Christmas dinner due to my husband’s insistent request, haha! Thank you for this amazing recipe!!
Hi Lillian. I’m so glad you are enjoying your journey with my recipes! Thank you for sharing your great comments!
This cheese sauce is delicious. I make it all the time for enchiladas or to put on potatoes and veggies. Yummy
This is the second type of vegan cheese I’ve made and it was delicious! It blows the first one I made out of the water and requires fewer ingredients. Thanks for this awesome recipe! I’ve tried it as a chip dip and poured over steamed broccoli and cauliflower, so good!
You’re welcome!
Thoughts on freezing leftovers?
You can freeze the leftovers. But you may need to re-blend it, or whisk it very well, once it’s warmed again. Hope that helps.
This recipe is perfect! I make it constantly.
Made this cashew cheese sauce for your other “best vegan enchiladas” recipe and I was blown away by both. Definitely a family favorite and new staple for us. ??
Thank you so much!
This recipe is great and easy!! Thank you Nora!!
Thank you!
I’m curious as I’m new to the whole plant based thing, can I just use cashew flour in place of raw cashews? Or could I use cashew butter? And if yes how much would you say I’d use?
I haven’t tried it here, but it doesn’t work super well to sub cashews for cashew flour or cashew butter. You will end up with a very different “cheese”.
wow yummy nacho with cheese sauce
Love it, but how long do you think it is safe in the fridge?
I’d say about 5 days.
This nacho cheese is wonderful! My family really enjoyed with chips and are about to have with your enchilada recipe. How very exciting to have this recipe now in my plant based tool box! Many thanks!
You’re so welcome!
How many ounces does this make?
I haven’t weighed the final sauce, but I think it makes around 4 cups.
Delicious!!!!! I have now made this several times because it goes so well with many vegan recipes!!!! I made some small changes…. I added several cloves of garlic…omitted the nutritional yeast and used miso instead,…used less water and left out some of the hotter spices and it is sooo good! I am so grateful to you for sharing this recipe!!! It’s delicious and so versatile!!! Thank you!!!
Hi Melody – When you subbed the miso for the nutritional yeast, did you use the same measurements? Definitely want to make this, but nutritional yeast is not my family’s favorite flavor 🙂 Thanks!
Just made this! It was very good! I halved the recipe. I used Miso for the salt and regular paprika instead of smoked since I was making Mac and Cheese! I did not add the additional water once thickened and I only used 3/4 of the halved recipe for a whole box of Banza Sheels made from chickpeas threw some cooked broccoli in there! Will make again!
Awesome, sounds great!
This cheese is fantastic!!! I reduced the water a pinch and threw in a small can of diced green chilis and a handful of sweet hot jalapeños…it reheats beautifully. I love that you can add more liquid for a thinner consistency. It makes A LOT – so next time I’ll cut the recipe I half for two people. Have you tried freezing it?
That sounds wonderful, thank you! Yes, it freezes quite well. It’s not quite as smooth and creamy once frozen, but if you reheat in a pot and add a little water, it’s pretty good!
So so good. I put it on my southwest style breakfast burrito with tofu scramble. Mmmm