The most amazing Vegan Cheese Sauce that is Nut-free and Oil-free, as well as fat-free! It has no nuts and no cashews! It is also is the perfect sauce to make vegan Mac ‘N’ Cheese. This cheese sauce is healthy, creamy and made from potatoes and zucchini.
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NUT-FREE VEGAN CHEESE SAUCE
Are you ready for this? Are you ready for a to-die-for creamy vegan cheese sauce that tastes rich, thick and silky smooth? This is so darn delicious over mac ‘n’ cheese too. There is no nuts, no oil and totally healthy, as it’s made from vegetables like potatoes and zucchini.
In case you are wondering, this one is totally guilt-free. It is even coconut-free and gluten-free. When I’m not stuffing my face with this Vegan Cheesy Mexican Tortilla Bake, I like to enjoy this lighter, lower calorie version.
The majority of vegan cheese recipes are made with nuts/cashews or tofu, etc. Since so many of you readers cannot have nuts, I wanted to create a nut-free and fat-free cheese sauce that we could all enjoy with absolutely zero guilt. It’s totally kid-approved too, my daughter gobbles it up.
CHEESE SAUCE MADE WITH VEGETABLES
To create a whole foods cheese sauce made with vegetables, I took inspiration from 2 of the recipes on my blog that were creamy sauces without containing any nuts. My Low-Fat Nut-Free Creamy Parsley Sauce which is made from potatoes and my Spicy Zucchini Pepper Soup which is made from zucchini! Both are incredibly creamy, so I combined the two for a magic cheese sauce.
Lastly, another key ingredient that really drives home the cheesy flavor is soy sauce. It gives a depth of flavor that salt alone doesn’t give. I tried just lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and salt and none of them gave that cheesy flavor as great as soy sauce. I mean seriously, this entire recipe is basic ingredients that I just got at my local grocery store. So easy.
HOW TO MAKE A NUT-FREE VEGAN CHEESE SAUCE
First, you will need to gather these 8 ingredients (+salt and water):
- zucchini
- yukon gold potatoes
- nutritional yeast
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- smoked paprika
- soy sauce or liquid aminos
- lemon juice
Prepare the zucchini by preheating an oven to 415°F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Peel all the green skin off the zucchini and slice into 1/4 inch slices and salt and pepper well. Bake for 15 minutes.
Next, cook your potatoes either by roasting, steaming or in the microwave. Mash them with a fork and measure out 1 cup.
Add the cooked zucchini and potato, along with all of the remaining ingredients (start with 3/4 cup water and add as needed, stopping at 1 cup) to your blender and blend until smooth. You will need to stop and scrape a couple of times from the bottom during. Do not be too eager to add extra water until you’ve really blended it up a couple of minutes on high to get it completely smooth. It will seem too thick at first, but it will start to turn very smooth from all the water from the zucchini.
Whether you use it as a dip or a vegan mac ‘n’ cheese, it’s delicious!
OTHER VEGAN CHEESE SAUCE RECIPES TO TRY:
If you make this recipe, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
Vegan Cheese Sauce (Nut-free and Oil-free)
Ingredients
- 1 small zucchini, peeled and sliced, THEN weigh 130g
- 1 lightly filled cup (220g) cooked/mashed yukon gold
- 3/4 cup -1 cup water (as needed to reach desired thickness (I ALWAYS use 1 cup, so keep that in mind in regards to other ingredients)
- 1/4 cup (20g) nutritional yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2-3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika or regular if you don't like smoked
- 2 teaspoons liquid aminos (or low-sodium soy sauce or tamari, do not omit, this is what gives the cheesy flavor, do not use coconut aminos, it will not yield the correct flavor!)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
NOTE
- It's important to weigh the zucchini and potato, so the flavor turns out correct, too much zucchini and it could have an off taste.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 415°F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Peel all the green skin off the zucchini and slice into 1/4 inch slices and salt and pepper well. It's imperative to peel the zucchini, otherwise your sauce will be an ugly green. Bake about 15 minutes until tender.
- I cooked the potato in the microwave for about 5 minutes until very soft. Do not boil them as they will get water logged and make the sauce more runny.
- Mash the potatoes with a fork and measure out 1 cup. If you followed the correct weight measurement, you should get just about 1 lightly filled cup of mashed potatoes. Update: Using a food processor will make this too gooey, make sure to use just a blender.
- Add the zucchini, potato and remaining ingredients (start with 3/4 cup water and add as needed, stopping at 1 cup) to the blender and blend until smooth. Stop and scrape a couple of times from the bottom during. Do not be too eager to add extra water until you've really blended it up a couple of minutes. It will seem too thick at first, but it will start to turn very smooth from all the water from the zucchini. If after blending it's too thick for you, add just a TINY amount just to blend it. If it's a bit thinner than you like, heat on the stove to thicken.
- Taste and add any extra lemon juice and/or salt/spices if necessary. Add any desired toppings such as red pepper flakes, chopped tomatoes, sliced jalapenos. I like a kick of heat to my cheese so I added red pepper flakes.
- To make it as a mac 'n' cheese, add cheese sauce to cooked pasta. You can either warm the cheese by running it awhile in the blender or gently warming over the stove. It gives such an incredible cheesy, thick and stick-to-pasta result.
That looks so delicious!
I’ll be using this recipe this weekend, cashew nuts are too expensive for me to use in large quantities and mac and cheese was my favorite dish before making the switch.
Wonderful Veerle! I can’t wait to hear what you think!
I loved it! I liked it even better with some soy milk (since I don’t mind fat) 🙂
Wonderful! So glad you loved this cheese sauce, thank you for the feedback!
I loved this recipe! Does it keep well in the fridge for leftovers? Traditional cheese sauce always seems to get thick and yucky in the fridge. I’m the only vegan in the family and I can’t possibly eat the whole recipe in one sitting, although I tried :p I was thinking of making au gratin potatoes with this recipe
Hi Danielle! So glad you loved this! This will thicken up in the fridge overnight, however, it VERY easily melts right back to it’s normal version by gently heating it over the stove. Good as the first time! It’s not like cashew based cheese sauces that typically get a weird pasty thickens when reheated, this one reheats very well!
Any substitute for the onion powder and garlic powder as I am allergic to those things. Thanks.
Hi Christina! Those really help to flavor the sauce, so it will be a little more bland without it. I would just use some different spices you like. You could make it more nacho flavored by adding a little cumin and chili powder or some jalapenos…really any spices you like and it should be good!
This is a great cheese sauce!! Still has the nutritional yeast flavor (obviously) like most vegan cheese sauces do, but this is the best recipe I’ve tasted yet! I actually continued on with making some mashed potatoes out of the rest of the potatoes I bought and added some of this cheese sauce. They turned out great! Thank you!
Wonderful! I’m so glad you loved it and it is your favorite!! Thanks so much for the feedback! I actually don’t taste nutritional yeast in it, I just taste “cheese” but I know everybody has a different palette. I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Well I did this without the nutritionnal yeast and it still tastes delicious 🙂 thank you very much i found my new sauce! i’ll try with nutritionnal yeast next time 😉
I’m so happy to hear that Shiika! I’m surprised since the nutritional yeast is a key ingredient, but I’m really glad you still loved it. It definitely aids in the cheesy flavor so I’m betting you will love it even more next time, thank you for the feedback!
Hi, can’t wait to try this recipe! Do you use nutritional yeast flakes or powder?
Hi Kelly! I used flakes 🙂 Let me know how you like it!
Hi there! So I have tried making mac and “cheese” a bunch of time, never came out that great. I keep trying recipes hoping that I’d find “the one”. I have finally found it! I haven’t even put it on the pasta yet, I can’t stop eating it by the spoonful. Hopefully there’s enough left haha When I first tasted it I literally said “Holy shit. Get over here and taste this NOW!” to my boyfriend. This is so delicious. Thank you for this! This will be a staple for sure!
Awesome Teresa!! I’m so happy to hear this cheese sauce was “THE ONE”!! Haha! It is definitely my favorite I’ve had by far as well, it tastes the most cheesy out of any I’ve tried and I love the smooth consistency of it. Thank you so much for the awesome feedback, I really appreciate it!
Completely new to vegan cooking, but want to do more meatless dishes. I have never used nutritional yeast before, but have seen it in the Bob’s Red Mill section. Do you think I could freeze some of this? It’s only the two of us, and that’s more than we could eat at one or two sittings. Thanks!! I apologize if that question has already been answered, you have so many awesome comments on this, I couldn’t get through them all.
Hi Jen! You can definitely freeze this. I’m not sure for how long, but since it’s just whole foods, I think it’d be fine freezing and just reheating gently on the stove. Let me know when you try it!
Hi Brandi I have IBS and so garlic and onion are not recommended in a Low FODMAP diet. I was wondering if removing them or subbing them might still work, if you have ever tried it? Thank you, Jess
Hi Jess! Sorry for the delay! It will still work, but will be a bit blander in flavor without the garlic or onion, so I would add in other spices like a little cumin and chili powder or even a touch of mustard. That will help give it a bit more depth of flavor. Let me know how it turns out!
Hi Brandi. Do you think I could use sweet potato instead of the Yukon? The only potatoes my store had was russet and sweet potatoes.
Hi Katie! I have not tried this with sweet potato but I think that would probably make them too sweet. I would try russet over sweet potato! Let me know how it turns out. I’m assuming it would still work, I just haven’t tried it.
I have to believe that people with blogs have the right to remove reviews that they don’t want others to see. Rave reviews was all I have read regarding this recipe. Followed instructions to the “T”. Tried it again…… This has to be the most awful vegan, vegetarian recipe I have ever tried, and I am a chef. Do not waste your ingredients or time folks………I don’t want to go into what this recipe taste like, I will just say, more than disgusting. This post most likely will be removed as well as other truthful reviews from the past. Such is life on the internet…….
Wow, I’m so sorry to hear this didn’t work out for you, but to accuse me of removing negative reviews I find a bit disrespectful. Just as yours remains, ALL recipe reviews on every single one of my recipes remain on my blog. I’ve never removed a review off of a recipe in 3 years of blogging. I welcome reviews, which is why I have a comment section.
I don’t know what went wrong with the recipe but you are the 1st negative comment I have received out of 62 positive reviews from both above and on Instagram. I don’t have an issue with you not liking this recipe, we all have different opinions clearly, but encouraging others to “not waste their ingredients or time” isn’t fair to say, since you are clearly the one exception to not like this (that I’ve received). None of these people had to leave a review, but they chose to because they loved it.
Sorry this recipe made you so angry. Thank you for trying it out.
Great recipe! I didn’t have any paprika (just happened to be out!) but it was still very good. My kids LOVED it! This is the first vegan cheese sauce that my kids have liked. They have been vegan their whole lives and don’t really understand the importance of a good mac-n-cheese. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much Regina! I am so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for the feedback!
Oh, and even better that your kids loved it so much! Thanks again!
Oh ok, that makes sense! I know sometimes you say, don’t substitute any of the ingredients or it will affect the outcome, so I was just making sure! Sometimes I use half milk half water in recipes too. I also really like the Silk cashew milk, it only has 2 g fat per 1 cup, and Westsoy makes an organic fat free soy milk that I use occasionally. Thanks for another great recipe!
Hey Brandi, just want to let you know I’ve made this recipe several times and absolutely love it! I agree it is the best cheese sauce I’ve found to date! I had a question though, more curious really. I sometimes am tempted to use milk instead of water, like a nut or soy milk. Don’t know why, I know that most cheese sauces calls for it, and just figure it would make it more creamy & richer, I guess? Have you tried nut milks and is there a specific reason why you use water? Just wondering.
Yay! I’m so glad to hear it’s the best you’ve tried, thank you so much! You are certainly welcome to use plant milk and yes it would make it richer. The reason I didn’t use any hear is because I wanted it totally fat-free, but you can definitely use some! I also tend to only use canned coconut milk in recipes because it doesn’t contain any weird additives and for this I didn’t want any fat. Use any milk you’d like though 🙂
O.m.g! SO AMAZING! I just couldn’t believe it was so cheesy with no nuts!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Yay! I’m so thrilled you loved it so much! It is definitely amazing stuff and stay tuned….I have another amazing cheese coming up!!
Do you know if this freezes well? I have so much left and don’t want to waste it!
Ps – we’re new to dairy/gluten free eating and my cheese loving kid loved this sauce. She devoured 3 bowls of Mac & cheese! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
Hi Angie! I haven’t tried freezing it, but honestly, I don’t see why it wouldn’t! It contains mostly veggies and no weird fillers or starches, so I would imagine it would freeze well and all you would have to do it lightly reheat it over the stove. I’m so happy to hear your daughter loved this and devoured 3 bowls, wow, that is awesome! 🙂 Thanks so much for the feedback!
I made this today. It was soooo yummy !! I had all ingredients except I had red potatoes not yellow. Still amazing !!Had it at lunch on macaroni and for supper on top of More potatoes!! I love that it has no fat! Will definitely put in my favorites list ! 🙂
Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback Simonne! I’m so happy you loved this so much!
THANK YOU! This is SO delicious. Such a perfect cheese substitute and I cannot see why any meat-eater wouldn’t love it too. This is an excellent addition to my Potato Hack Diet I am currently on, but I plan to use this regularly on or off a diet. I followed this recipe exactly btw…well except I made a double batch (so happy I did!). My immersion blender made extremely quick and easy work of this without any added water over the 3/4 cup. Highly recommend using the stick blender, as well as highly recommend this sauce to everyone!
Thank you so much Melanie for such wonderful feedback! I’m so happy to hear you loved this cheese sauce as much as I and others have! I agree too….my parents are meat-eaters and they love this sauce as well! It’s tastes so much like cheese that I think it would please anybody! Thank you again!
Hi Brandi! Just thought I’d check back in with you on this recipe as I’m making it, yet again, at this very moment! Since your initial posting of this recipe about 1 1/2 months ago, I’ve made this recipe numerous times. It has become a staple in my household and I use it mostly as a pasta sauce and for mac-n-cheese. I’m just so in love with this sauce – each bowl so flavorful and comforting. Keep the great 8-ingredient-or-less masterpieces flowing. 🙂
Thank you so much for such sweet feedback Nicolle! It means so much to me! I’m so happy to hear you love this cheese sauce so much!! I really love hearing that!
Wow, this is incredible!! I’ve tried so many vegan “cheese” recipes to try to replicate the good ‘ol mac n cheese that I remember from days of yore, and yours is the best by far! I put in a little Sriracha at the end for an extra warm kick. This is going in my regular lineup. Thanks. You should REALLY be proud of yourself on this one. 🙂
Oh thank you so much Scott for such wonderful feedback!!! I’m so sorry for the late response, sometimes I get so many comments that I may miss one here and there, but thank you very much! So glad this one is the best you’ve had by far!
Yaay I can see it now! I was blaming my phone. Looks great I can’t wait to try some recipes and tell some ppl from my fb food groups.
I’m so bummed I just discovered your blog and was so excited, especially for this recipe, but for some reason my phone does not do well with plug ins and I cant see a single recipe.
Ive read the descriptions you give for a few and they sound so great. Only 8 ingredients is kind of unbelievable! God knows how many times Ive clicked on a recipe and the ingredients were just too much to deal with.
Brandi-I’m so sorry, I had a temporary website update earlier for about an hour, but it is fixed now, you should see the recipe now on any device! Let me know and I will email it to you if necessary! Thank you so much for your interest!
Can I use baking yeast in this? I can’t find nutritional yeast but my local natural foods store only had little refrigerated baggies of yeast when I asked and it says “baking” on the store’s label. Thanks!
Hi Lindsay! Noooo, definitely don’t use baking yeast! It is not the same thing and will ruin the taste. Unfortunately, there is no replacement for nutritional yeast. I have found it to be fairly common at every grocery store I visit. I would ask a manager at the store if they carry it, or Whole Foods, Krogers and many stores carry it these days. Otherwise, you can always order it on Amazon. It is a crucial ingredient, as it is what lends most of the cheesey flavor.
I’m must try my hand at this soon! As a fellow healthy recipe developer I take my hat off to you with this invention. I hope this recipe spreads far and wide and convinces many that you don’t need dairy cheese sauce or weird vegan fake cheeze sauce to achieve a gorgeously silky and versatile cheese sauce. I’m loving reading all of the brilliant comments about it (and you) too. Now to figure out what type of potato to use here in the UK!
You are so incredibley sweet Kellie! Thank you for such kind words!!