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This is the best vegan queso recipe EVER. Ready to eat in less than 10 minutes, it tastes so much like the real thing you won’t believe it! Rich cashew cream, a little potato, and a touch of nutritional yeast blend together with traditional Mexican flavors for a dairy-free vegan queso you’ll fall in love with.
🧀 What Makes This Recipe So Good
- It’s a foolproof copycat. Seriously, it tastes so much like real queso you might worry you’re actually eating dairy.
- It’s really easy to make. A quick blend in a Vitamix gives you a smooth, hot dip that’s ready to eat in less than 10 minutes!
- It’s low-calorie and low-carb, which means you can eat as much as your heart really desires.
- It will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so you can make it ahead of an event or on meal prep Sundays. Store it in an airtight container, and add a little unsweetened almond milk when you reheat it if it’s too thick.
👩🏼🍳 Chef’s Tips
- Tapioca starch is an optional ingredient in this recipe, so don’t worry if you don’t have it. It does make a difference, though. It gives this queso a gooier texture than other vegan queso recipes, making it more like real queso.
- If you don’t have a high-speed blender (like a Vitamix) that’s okay! You’ll just need to soak your cashews overnight in hot water to help them blend more easily. Simply pour hot water over the cashews and let them sit – don’t worry about changing out the water after it cools off. After blending, you’ll need to transfer the queso to a saucepan and heat it through over medium-low heat.
- If you don’t want to use coconut milk, you can leave it out! Increase the cashews to a total of 1.5 cups and use 1.75 cups of water or stock to make up for it.
- For vegan queso blanco, leave out the turmeric and the can of tomatoes and chiles. Still use the small can of green chiles, though!
🌱 More Vegan Recipes You’ll Love
- The Best Vegan Alfredo Sauce
- Vegan Chili
- The Best Avocado Chocolate Mousse (Vegan, Dairy Free)
- Vegan Nutella
- Quick Creamy Vegan Coconut Chickpea Curry
- Seitan Grilled Chicken with Vegan BBQ Sauce
- Vegan Crème Brûlée
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- Vegan Enchiladas
Best Vegan Queso (Ever)
The best vegan queso recipe ever, it tastes so much like the real thing! Made with potatoes, cashews, and nutritional yeast, this magical combination does not taste dairy-free, paleo, or vegan – but it is!
servings
Equipment
- standard blender high-speed preferred, see Notes
- medium saucepan optional
- Large wooden spoon optional
- serving bowl
Ingredients
For the Vegan Queso
- 1 cup boiled, cubed potatoes approximately 2 medium red or yellow potatoes
- ¾ cup raw cashews soaked if needed, see Notes
- 4 cloves garlic peeled, roughly chopped
- 1 4-ounce can diced green chilies with juice
- 1 4-ounce can chopped pickled jalapeños juice reserved, ¼ cup jalapeños reserved
- 1 tablespoon pickled jalapeño juice reserved from 4-ounce can of jalapeños
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup unsweetened, full-fat coconut milk from can not carton
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt more or less to taste
Optional (But Recommended) Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon tapioca starch
- 1 dash turmeric for color
- 1 10-ounce can diced tomatoes & green chilies drained
To Serve
- ¼ cup chopped pickled jalapeños reserved from 4-ounce can of jalapeños
- chopped fresh cilantro to garnish
Instructions
- Add 1 cup boiled, cubed potatoes, ¾ cup raw cashews, 4 cloves garlic, 1 4-ounce can diced green chilies, 1 4-ounce can chopped pickled jalapeños (excluding reserved ¼ cup jalapeños), 1 tablespoon pickled jalapeño juice, 1 cup vegetable broth, 1 cup unsweetened, full-fat coconut milk, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon cumin, and 1 teaspoon salt to blender. Add 1 teaspoon tapioca starch and 1 dash turmeric if using.
- Blend ingredients until mixture is very smooth and all ingredients are fully combined.
- If blender does not heat queso mixture while blending, transfer mixture to medium saucepan. Heat saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring queso constantly, until mixture reaches desired temperature.
- Taste queso and stir in additional salt if desired.
- Transfer queso to serving bowl. Add ¼ cup chopped pickled jalapeños and 1 10-ounce can diced tomatoes & green chilies, and gently stir until ingredients are well incorporated.
- Garnish queso with chopped fresh cilantro if desired and serve warm.
Video
- Cashews: If you don’t have a high-speed blender, you’ll need to soak the cashews first so they’ll blend completely. Place them in a bowl and pour 3 cups of hot filtered water over them. Place the bowl in the fridge and let the cashews soak 6-8 hours.
- Vegetable Broth: If you’re not strictly vegan, you can use chicken broth instead if you want.
- Make it Paleo: If you’re on a strict Paleo diet, or if you must avoid nightshade, swap the potatoes for 1 cup mashed, steamed cauliflower.
- Leftovers: Store leftover queso in an airtight container in the fridge up to 5 days.
- Reheat: Add unsweetened almond milk if the consistency of the queso is too thick. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave until just heated through.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Serving Size: 1servingCalories: 171calProtein: 5gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 7gSodium: 725mgPotassium: 353mgTotal Carbs: 12gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gNet Carbs: 9gVitamin A: 370IUVitamin C: 9mgCalcium: 30mgIron: 2mg
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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This is absolutely fantastic!! Creamy, cheesy, great flavor… love it! Brought it to work and folks were amazed it was vegan (?)AND delicious!! Thanks for sharing.
Was super stoked to try this recipe because on Pinterest it shows 16- 5⭐ ratings. Then, I go to the comment section only to realize your comments make up ALL but two of the five star reviews. That is really misleading, even if this recipe is delicious.
The rating is actually based off people who rate the recipe without leaving a comment 🙂
I made this and it was SO good!!! I mean, literally tastes like the real thing! I followed the recipe to a T, I just added 2 extra cloves garlic. I soaked my cashews for 8 hours and used my Ninja to blend it up.
This was such a weird recipe that I just had to try it. And it works! We added more salt and a some light brown sugar because it wasn’t quite the queso replacement we were looking for. With those two substitutions, it was perfect for our tastebuds since dairy cheese is salty and sweet. When we were done, I soaked the bowls we used in the sink because melted cheese is so hard that clean. Yes, I forgot this wasn’t really cheese dip. That’s how great this recipe is. One more thing we did to alter the recipe was to sprinkle some nutmeg on top. Scoop some in your bowl, and add some nutmeg. If you don’t like the nutmeg, you can scrape it off. A local restaurant puts nutmeg on their queso, and it’s quite tasty. Thank you, thank you, for the recipe!
This looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing. Going to make it today. Wondering if you have doubled the recipe and if it still comes out the same? Mahalo!
Doubling is definitely an option for this recipe.
My bestie recently converted to vegan and she’s been struggling with not getting chips and queso at the Mexican place near her, definitely sending this her way! I tested it out with my non vegan husband and he enjoyed it so I know she’ll love it!
Can you freeze this?
I don’t see why not!
How do you soak the cashews? How much water do you put? Do you drain the remaining water or does it all get soaked up? Thanks ! 🙂
Just cover them completely in hot water and then drain the water. No need to stress beyond that 🙂
Oh wow this looks so decadent and tasty!!!
It is definitely both of things!! 😀
I just got finished making this and doubted it every step of the way. I thought it would be edible at best or end up down the sink at worst. How elated am I that I was wrong!!!! My kids didn’t even believe I made it—they thought I had picked it up at a restaurant. Sooooo good. Thank you from the bottom of my empty quest bowl!
Ha!! I’m so so so glad you love it, and that it beat your expectations! It does sound totally like it won’t work, but it somehow really does! <3
Can you taste the coconut milk? also is there a way to substitute it out? Thanks
You can’t! I would not substitute it if you don’t have an allergy. It adds a lovely velvety richness to the queso. I just made it yesterday and no coconut taste to me at all. Make sure you use canned coconut milk, and I prefer the Kroger and Sprouts brands. I find that a couple I get at the international markets taste really “coconutty”
I have a coconut allergy, what would you recommend for a substitute? It sucks having this allergy on top of all of my other ones and I cannot tell you how much I’ve been craving something tasting like cheese!
Thank you!