>U Mom Knows Best: How I Created A Creamy Vegan Cheese Sauce With Cashews

Monday, March 7, 2016

How I Created A Creamy Vegan Cheese Sauce With Cashews

My quest for a creamy vegan cheese sauce all started with a box of vegan mac and cheese.



    I get to sample a lot of new products, some before they even hit the stores, and give my opinion on how I like them. I recently had the opportunity to sample a box of vegan mac and cheese with my boys. This product had the package of powder that you made into the vegan cheese sauce. I loved that the sauce for the mac and cheese was creamy, but it lacked flavor. The sauce did not taste good on the pasta but it tasted wonderful on beans when I added salsa and avocados. This product, which was pricey, led me to create my own vegan cheese sauce. You may ask me why I would want a cheese sauce that is vegan when one could just use real cheese. I simply want to cut dairy out of my diet to eat healthier.

  So my quest for a vegan cheese sauce that tastes good started with trying out some recipes that I found online. I found some that use carrots and potatoes, but they were lacking the creaminess and flavor I was looking for. They made for good dips but not for a cheese sauce. You can find my first two recipes that I tried here.  I later combined these two sauces together and blended in cashews as I have had other recipes with cashews in them that tasted good and creamy. I also added the cashews for protein as the recipes lacked that. The result of combining and adding the cashews made a better sauce but still needed improvement.

      I was not about to give up on finding a creamy vegan cheese sauce. So I decided to try once more. I did some searching online for a cheese sauce that used cashews. I stumbled upon a recipe that used cashews along with carrots and potatoes, but also a red pepper for added color. So I decided to tweak this recipe as I did not have some of the ingredients and I also wanted to use more cashews for additional protein. I also wanted to use nutritional yeast flakes in my recipe for the tangy cheese flavor and added nutrition. The result was a creamy cheese sauce that I could enjoy. This vegan cheese sauce is perfect for a bean and rice bowl. It can also be enjoyed with veggies and baked potatoes. 

                       Creamy Vegan Cheese Sauce 
      Ingredients
               3 medium red potatoes
               1/3 sliced red pepper
               7 baby carrots
               1/2 small onion
               1 teaspoon garlic powder
               1 cup raw cashews (soaked overnight in water)
               1 teaspoon mustard
               1/2 teaspoon paprika
               1 teaspoon salt
               1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes

Place the potatoes(leave the skins on), carrots, red pepper, and onion in a pot of boiling water. Cook the veggies for about 25 minutes or until potatoes are soft. I don't recommend cooking the veggies in the microwave as it will change the texture of them and mess the recipe up. Drain the veggies and cool.
Place the potatoes in a blender, a high-speed one like a Ninja works best, and blend until gooey.
Then add all the rest of the ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. If the sauce is to thick to blend, add some water, 1 tablespoon at a time to thin it out.
Makes 4 cups.
Stores in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. It will thicken in the fridge so just heat it up to make it smooth again.




21 comments:

BluKatKraft said...

This sounds so yummy! Must try :)

Buzz4Mommies said...

Yum, thanks so much for sharing!! I will be sharing and pinning this!

annies home said...

this sounds very good I am not a vegetarian but I do try to live healthy and this sounds very good and one tha t my family would love
come see us at http://shopannies.blogspot.com

Terri Beavers said...

This sounds really delicious and I love that it's vegan. I have a couple of vegan friends and it's not easy to fix for them. I've been loading up on recipes.

Emma White said...

oh wow this looks and sounds amazing may have to try it

Unknown said...

I haven't tried a specifically vegan recipe before. I'm intrigued.

Kathy Balmores said...

I would totally do this except I would suffer so much afterwards. I think it will be worth it though. I have gout and cashew would murder me haha.

Michelle Gwynn Jones said...

This sounds interesting. I do enjoy making things with cashews.

Elizabeth O. said...

That's still a pretty awesome dip if you ask me. That's normally how we find a recipe that works for us, we just keep on trying different variations. It looks so good, perfect for snacks in between meals!

Amanda said...

You had me at cheese. I'll eat just about anything dipped in cheese sauce.

Unknown said...

This is a must to try recipe. Gonna try this at home.

Eugenia said...

This creamy vegan cheese sauce sounds so delicious! Thanks for sharing such a great recipe! Yummy!

Unknown said...

Must try! My kids will love this just don't tell them the ingredients lol Thanks for this!

Holly @ Woman Tribune said...

This sauce looks incredible! I would have never guessed it was vegan, or made of cashews.

mail4rosey said...

That's a fun way to use baby carrots. Sounds tasty to me. :)

Jenn @ Smalltown Bookworm said...

Love cashews! I bet this would be delicious!

Doran // HauteBeautyGuide said...

I really love cashews! This sounds super yum for a party.

Ana De-Jesus said...

I am a vegetarian so I do eat cheese ( I love it) but I have been wanting to cut down on dairy because it really hurts my stomach when I eat it. Your recipe is getting pinned!

Easy Cookin said...

I'm always looking at new sauce/dips as we all love them at our house. The Vegan Cashew Sauce looks like it would be a winner with us :)

ConciergeLibrarian said...

Vegan cashew sauce sounds like something I would love. Will save

CourtneyLynne said...

Oooo this looks so yummy!!! Who knew something began would actually look appealing to me. Must try!

data-matched-content-rows-num="2" data-matched-content-columns-num="2"
Mom knows best