This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. Please Read Ourย Disclosure Policy.
In just a minute or two in a high-speed blender you can have a rich-and-creamy, completely dairy-free, “cheesy” vegan nacho cheese sauce that’s perfect as a dip for chips or drizzled over veggies.
Before You Get Started
- If you’re not using a high-speed blender, or if your sauce doesn’t come out perfectly smooth, just pour it through a strainer before heating it. That’ll catch any wayward cashew remnants and leave you with a perfectly creamy vegan nacho cheese sauce.
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Blend
Add all of the ingredients to a high-speed blender and blend until smooth! You may need to stop a couple of times and scrape down the sides of the blender just to make sure nothing escapes the blades.
Cheryl’s Tip: A regular blender will work in place of a high-speed blender! If you’re using a regular blender, I’d recommend soaking the raw cashews in boiling water for 15 minutes before blending them. They’ll blend much more easily if they’re softened first.
Heat
If you’re using a Vitamix blender, the “hot soup” setting will take care of this step for you. Otherwise, put a saucepan on the stove over medium-low heat and pour in the blended cheese sauce. Whisk the sauce constantly until it’s completely warmed through.
Eat
How you enjoy your vegan nacho cheese sauce is entirely up to you! I love it as a queso-stand-in with a big bowl of chips, but you can pour it over steamed broccoli or drizzle it onto a baked potato instead.
What I Love About This Recipe
- This is one vegan nacho cheese sauce that actually tastes like a real nacho cheese sauce! It’s not at all bland, and it doesn’t taste like purรฉed nuts. Next time you’re in the mood for chips and queso, skip the store-bought stuff that never tastes quite right and try this one instead.
- This vegan nacho cheese sauce is ridiculously versatile – it works just as beautifully on steamed veggies or a baked potato, as drenching tortilla chips, layered with sautรฉed mushrooms and onions, tomatoes, jalapeรฑos. Perfect for dipping, and I bet itโd even kick some booty as a mac and cheese sauce!
Recipe Variations
- Add a Little Texture: After blending the sauce, stir in a few diced green chiles or diced jalapeรฑos. They’ll add a little bit of heat, too!
- Consistency is Key: If you like a thinner nacho cheese sauce, you can increase the amount of water by ยผ cup or so. I’d wait until you blend the ingredient as-written, then add any extra water in small increments. That way you don’t make it too runny!
- Go Nut-Free: I haven’t tested it on this recipe specifically, but boiled potatoes can make a good replacement for the cashews in some cases. 1 cup should be plenty – make sure they’re peeled, cubed, and then boiled until they’re fork-tender. You may need to adjust the amount of water you add to the blender. Let us know how it works out if you give this version a try!
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Creamy Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce
Equipment
- high-speed blender
- medium saucepan
- whisk
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- โ cup raw cashews
- 1 2-ounce jar pimentos drained
- ยฝ cup nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice juice from approximately 1 medium lemon
- 1 teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- ยฝ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ยฝ teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon cayenne powder to taste, optional
Instructions
- Add 1 cup water, โ cup raw cashews, 1 2-ounce jar pimentos, ยฝ cup nutritional yeast flakes, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, ยฝ teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon paprika, ยฝ teaspoon cumin, and 1 teaspoon cayenne powder (optional) to high-speed blender.
- Blend ingredients together until completely smooth.
- If blender does not heat mixture, transfer mixture to medium saucepan and place saucepan on stovetop over medium-low heat.
- Heat sauce, whisking constantly, until warmed through.
- When sauce is hot, transfer sauce to serving bowl. Serve as desired.
- Leftovers:ย Let any leftover nacho cheese sauce cool completely, then refrigerate it in an airtight container up to 4 days. Reheat on the stovetop over medium-low heat immediately before serving.
Approximate Information for One Serving
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.
Did You Make This Recipe?
Tag @40aprons on Instagram and be sure to leave a review on the blog post!
More Dips and Salsas You Have to Try
Never Miss A Meal!
New Recipes Straight To Your Inbox
A curated selection of our most recent recipes, delivered straight to your inbox once a week.
Leave A Review
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Fabulous
Great!!
I have made this recipe so many times. More than I can count everyone, even nonvegans love it. It also works amazing in potato soup!!! Have you ever tried freezing it? I seem to make double batches so I can use half for soup and half for nachos, but got lazy and have a decent amount left and was hoping to freeze before it went bad.
We have not tried freezing it, but think it could definitely work!
You are a genius!! This was SOOOOO good! I’m not vegan, but I am trying to be dairy-free and you are making it so easy for me! I have used this to dip with so many things, but our favorite is with steamed or roasted broccoli florets! Thanks so much and keep the recipes coming!
Still love this recipe though I’ve had to tweak it just a tad – Have you tried using this for a macaroni and cheese? I’m eating it with some steamed cauliflower and broccoli right now. It’s amazing still. Thanks ๐
Sounds so good! What do you do to tweak it?
I just have to tell you how much I lovethis recipe. It is the FIRST vegan cheese that I’ve liked…no LOVED! I make this often for nachos. I also have never been able to find pimentos so I just leave them out. Still phenomenal!!! Thanks so much!!!
do you have to soak the cashews first?? Or just blend them?
If you have a Vitamix or Blendtec, you don’t need to soak the cashews, but if you don’t have a high-speed blender, I definitely recommend soaking them for at least 4 hours. Sorry my response is so late!
Do you have any suggestions for pimento substitutes? Or maybe it would be okay to just leave them out entirely? I actually kinda loathe pimento, but I’d love to make my kids some cheese sauce for their pita chips.
Hrm, I wouldn’t leave them out, as an element, but maybe replace them with roasted red peppers instead?
Can you offer any suggestions to substitute the cashew? My son is allergic to nuts.
Also, any advice on other vegan, non-nut substitutes for dairy would be most welcome!
Yikes, I really can’t think of any substitute for the cashew, for this recipe. However, try this one: http://veganyumminess.com/vegan-nacho-cheese/ It’s totally nut-free! Let me know how you like it ๐ In terms of other non-nut subs for dairy, I know coconut milk works well for whipping and other similar things, and I often make milk out of cooked brown rice.. I’m pretty sure the vegan dairy subs like Tofutti are nut-free but not exactly unprocessed. I’ll come back to this comment if I come across any. Thanks for commenting and reading!
You might try garbanzo beans instead?
Huh, this is so interesting! I use nutritional yeast at home, I need to try this!
You’ll really be amazed at how good it tastes, I swear. I always forget that the recipe is HEALTHY, too, which is just nuts! Har har.. har.. Let me know what you think (of the recipe, not my super weak puns [note that it took quite a lot of effort to not call my puns weak*sauce*]) if you make it!