Silky smooth Cashew Cheese Sauce made with just a handful of ingredients in minutes. It tastes rich, creamy and cheesy and is super versatile. Use it any way you would regular cheese sauce!
Yep, this silky smooth luscious sauce is made from cashews. Who would have thought it? It's perfectly rich, cheesy and creamy and so quick and easy to make.
Simply throw the ingredients into a blender or food processor and with the push of a button you have yourself a batch of delicious cashew cheese sauce!
This is a must have vegan staple that is uncomplicated, easy to make, and will be a huge hit with the whole family!
Looking for a virtually fat-free and nut-free vegan cheese sauce recipe? Check out my very popular easy Vegan Cheese Sauce or my Cauliflower Alfredo recipes!
Ingredient Notes
With a handful of ingredients and some seasonings, you can make creamy cashew cheese sauce that is so tasty you will want to drizzle it on everything!
The ingredients are vegan staples that I always have on hand:
And a few ingredient notes:
- Raw cashews - Cashews are a magical vegan ingredient! They blend easily to make a delicious dairy-free cheese or carbonara sauce and you can even use them to make cashew milk. It's important to use raw cashews, not roasted. Raw cashews blend much more smoothly because they are softer and they also have a more gentle, mellow flavour.
- Plant milk - Any type but it must be unsweetened and unflavoured.
- White wine vinegar - Enhances the cheesy taste and balances the flavours. Apple cider vinegar can be used instead if it's all you have but white wine vinegar is best.
- Nutritional yeast - That superstar vegan ingredient, added here for cheesy flavour.
- Onion powder & smoked paprika - Both enhance the cheesiness. Chipotle powder makes a good alternative to smoked paprika.
How to Make Cashew Cheese Sauce
This easy dairy-free sauce is ready to enjoy in almost no time at all! Here's how it's done:
- Soak the cashew nuts in boiling water for 15 minutes.
- Drain, add to a blender with the other ingredients.
- Blend until smooth.
- Serve or use in your favourite recipes.
Success tip: If planning to use on hot pasta, make the sauce a little thinner than you would ideally like because it will thicken on contact with the hot pasta. Or save some of the hot pasta boiling water to thin after you've tossed them together.
Variations
- Spice your sauce up with some sriracha, canned green chilies, chipotle peppers, fresh/roasted jalapeños or Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies.
- Try adding some chopped fresh herbs, sun-dried tomatoes or a dollop of pesto.
Serving Suggestions
This healthy, high protein and multipurpose dairy-free cheese sauce is a gateway to lots of quick and flavourful dishes. It can be served hot, warm, room temperature or cold.
Some of my favourite ways to use it:
- Toss through freshly cooked pasta for an easy dinner. Maybe with a sprinkling of vegan parmesan too?
- Pour over vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower
- Use to make lasagna, vegan mac and cheese or Alfredo
- Drizzle on nachos, quesadillas, burritos, enchiladas, fries, burrito bowls, pizza or baked potatoes
- Use as a dip with tortilla chips, pretzels, no yeast flatbread or raw veggies
- Pour a little into risotto right before serving to make it extra creamy!
Storing & Reheating Leftovers
If you want to make this yummy cashew cheese sauce ahead, or you have some leftovers, store it in a sealed container in the fridge for 4 to 5 days.
To reheat, microwave it for 30 seconds then stir and repeat until it is heated through. Or pour into a small pan and heat very gently on the stove top.
Cashew-based sauces do have a habit of thickening up as they sit. If you need to thin it add a few drops of plant milk or some water and stir well. Stop when it is at your desired consistency.
Recipe FAQs
Even if you have a high powered blender I recommend soaking your cashew nuts in boiling water before proceeding with this recipe. It makes the sauce incredibly silky smooth!
No. For this recipe you need to use raw cashews. This is because raw cashews are neutral in flavour. Roasted cashews have a nutty, toasty flavor that would be noticeable and detract from the cheesiness. Secondly, when raw cashews are soaked, they soften and plump up. This makes them easy to blend which in turn creates a silky sauce. Roasted cashews do not behave the same way.
Stored in a sealed container in the fridge it should keep for up to 5 days.
Yes. It can be frozen for up to 3 months. I recommend blending again once it's defrosted because the texture changes slightly. Blending will smooth it out. Add a little water or plant milk to thin as necessary.
Recipe Video
Recipe
Cashew Cheese Sauce
Author:Ingredients
- 1 cup (140 grams) raw cashew nuts
- 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 small clove garlic
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika , or chipotle powder
- ¾ to 1 cup (180 ml to 240 mls) plant milk , (must be unflavoured & unsweetened)
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
- Put the cashews in a small bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover. Leave to soak for 15 minutes. Do this even if you have a high powered blender. It makes the sauce really silky and glossy!
- Drain the cashews through a sieve, (discarding the water) and add them to a blender along with all of the other ingredients. Start off with the lowest quantity of milk so that you can adjust to suit your needs. You can use a food processor to blend the sauce if you don't have a blender but it won't become quite as smooth.
- Blend until completely smooth. Check the consistency and add more milk as necessary, blending for a few seconds between each addition to combine.
- Finally taste to check the seasoning and adjust as necessary.
NOTES
NUTRITION
This recipe was originally published on May 22nd, 2015. I've since added new photographs & rewritten the post and now I am republishing it for you. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for following A Virtual Vegan!
Janine says
The best vegan cheese sauce ever!! Thank you!!
Mary Hawkins says
What could I use to substitute for the nutritional yeast? Any substitutes would be awesome as I would love to make this for my family! Could you use any vegan cheese in place of the nutritional yeast and would there be any different methods in the preparation of it? Thank you so much for your lovely recipes! Love them all!
Melanie McDonald says
For the best flavour I'd recommend sticking with the nutritional yeast. Most vegan cheeses don't have much flavour. Nutritional yeast gives this recipe a delicious savoury, seasoned flavour and there really isn't anything else that gives a similar effect. Hope that helps!
Amber says
This recipe made me a believer. I followed to the T, only adding a pinch of herbes de Provence for a slightly changed flavor. Thank you, thank you, so much.
Nina says
I love your blog… Couple of questions… what are the changes your have made and updated from your original old recipe? Also, what plant milk do you use in the recipe? I am in the UK so perhaps different products. Thanks Melanie for all the amazing recipes that you post and share. Stay safe…
Melanie McDonald says
It's very improved! The original recipe was shared when no-one ever came here and was just for me really. The photo was so bad that I don't think anyone would have actually made it and I had no clue about recipe development, search engine optimization or photography, so it was just poor all over and wasn't doing me any favours. I've added onion and garlic powder because they enhance the cheesiness, used milk instead of water for more creaminess, and switched lemon juice for white wine vinegar because the white wine vinegar just works better flavour-wise. Also instead of soaking for 2 hours like before, now it's just 15 minutes in boiling water to make it quicker. It was ok before but now it's really delicious.
Regarding the milk I use, it won't be useful for you as the brands here are totally different. I generally use either Suzy's Oat Milk, Earth's Own Naked Oat Milk, Eden Soy milk, or Elmhurst. All the shops carry different ones so it depends where i"m shopping. Basically they are all the ones that don't have huge ingredient lists and are just oats and water, or soy and water, or nuts and water.
As long as you use an unflavoured milk (i.e no vanilla) and an unsweetened one it will be fine. Soy and oat are my preferences for cooking because they are the most neutral and aren't as naturally sweet as nut milks tend to be.
I haven't been back to the UK for years now so I'm not familiar with the milks available to be able to recommend one.
Here's the original recipe if you want to see:
1 cup of raw cashew nuts (dry measurement and soaked in water for at least 2 hours)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast .
juice of half a lemon
a big pinch of smoked paprika
as much water as you need to get the texture you like - I used half a cup
salt and pepper to taste
Hope that helps!
Lester says
I’m eager to try this appealing recipe. What do you think about using diluted tahini instead of unsweetened unflavored plant milk?
Thank you!
Melanie McDonald says
I wouldn't. Tahini is too strongly flavoured and will overpower any cheesiness.
Karen McEwen says
Love this with pasta. Also love that its so high in protein !
Sue says
We had it with broccoli and cauliflower as a side. Absolutely delicious!
Maria says
I love your recipes. This and the feta are my favorite cheese ones!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you Maria!
Nina says
Fabulous recipe, I can find smoked sweet paprika and smoked hot paprika. Which one if any, would work? Thanks
Melanie McDonald says
Although mine is just labelled "smoked paprika", it does have a slightly sweet taste so it is probably similar to the sweet one you have seen. But if you like a bit of heat, the hot one might be nice too! If I had the chance I'd buy both. Its my favourite spice and I've never seen a hot one in the shops here!
monicageglio says
Can you use regular paprika?
A Virtual Vegan says
Smoked paprika has a totally different flavour to regular paprika and really adds something to this cashew cheese sauce. I have never tried it with regular paprika. I think it would be ok though or you could just omit it completely. I've made it without when I've run out.
monicageglio says
Just saw this response! I will get some smoked paprika bc I've been wondering about the difference between the two. Thanks!