I’ve tried a few homemade vegan nacho cheese sauce recipes, but hadn’t really found any that hit the nail on the head with both taste & health factors. But after having really tasty cashew nacho cheese sauce at the vegan restaurant Spiral Diner (Fort Worth, Denton, & Dallas locations), I knew it was possible. Their nacho cheese sauce is AMAZING and I think I’ve gotten pretty close.

Whole Food Plant Based Cheese Sauce

I always like trying to sneak in extra veggies whenever I can, so I liked the idea of using a carrot to make it a “nacho cheese” color rather than turmeric or something else. I did try to keep the sodium low in this recipe, but you can add a little more to taste. This recipe doesn’t contain any oil or dairy!

What to use this Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce for

This vegan nacho cheese recipe can be used for SO many different things! As a dip for raw veggies or make nachos with these no-oil tortilla chips to keep is completely WFPB!

It’s also great for smothering a big steamed bowl of broccoli! I actually had this exact thing today at Spiral Diner as my appetizer – just ask for the grilled broccoli topped with cashew nacho cheese sauce. YUM!

Another great idea is to make POTACHOS! What??? It’s like nachos, but over potatoes instead of chips! I had never heard of such a thing, especially not a vegan version, until I watched the premier of The Game Changers. Tennessee Titan Linebacker, Derrick Morgan was a main athlete featured in The Game Changers and his wife Charity Morgan is a professional chef. She started sending meals to the Tennessee Titans training camp so that her husband could eat plant-based. Slowly other players asked her to send plant-based meals for them as well. One of the dishes they featured in the documentary, was POTACHOS! And they looked amazing!

Here is my Vegan Southwestern Potachos Recipe from the movie The Game Changers!

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Vegan Nacho Cheese Ingredients

• 1 medium carrot
• 1.5 cups raw cashews unsalted
• 1 large lemon, juiced
• 1 cup unsweetened almond or soy milk
• 1 cup vegetable broth, low sodium
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 3 tablespoons jarred jalapeno juice optional
• salt, to taste

Super Fast & Easy Directions

I don’t soak my cashews, but I also have a Vitamix blender. If you don’t have a high powered blender like Vitamix or Blendtec, then you may want to soak your cashews to soften them so they will blend better. Soak the cashews in hot water while the carrot is cooking.

• Peel and chop carrot into chunks. Place in to a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Boil carrots for about 20 minutes or until soft. Drain the carrots.
  • Tip: use microwave steam bag of carrots to save time – use about 1 cup for this recipe.
• Once carrots are tender, place all the ingredients in a high powdered blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Serve as a dip or pour over nachos, potatoes, or other vegetables! To warm, heat for 15 seconds in the microwave.
• If you do not have a high powdered blender, soak the cashews in hot water for 20 minutes while the carrot is cooking.

Nut Free Version

I’ve heard you can use potato instead of cashews to make the base of this sauce. Just chop it up and boil it along with the carrot. Also, make sure to use soy milk instead of almond or use extra vegetable broth instead.

Want Spicier Nacho Cheese Sauce?

Throw in some jarred or fresh jalapenos into the blender and blend them in! I like to just a little of the juice from the jalapeno jar – but don’t add more salt if you do this because that has a lot of sodium.

Recipes you might also like:

• Vegan Southwestern Potachos
• Garlic Cashew Cream Sauce
• Easy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
• No-Oil Chili Lime Tortilla Chips
• The BEST Homemade Guacamole
• 7 Layer Vegan Bean Dip
• Jackfruit Street Tacos

If you try this recipe, please comment below to let me know how it turned out for you. If you like it, please share on Facebook or Pinterest!

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