This smooth and velvety vegan cheese sauce recipe is deliciously cheesy, ultra creamy, and super low in fat and calories.
You’re going to want to put this luxurious vegan cheese sauce over everything.
And the best part is that it is allergy-friendly – no dairy, no tofu, no gluten, and NO cashews!
This was one of those weeknight throw-a-bunch-of-ingredients-together-and-see-what-happens recipes.
I hadn’t prepared anything for dinner and arrived home feeling super hungry after being out all day. Pasta is one of my go-to meals on those types of days, and this quick vegan white sauce was the result of looking through my kitchen cabinets to see what could go with the pasta.
The entire meal was done in barely more time than it takes to boil water!
My favorite comfort food is comfort food that takes longer to eat than to make ♥
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Ways To Use Vegan Cheese Sauce
- Poured over steamed broccoli
- Stirred into rice or quinoa
- On top of baked potatoes or tator tots
- As a dip for these Buffalo Cauliflower Wings
- Over pasta or spaghetti squash (here’s How To Cook Spaghetti Squash)
Or you could serve yourself a giant bowl of this creamy and ultra velvety vegan cheese sauce and eat it with a spoon.
Am I the only one who does this with cheese sauce???
You know how much I love giving options in my recipes.
This vegan cheese sauce is no exception, and you have a few options here.
I developed variations both with and without nutritional yeast, because I know the ingredient isn’t always easy to find and that not everyone is a fan.
If you’ve never heard of nutritional yeast, it’s something used quite often in vegan cooking because of its addictively cheesy taste.
To be clear, nutritional yeast does not taste exactly like cheese; it just has that same umami flavor.
(Umami—or savory—is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.)
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If you try this recipe, I’d love to see!
Also make this creamy Vegan Alfredo Sauce or my favorite Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce.
Vegan Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked white beans, such as cannelini
- 1/2 cup milk of choice, preferably unsweetened
- 5 tbsp nutritional yeast OR 1/3 cup vegan shredded cheese
- salt – I like 1/2 tsp
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder
- If using nutritional yeast, add optional 1/2 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
- optional 2 tsp buttery spread or olive oil – I really like the rich depth of flavor this adds, especially if not using the cheese version
- optional pinch turmeric, thyme, rosemary, onion powder, etc.
Instructions
- Drain and rinse beans if they are canned. Blend together all ingredients except cheese, either in a blender or with a hand blender. Transfer to a pot, and add the cheese, if using. Heat on low, stirring occasionally, until desired serving temperature is reached and optional cheese is melted. If serving with pasta, stir in cooked pasta at this time. Add more milk of choice if a thinner sauce is desired.Instant Pot Version: Instead of transferring to a pot on the stove, put the blended mixture in your instant pot and heat on manual for 5 minutes. Thanks to reader Emma who created this version and left a comment to let us know it can be made in an instant pot!View Nutrition Facts
Notes
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God love you Katie!! I just ate a little cheese sauce like soup LOL I’ve always wanted to do that, but couldn’t because it’s too fattening! This beats any other vegan cheese sauce I’ve tried.
How do you make it taste less like beans and more like cheese?
I added more cheese than it said already
If you taste the beans, did you drain and rinse them well enough? Beans, themselves, shouldn’t have an aftertaste. You can always use cooked-from-dried beans if you want to be sure you don’t get a canned taste, but if you rinse well enough then that shouldn’t be a problem anyway.
favorite, healthiest AND fastest vegan cheezy sauce recipe i’ve ever tried. i usually love daiya, but i made the recipe without, and it was still fantastic. total winner!
How is this vegan if it calls for milk???
It calls for milk of choice, which means any milk you wish, such as almond, cashew, or soy milk.
It’s referring to PLANT BASED “milks” aka milk substitutes, such as oat, soy, hemp, etc.
I tried this recipe but unfortunately it has that fake taste of the daiya cheese.is there anything that can get rid of that synthetic-oil-tasting flavor of the daiya cheese?!
Use Violife, Follow Your Heart, or Field Roast’s Chao brand vegan cheeze. Daiya, is rubbish! I was at a festival once, and thrilled when I found a vendor advertising vegan pizza, so I bought a slice, & took a bite. Then ran over to the nearest trash can, & scraped the disgusting Daiya shreds off it, & ate what remained of the pizza [sauce & crust], & so I’ll never buy Daiya again. There are some 100x better brands out there now.
It still taste like beans. Salty somewhat tasty runny beans. But still beans. Sorry, I appreciate your recipe. Maybe someone can add some modifiers?
Hi katie! What flavor of cheese shreds do I use? Can’t wait to try this!
You can use any!
Made this tonight with half nooch half daiya added some miso too, topped with panko. Awesome!! Love that the base is beans! Hubby liked it too 😉
This was flat out delicious!! Loved it, AND so incredibly easy to make! 5 minute successful recipe…total win. I steamed cauliflower and ate it immediately, I think even my family would enjoy this on pasta and veggies and they cringe overtime I say I made a “vegan” recipe….lol. This is really good. I also like that it doesn’t make a gigantic amount of sauce that I need to figure out how to use or store. Recipe for me made exactly 1 3/4 cups of sauce.
I mixed this sauce with some pasta and broccoli, transferred to an oven dish and sprinkled with breadcrumbs, and baked for about 20 mins. It was incredible! So creamy, feels like a cheat meal when in fact it’s super healthy!! My sister couldn’t believe there was no cheese in this, BEANS! Thanks Katie.
There’s milk as one if the ingredients in your “vegan cheese sauce”.
Thats NOT vegan
It says “milk of choice” which means any plant-based milk you choose. Katie is a vegan.
this recipe was so amazing and delicious. I love how filling it was too!
hI,
Which way is better, with the shreds or the nut yeast? Can you use both?
Thank you
Shreds are more like real cheese sauce (in taste) but both work. You can definitely use both. 🙂
Katie, what is the name of the pasta that is pictured in this amazing sounding sauce?
I made this with chickpeas and it was pretty dang good! Thank you. I was looking for a non-nut based cheesy sauce. yay!
Want to make this with chickpeas too. Did you use the daiya or nutritional yeast option? Thank you.
I’ve never tried to make mac n’ cheese since I became vegan because I was afraid it would taste conpletely different. But not one of your recipes dissapointed me until now so I will give it a try. 😀 Can I bake the pasta after or it will ruin the sauce? If I can, how much should I bake it?