Super cheesy and creamy Vegan Cheese Sauce made in the Instant Pot!
Use it on nachos, as dips, over pasta or make your favorite mac & cheese!
If you love all the Instant Pot vegetarian/vegan recipes that I share on the blog, please join me on this Facebook Group – Instant Pot Vegetarian Recipes. The group shares/features vegetarian instant pot recipes and ideas from all around the web!
Vegan cheese? Have you guys ever tried it? I am not a vegan but I am often intrigued by some of the vegan products that I see in the market.
I remember once I was very fascinated with tempeh and bought a big packet from the store. I was not able to eat it at all!
I can eat pretty much everything as long as its vegetarian but I wasn’t able to eat tempeh. Maybe it was just me and I need to give it another shot?
Recently, I bought a pack of vegan cheese to use on my pizza from Trader Joe’s. To my disappointment, it turned out really bad and ruined my pizza. I just couldn’t eat it.
There was no taste and it was all a big mess. Is there any vegan cheese that you guys like? Let me know and maybe I will give it another go.
Anyway, I am not a very cheese person but sometime back I happened to try a vegan cheese sauce at a restaurant which I really enjoyed. I thought it was so cheesy and so perfect and I couldn’t believe it was vegan.
Since then, making a vegan cheese sauce has been on my to do list and what better than using my Instant Pot to do it!
You guys, this sauce is so cheesy, really it tastes like the real deal. You would have a hard time believing it’s all vegan.
How to Make Vegan Cheese Sauce
Well you start off with some creamy vegetables like carrots, potato. Add cashews for more creaminess, add in some spices for flavor and then add the most important ingredient – nutritional yeast!
Have you guys ever had nutritional yeast? I started adding to it salads, soups and dips recently. Don’t confuse this with the active dry yeast that you use for baking.
This is totally different, it’s deactivated yeast and you can find it online at amazon or at stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s. Adding the nutritional yeast really bring out the cheesy flavor.
This is one ingredients which you absolutely cannot skip in this recipe!
This vegan cheese sauce recipe is so simple to make in the Instant Pot. You just need to dump everything together, cook it on high pressure and then puree it in a blender to a smooth sauce.
So easy and tasty!
How to Eat The Vegan Cheese Sauce?
In so many ways!
- Use as a dip with veggies, chips
- Top is over chips for nachos
- Toss with macroni for vegan mac n cheese
- Toss with rice and veggies for a creamy bowl of cheesy rice
And so so much more!
I hope you guys give this recipe a try. It’s made with simple ingredients (except the nutritional yeast) and is really good.
Can I Freeze The Vegan Cheese Sauce?
Yes, you may! I divide the sauce into small portions and then freeze each portion in a separate ziplock. Squeeze as much air as possible from your ziplock and then freeze.
Take out the portion that you want to use and place in the refrigerator overnight. I have in fact frozen couple of portions and I will get back to you how it works.
Method
1- To your instant pot add cubed russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cashews and 1 cup water.
2- Close the pot with its lid. Press the manual/pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. The pressure valve should be in the sealing position.
Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then do a quick pressure release by manually moving the valve from sealing to venting position.
3- Let the veggies cool down a bit and then transfer them to a high speed blender.
4- Add nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, turmeric, white vinegar, lemon juice and 1/4 cup of either water or almond milk.
Pulse for 30 seconds or until the sauce is super creamy and smooth. Transfer vegan cheese sauce to serving bowl. Enjoy with chips or veggies!
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Instant Pot Vegan Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 large russet potato 320 grams, cubed
- 1 large sweet potato 300 grams, cubed
- 2 large carrots 170 grams, cut into rounds
- 1/4 cup cashews raw, 35 grams
- 1 cup water 8 oz
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1.25 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1.5 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 cup water or almond milk 2 oz
Instructions
- To your instant pot add cubed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cashews and 1 cup water.
- Close the pot with its lid. Press the manual/pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. The pressure valve should be in the sealing position.Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then do a quick pressure release by manually moving the valve from sealing to venting position.
- Let the veggies cool down a bit and then transfer them to a high speed blender.
- Add nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, turmeric, white vinegar, lemon juice and 1/4 cup of either water or almond milk.
- Pulse for 30 seconds or until the sauce is super creamy and smooth. Transfer vegan cheese sauce to serving bowl. Enjoy with chips or veggies!
why is this vegan cheese high in sodium?
Hi Maria, this is calculated automatically by a plugin so it’s not 100% accurate. Let me re-check
So all i had was yukon gold and i’m like- she is realllly specific and i bet i’m going to ruin all this.. but no it was delicious. the salt content .. i thought is that for real?? i didn’t add all the salt. But it was so incredible. I ate a ton on chips and then thought.. i wonder how many calories this is LOL. not too many. i switched to dipping carrots. and putting on some potatoes. i will make this again soon
well I am glad it worked with yukon gold too!
Delicious – love having a “cheese sauce” recipe that uses whole, healthy foods. Served it on macaroni and baked it. Will freeze the leftovers. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe.
Sharon
Welcome Sharon! 🙂
I made it last night! We put it over baked potato and roasted broccoli. A win for my kids! They are used to all kinds of vegan cheeses. My mother is vegan and we eat plant based 99% of the time, so they have had store bought and home made vegan cheese of all kinds. They said they want me to make it often to eat with their broccoli and other veggies. Victory for me! lol…they are the taste testers. I’m planning on picking up tortilla chips today and reheating the sauce to have nachos with the fam. Thank you for sharing!!
awesome! so happy the kids liked it!
Excited to try this in the IP tomorrow! For a store bought, the only one we have found that is good is CHAO. It is perfect for grilled cheese sandwiches, it melts and taste great!
I like it. I need to warm it up and try it properly as I made the vegetables and then had to run off to work. However, my initial pretasting was very pleasant. question –You are supposed to drain the vegetables right.
Any ideas on a substitute for cashew? Not allergic to almond or pistachio
can use almonds or some people also suggest using white beans in place of cashews!
I know I’m about two years late on this comment, so you may not see it, but leaving it just in case… I’m also allergic to cashews and after much experimentation, I have found that substituting half and half sunflower seeds and hemp seeds is an excellent work-around. (So for 1/2 cup cashews, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds and 1/4 cup hemp seeds)
Each one is too strong a flavor on their own, but for some reason half and half works for me, but also keeps the creaminess of the cashews.
Hi Manali,
Which model of IP do you use? There are so many options, i really find them confusing.
Can you please share a link? Thanks.
Hi Shweta, I highly recommend the Instant Pot DUO 6qt! https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-Multi-Use-Programmable-Pressure/dp/B00FLYWNYQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1541105269&sr=1-3&keywords=instant+pot
I added dijon mustard and omitted the vinegar (I always regret when I use vinegar, I’m super sensitive to the taste) and I love it! So quick and easy! I made it for my lunch today at work!
I am glad to hear that Summer!
This looks similar to my stove top recipe! Was wanting to try to use the instant pot and then came across your recipe. Super stoked to see that it works and will be making today. To the new vegan who said it was gross, you just need to add more seasonings like any recipe until you like!
I agree, adding seasonings as per your taste is the key..everyone has different taste buds 🙂