Our favorite Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce is nut-free, oil-free, but absolutely creamy, delicious and nutritious. Definitely healthier than any store-bought processed stuff. It is also easy to make and you can be ready within 20 minutes. No cashews here, so I dare to say that it is also quite budget-friendly.
As we deep-dived into plant-based eating we started experimenting with different dairy substitutes as well. Some attempts have failed, others were more successful. However, we managed to turn more recipes to our taste that later became our favorites like our Vegan Mac and Cheese, or our Homemade Cashew Milk or our 5-min Tofu Cream Cheese. Moreover, my ultimate baked Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake turned out to be the best dessert I have ever made. Getting cheese to taste the same is not easy, but we do love our Pistachio Nut Cheese with Cranberry Jelly, although we don’t consider them as a dairy alternative, but as a delicious appetizer.
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What can you expect from this Nacho Cheese Sauce?
If you are looking for a vegan nacho cheese sauce to dip in your tortilla, you may find 3 types of recipes out there:
- veggie-based
- nut-based
- store-bought vegan cheese-based
Obviously, none of the above versions will be an EXACT match for the authentic Cheddar cheese-based hot sauce made of dairy milk. Especially as the original is super processed stuff. However, if you change your expectations a bit, and willing to try something healthier and more nutritious, you might be surprised how delicious and cheezy this sauce can be.
Our favorite recipe is this veggie-based, nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free, oil-free cheese sauce recipe (no cashews haha). Enjoy!
What do you need to make a Nut-free Nachos Sauce?
This NO NUTS! cheese sauce requires only 7-ingredients and a good blender
or food processor. No soaking or overnight preparation is needed. For our veggie version, I use
- a handful of sunflower seeds,
- one carrot,
- one potato,
- one sweet potato,
- half onion,
- one clove of garlic,
- a little bit of nutritional yeast
- and SPICES!!! (the most important part obviously) – see the exact amounts in the recipe card at the bottom
The above will give you approx. 2 cups of creamy cheezy sauce for any Tex-Mex dish you can imagine – nachos, tacos, fiesta baked potatoes and more. It is simple, easy and budget-friendly. You don’t need to plan ahead to make this, just get any leftover carrot, potato, and sweet potato you don’t use for your next lunch or dinner and you are good to go.
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How to make a veggie-based Nacho Cheese Sauce?
Prepare your ingredients
Cook your vegetables
Blend it until you have a smooth vegan cheese sauce
Use Vitamix for a crazy smooth cheese sauce
You can certainly use a hand blender (aka immersion blender) or a regular blender. They all make a creamy sauce. However, if you need this sauce to be extra smooth without a single little piece to find, we recommend using a high powered blender like Vitamix. We made this recipe before and after buying a Vitamix and the sauce just went from smooth into crazy smooth.
⇒ Get our FREE 7-DAY VEGAN MEAL PLAN now! or check out all vegan meal plan recipes here! ⇐
What to eat with spicy vegan cheese dip?
Undoubtedly, the best way to eat it is to dip nachos or tortilla. However, there are some other delicious ways to enjoy this sauce. Here are some examples, but do let us know in the comments if we missed any yummy alternative:
- Crunch Wrap Supreme
- Burritos or Enchiladas
- Chili Cheese Tots or Dogs
- Loaded Nachos
- Tacos
- Fondue
- Queso Dip
- Mac and Cheese
- Fiesta Baked Potatoes
- Tex-Mex Potato Soup
FAQs and Substitutions
How do you store this cheese sauce?
You can keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days tops without any problem.
Can you freeze the sauce?
I never had to freeze it as it is usually gone by day 2. If you try to freeze the sauce, let me know how it turns out.
Is sunflower seed healthy?
Raw, unsalted sunflower seeds are surprisingly packed with a lot of nutrients. Not to mention compared to cashews or almonds, they are on the cheap side.
According to Cronometer 1 cup of raw sunflower seeds contains an astonishing amount of good plant-based protein (approx. 30g) and healthy plant-based Omega-6 fat (approx. 33g). It is very rich in Vitamin E, B1, B3, B6 and folate and high in minerals like copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and zinc.
Who knew? Read more about sunflower seeds in Healthline’s article about 6 healthy seeds.
This Easy Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce recipe is vegan, vegetarian, nut-free and WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based).
⇒ Get our FREE 7-DAY VEGAN MEAL PLAN now! or check out all vegan meal plan recipes here! ⇐
More condiment recipes
You can browse through our Vegan Condiment Recipes or check out
- Nut-free Vegan Sour Cream
- 5-min Tofu Cream Cheese
- 5-min Oil-free Hummus
- 1-ingredient Homemade Peanut Butter
- Vegan BBQ Sauce
Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce (Nut-free)
Ingredients
To pre-cook
- 1 cup Potato (diced) 1 medium
- 1 cup Sweet potato (diced) 1 small/medium
- ½ cup Carrot (diced) 1 medium
- ¼ cup Onion (chopped) ½ small
- 1 clove Garlic
- 3 cup Veggie broth
To blend
- 1 cup Veggie broth aka cooking water
- ⅓ cup Sunflower seed (raw, unsalted)
- 2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbsp Corn starch
- 1 Tbsp Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
- ½ tsp Hot chili powder or flakes
- ½ tsp Sweet smoked paprika powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Pepper
- ½ tsp Sriracha (or any other chili paste) optional depending on how hot you like your cheese sauce
Instructions
Prepare ingredients
- Peel and dice potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots. The smaller you dice them, the shorter will be the cooking time.
- Peel and chop onion and garlic.
Pre-cook ingredients
- Boil veggie broth in a pan and add all vegetables (diced potatoes, diced sweet potatoes, diced carrots, chopped onion, and garlic). Cook them until soft.
- When ready, reserve 1 cup of cooking water.
Blend everything to make a sauce
- Transfer all cooked vegetables into a blender. Add sunflower seeds (no need to soak them), nutritional yeast, lemon juice, spices, corn starch and the reserved cooking water.
- Blend them until you have a creamy sauce.
Krysti
How is this reheated? Wanting to make it for a pot luck…
My Pure Plants
It may get a bit thicker if re-heated but shouldn’t be any other issue. Will you let us know how you like it?
Joyce
Great!Loved by vegans and nonvegans.I added salsa to the cheese and black beans over baked potatoes for a wonderful dinner.Everyone asked for more!
Lisi
So good, so creamy 🙂
Kels
I have tried several vegan SOS free cheese sauces. This is hands down my favorite. Bookmarked so I won’t have to go looking for it again later. Bonus since these I ingredients are all pantry staples at my house. Used it today to make vegan cheesy broccoli and potato casserole. Thanks!
My Pure Plants
Hi Kelly, thank you so much for trying our recipe. We are so happy you loved it so much.
Randy Hays
This. Was. Amazing. And so simple and cheap. Thank you!
My Pure Plants
Hi Randy, thanks for trying our recipe. We are so happy you liked it.
Donna O
Do you know what I could sub for sunflower seed in the Vegan Nacho Cheese? My husband’s only allergy is sunflower seed. Me, is another story. Could I use cashew? I’m not vegan, but DF, & have seen cashew used as replacement for cheese. Or another?
My Pure Plants
It should work with cashews as a lot of dairy-free nacho cheese recipe uses cashews. Unlike sunflower seeds, you need to soak cashews in hot water for 15 minutes or so to soften them before adding them to the blender. If you don’t get a thick enough consistency, add them back to a saucepan and bring to boil. When it is cooled, it should be the right consistency.
Marie
In a vitamix or powerful nutribullet you do not need to soak cashews, they blend right into cream 🙂
Magda Vasilica
I made it today and it is delicious. Just a small twist: no corn starch but added some dried tomatoes canned in olive oil.
Thank you for sharing!
My Pure Plants
Dried tomatoes sound like a great addition. Thanks for trying our recipe.
Kelly
This sounds really good. However, I have a couple questions… The recipe states to reserve 1 cup of the cooking water, but never tells what to do with it beyond that. ?? And, I recently bought a Pampered Chef Deluxe Cooking Blender. Do you know how much water I would need to use to just cook and blend the veggies at the same time in the blender? It seems like it would save so much time and dirty dishes. 😉 Thank you.
My Pure Plants
Yes, you’re right. I only added that in the ingredients list for blending. I will update the instructions now.
I am sorry, but not really familiar with this kind of blender.