I love making vegan versions of classic Mexican dishes like my Vegan Enchiladas, Vegan Birria, or Sofritas. Most commercial nacho cheese sauce options are not vegan and when your making a vegan Mexican dinner, you need an option! Commercial nacho sauce options contain many dairy products like butter, milk powder, and cheese. So the only way is to make your very own Vegan Cheese Sauce! A vegan nacho cheese recipe is a dairy-free smooth and creamy dip for corn chips. It has a similar texture and flavor as melted cheddar, except it doesn’t contain real cheese. It’s a tasty appetizer recipe to dip or drizzle on some of the recipes below.
Homemade Air fryer Tortilla chips or chickpea chips Pizza rolls Zucchini chips Steamed broccoli or cauliflower Air fryer potato wedges Raw crunchy vegetables: cucumber, carrots Sunflower Seed Crackers
Ingredients and Substitutions
The best ingredients to make a vegan cheese sauce recipe for nachos or pasta are:
Raw Cashews – This is the secret ingredient: raw cashews soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes or overnight in cold water. Soaked cashews get tender, and when blended with liquids, they create a smooth and creamy cheese sauce without the need for dairy. You can also make macadamia cheese and replace cashews with soaked macadamia, but it increases the fat. Nutritional Yeast – This ingredient brings the cheesy flavor to this creamy sauce. It’s often used in vegan recipes to mimic cheese taste. Some are fortified in vitamin B12, a great addition to your vegan diet. Spices – You need more than a pinch of nutritional yeast to create a tasty vegan nacho cheese sauce dip! Garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and salt are must-adds! That is the perfect combo to enhance this cheese dip’s flavor. Vegetable Broth or vegetable Stock – I used low sodium vegetable stock to prevent the sauce from getting extremely salty. Lemon Juice or apple cider vinegar. This adds a tangy flavor to the cheese sauce. Red-Orange Vegetables – The best way to mimic the orange color of nacho cheese sauce is to add roasted red bell pepper. Other options are steamed sweet potato puree or carrots. They have a sweeter flavor but work very well in this recipe if you can’t have red bell pepper. Pickled Jalapeños – This is optional, of course, but for a spicy cheese sauce, I highly recommend adding some fresh jalapeño.
How To Make Vegan Nacho Cheese
To make your own cashew nacho cheese at home, you only need a few ingredients and a high-speed blender.
Serving Suggestions
This vegan cheese sauce is not only good with tortilla chips but also a delicious cheese sauce for any vegan meals like:
Vegan Casserole – steam broccoli or cauliflower, place the florets onto a large baking dish and cover the vegetable with this sauce. Bake with extra shredded vegan cheese on top for a comforting veggie casserole. Vegan Pasta – blend your cooked pasta into this sauce to make cheesy vegan pasta. Vegan Tacos – to drizzle onto tacos such as my Vegan Birria Tacos. Vegan Appetizer – to dip any vegetables, vegan cornbread, Sweet Potato Bread Rolls, or corn chips.
Storage Instructions
You can store this vegan cheese sauce for up to 4 days in the fridge in a glass mason jar. The sauce thickens with time, and you can thin the sauce by adding a splash of cold water or almond milk in the jar, shaking, and serving! This vegan cheese sauce can be frozen too and thaw in the fridge the day before use.
More Vegan Appetizer Recipes
If you love vegan appetizer recipes, I have some more delicious recipes for you to try!
