Name: Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1 cup Potato (diced) (1 medium); 1 cup Sweet potato (diced) (1 small/medium); 1/2 cup Carrot (diced) (1 medium); 1/4 cup Onion (chopped) (1/2 small); 1 clove Garlic; 3 cup Veggie broth; 1 cup Veggie broth (aka cooking water); 1/3 cup Sunflower seed (raw, unsalted); 2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast; 1 Tbsp Corn starch; 1 Tbsp Lemon juice (freshly squeezed); 1/2 tsp Hot chili powder or flakes; 1/2 tsp Sweet smoked paprika powder; 1/2 tsp Salt; 1/8 tsp Pepper; 1/2 tsp Sriracha (or any other chili paste) (optional depending on how hot you like your cheese sauce)

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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.

White bowl of vegan nacho cheese sauce and a hand dips a tortilla in it

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.

Table of Contents hide

1. What can you expect from this Nacho Cheese Sauce?

2. What do you need to make a Nut-free Nachos Sauce?

3. How to make a veggie-based Nacho Cheese Sauce?

4. What to eat with spicy vegan cheese dip?

5. FAQs and Substitutions

6. More condiment recipes

7. Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce

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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.

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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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All ingredients measured in small bowls to make Easy Vegan Nut-free Nacho Cheese Sauce: diced carrots, diced sweet potato, diced potato, sunflower seeds, half onion, clove of garlic and nutritional yeast

How to make a veggie-based Nacho Cheese Sauce?

Prepare your 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.

Cook your vegetables

Boil veggie broth in a pan and add all vegetables (diced potatoes, diced sweet potatoes, diced carrots, chopped onion, and garlic) (photo #1). Cook them until soft (photo #2). When ready, drain it, but reserve 1 cup of the cooking water.

Close-up of the diced vegetables cooking for the easy vegan nacho cheese sauce (carrot, sweet potato, potato, onion, garlic)

Blend it until you have a smooth vegan cheese sauce

Transfer all cooked vegetables into a blender (photo #3). Add sunflower seeds (no need to soak them), nutritional yeast, and all spices, and rice flour or corn starch (photo #4). Blend them until you have a creamy sauce (photo #5).

Step photos to before and after blending this nut-free dairy-free nacho cheese dip

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.

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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

White bowl of dairy-free nut-free cheese sauce and a hand dips a nacho chips in it

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.

White bowl of cheese sauce and a hands dips a nachos chips

This Easy Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce recipe is vegan, vegetarian, nut-free and WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based).

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More condiment recipes

You can browse through our Vegan Condiment Recipes or check out

Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce

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What can you expect from this Nacho Cheese Sauce?

What do you need to make a Nut-free Nachos Sauce?

⇒ Get our FREE 7-DAY VEGAN MEAL PLAN now! or check out all vegan meal plan recipes here! ⇐