3 Vegan Cheese Sauces

Have you ever tried making vegan cheese sauces? I missed cheese when I became vegan and I am always looking for a good cheese alternative. These are three of my favorite cheese alternative recipes.

Basic Cheesy Nutritional Yeast Sauce 

The secret ingredient to this cheese sauce is the nutritional yeast which gives the sauce a cheesy flavor. You can find nutritional yeast at most grocery stores or health food stores.

Ingredients: 

• 2 tablespoons Earth Balance or butter alternative
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 3/4 cup soymilk
• 2 teaspoons mustard (I have also used mustard powder)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour and milk together in a medium bowl until all the flour clumps are gone.

2. In a large pot, melt the butter spread over medium heat.  Add soymilk and flour mixture and nutritional yeast to pot and stir.

3. Reduce heat to low-medium. Add additional ingredients and cook 5-10 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Add additional flour to thicken sauce if needed.

Potato Carrot Cheese Sauce

This is similar to the above recipe, but it uses vegetables.

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups potatoes, peeled
• 1 cup carrots, peeled
• 1/3 cup melted Earth Balance or oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon lemon jioce
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Chop the potatoes and carrots and boil them for about half hour or until tender.

2. Blend all ingredients together or combine or a large bowl.

Daiya Cheese Sauce

If you want to use a fake cheese alternative to make melted cheese sauce, I love the Daiya cheese brand,

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup cooked white cannellini beans
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1/3 cup Daiya vegan cheese shreds
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon Earth Balance or olive oil
• 1 teaspooon turmeric (to give it color)

Instructions:

1. Mash or blend the beans with the soymilk, Earth Balance, turmeric and salt and pepper.

2. Heat on low over medium heat. Add the cheese and cook, stirring, until the cheese is melted.

Let me know if you try any of these sauces out.