Cheesy Cashew Nut Sauce or Dip – Vegan and Gluten Free
Oh I do love my Froothie blender. It makes such beautifully smooth sauces and has encouraged me to be so much more adventurous than I used to be. Vegan cheese sauce has been on my radar for a couple of years now. Last month, I finally got around to making some. This cheesy cashew nut sauce really is a revelation and I’ll be making it a regular part of my repertoire.
Nutritional Yeast
Sceptical as ever, I doubted the many claims I’ve heard that you can make a vegan cheese sauce that actually tastes like cheese sauce. How wrong I was. Even CT was fooled. Nutritional yeast is a key ingredient and it gives that savoury umami note that is essential in a good hard cheese. Until I attended the vegan cookery course at The Vegetarian Society last year, I’d never really come across nutritional yeast before. It has many benefits such as a high Vitamin B12 content and it’s a complete protein to boot.
As usual I’ve tried to make this cheesy cashew nut sauce as nutritious as possible. I’ve seen some vegan versions where potato forms the base of the sauce, but I wanted my version to be protein rich. Cashew nuts seemed like the obvious answer. In addition to the nuts and nutritional yeast, I added an onion, garlic and a carrot for extra nutrients as well as colour.
Ultra Smooth Sauce
The sauce is super simple to make, though a little planning is needed. It’s best to soak the cashew nuts for at least two hours before blending and the vegetables need cooking in order to make the stock. I used a little vinegar to replicate the acidity of cheese. I think I achieved that cheesy cheddar tang I was after. The small jug of my Optimum G2.3 induction blender* came into its own and was used to whizz the ingredients together to produce an ultra smooth sauce. It has an ingenious lid with blades that you can rotate by hand whilst the mixture is blending. This puts an end to ingredients getting stuck and refusing to budge – something that used to frustrate me hugely.
If you’d like to order any Froothie appliance* including the G2.3 blender, I can offer Tin and Thyme readers free P&P. Just add 2483 free ambassador delivery to the comment box when ordering. Delivery will be credited back onto your card. As I go to press all orders over £200 come with a free nutriforce extractor.
Cheesy Cashew Nut Sauce
I’m rather pleased with what I’ve come up with. The beauty of this cheesy cashew nut sauce is that it really does taste like cheese sauce. It can, however, be enjoyed by pretty much anyone. Anyone except those with a nut allergy of course. As well as being dairy free and vegan, it’s also gluten free.
My cheesy cashew nut sauce works equally well as a sauce or a dip. It can be used to make lasagne type dishes, poured over a baked potato or steamed veg. In fact it can be treated in any other way you’d use a traditional cheese sauce. We enjoyed this as a dip one day, spread over bread another day and poured over a baked potato and steamed broccoli on the third day. Not bad, eh?
Cheesy Cashew Nut Sauce – The Recipe
- 100 g cashew nuts - soaked & rinsed
- 50-100 ml vegetable stock - depending on how thick or runny you want the sauce
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar I used kombucha vinegar
- 1 tsp English mustard
- ½ tsp tamari
- 1 medium carrot - scrubbed
- 1 small onion - peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 clove garlic - peeled
- 3 black peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 parsley stalk
- pinch sea salt
- Soak the cashew nuts in water for at least 2 hours then rinse and drain.
- Make the stock by throwing the veg, herbs, pepper and salt in a pot and covering with water. Cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Drain the stock and remove the bay leaf and parsley stalk from the veg.
Place the veg into a power blender with the remaining ingredients and 50ml of the liquid stock. Blitz until the sauce is smooth. This will give a good dipping consistency. To make a pourable sauce, add more stock until the required consistency is achieved.
The longer you can soak the cashew nuts the better - best soaked overnight or for 8 hours if possible.
Keeps covered in the fridge for up to a week.
Linkies
I’m sharing my recipe for cheesy cashew nut sauce with Searching for Spice for Cook Once Eat Twice.
Other recipes for vegan sauces you might like
- Barbecue sauce via Tin and Thyme
- Chilli sauce via Tin and Thyme
- Cranberry sauce via Tin and Thyme
- Duck sauce (it’s vegan honest) via Strength and Sunshine
- Garlic pineapple sauce via A Virtual Vegan
- Oil free gravy via Karissa’s Vegan Kitchen
- Quick tomato sauce with seaweed via Tin and Thyme
- Red wine gravy via Tin and Thyme
- Tahini sauce with clementines and smoked paprika via Tin and Thyme
For even more sauce recipe inspiration, head over to my saucy sauces board on Pinterest.
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this cheesy cashew nut sauce, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or via social media. Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them. For more delicious and nutritious recipes, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.
Cheesy Cashew Nut Sauce. PIN IT.
I use a Froothie Optimum power blender* for smoothies, spreads, sauces and even chocolate making. This post contains affiliate links. Buying through a link will not cost you any more, but I will get a small commission. I was not expected to write a positive review and all opinions are, as always, my own. Thanks to my readers for supporting the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blythe and blogging.
Angie@Angie's Recipes
10th July 2017 at 9:50 amI too love to use cashews to make dressings and dips! This looks terrific!
Choclette
10th July 2017 at 11:55 amThanks Angie. I’m fairly new to using nuts to make sauces, but I’ve made a few now and I’ve been happy with them all.
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine
10th July 2017 at 11:54 amYou can never have too many cheezy dips, eh? Will cause a snacking addiction!
Choclette
10th July 2017 at 12:01 pmI think I might already have a snacking addiction – oops!
johanna @ green gourmet giraffe
10th July 2017 at 2:22 pmI love vegan cheese sauces and think cashews are a great base – I have tried potato based sauces and think they just don’t have the right texture. Serving it over potato and broccoli though sounds wonderful
Choclette
10th July 2017 at 3:16 pmPotato just doesn’t appeal somehow, though the sauce went wonderfully well on top of potatoes. I did take some photos, but they weren’t great, so didn’t include them. Now I’ve made vegan cheese sauce once, there will be no stopping me.
Kate
10th July 2017 at 3:53 pmI must admit, I have yet to try a “cheese” sauce with nutritional yeast. I am totally skeptical. I will have to try it sometime, though. This looks so tasty!
Choclette
11th July 2017 at 4:10 pmI was sceptical too Kate and it took me a long time to try making one. I’m so glad I did 🙂
Jacqueline Meldrum
10th July 2017 at 4:50 pmWhat a fabulous idea for a dip Choclette. It looks so cheesey, creamy and lush. Mmmmmm! Shared!
Choclette
11th July 2017 at 10:35 amThanks Jac. I was quite surprised to find it really did taste cheesy – a great discovery.
Kate Hackworthy
11th July 2017 at 10:48 amIt looks so creamy and delicious. I love how smooth the blender got the sauce/dip!
Choclette
11th July 2017 at 4:07 pmI’ve said it before and I expect I’ll say it many times again: I would be lost without my Froothie blender 🙂
kellie@foodtoglow
11th July 2017 at 6:43 pmI have been a fan of “nooch” for awhile, with my favourite using being to sprinkle it over popcorn. No cooking! And I do make sauce with it too, but truly nothing like this. I am putting this on my must try very soon list. Thanks for sharing. And the new Froothie blender sounds fab!
Choclette
12th July 2017 at 2:32 pmOh “nooch”, what a fabulous word. How did that come about? I’ll have to try it over popcorn now, sounds like a very good idea.
Nadia
11th July 2017 at 7:21 pmI love homemade nut based cheeses! I was also skeptical about nutritional yeast when I first heard of it but now I use it all the time! I love how versatile this recipe is 🙂
Choclette
12th July 2017 at 2:31 pmYes, it’s one of those things that just has to be tried I reckon. Now I’ve opened and used my pack of nutritional yeast, I’ll be using it a lot more.
Sus // roughmeasures.com
11th July 2017 at 7:38 pmI need to make this ASAP. I had something very similar in Norway over the weekend. Does it keep for a few days? If I don’t have tamari can I leave it out?
Choclette
12th July 2017 at 2:29 pmHi Sus. Ooh Norway, how fabulous. It will keep in the fridge for a few days no problem and yes if you don’t have tamari or other good quality soy sauce, just use sea salt instead.
Corina
12th July 2017 at 1:43 pmI’m intrigued by vegan cheese sauces and would love to try nutritional yeast just so I can see for myself what it’s like. It’s great that it’s so similar to a traditional cheese sauce and can even fool people! Thanks for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice
Choclette
12th July 2017 at 2:28 pmYes, it’s quite amazing and I didn’t really believe it until I tried it for myself.
Nico @ yumsome
12th July 2017 at 10:35 pmWelcome to the wonderful vegan world of nooch & cashew cheese!
I love it when non-vegans discover all this stuff for themselves…. part of me wants to nonchalantly say, “Yeah, lots of us have been making this stuff for a decade – fab isn’t it?” but the bigger part wants to say, “OK, you’ve mastered this, now it’s time to make seitan!”
LOL!
Lovely recipe, Choclette, and it’s brilliant that you’re introducing it to a wider audience too! Keep it up! xx
Choclette
13th July 2017 at 3:16 pmHahaha, I know how you feel Nico. it’s the same for me when it comes to foraging or cultured foods or even wholefoods.
Kavey Favelle
25th August 2017 at 3:52 pmI keep reading about the combination of nutritional yeast and cashews to make a veggie cheese-like dip and am so intrigued. It does look really delicious!
Choclette
8th January 2019 at 10:05 amGosh, how terribly remiss of me. I’ve only just spotted your comment Kavey. I do apologise. Have you tried nutritional yeast yet?
Cathy @ Planet Veggie
31st August 2017 at 3:24 pmI love making cheesey vegan food out of cashews – I always buy a big bag of them when I see them in the supermarket!
Choclette
31st August 2017 at 8:53 pmI wasn’t surprised it was good as I’ve heard so many foodies go on about it, but it was even nicer than I was expecting.
Mandy
2nd November 2017 at 4:34 pmI’ve been meaning to make cashew cheese for ages – will have to give this a try
Choclette
5th November 2017 at 5:09 pmWell this isn’t quite cheese, it’s a sauce really. But it’s jolly delicious.