Simple and fabulously cheesy vegan cheese sauce. Ideal for lasagnas, pastas, vegan mac and cheese or anywhere you would usually use a cheese sauce.
Making a vegan cheese sauce really couldn’t be easier.
You start off with a basic vegan white sauce – also called bechamel sauce and then with just a few added extras, it magically turns into cheese sauce!
How To Make Vegan Cheese Sauce
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
There are just 3 basic ingredients – oil, flour and plant-based milk (I used soy milk) to make your basic white sauce.
To that you add some salt, black pepper, dijon mustard, great for adding a cheesy flavor don’t even ask me why but really it works, and some nutritional yeast.
And that might be as far as you need to go to get your perfect cheese sauce flavor! If you want to intensify the flavors a bit more, you can add in some optional onion powder and garlic powder too.
How To Serve Vegan Cheese Sauce
This isn’t the kind of cheese sauce you’re going to use on a pizza.
Have you had a white sauce (bechamel) before? It’s exactly like that, just flavored to be cheesy!
It’s what you want when you want a cheesy version of a white sauce to use in your lasagna! It’s also great as a pasta sauce or served over vegetables.
It also makes a great sauce for a vegan mac and cheese.
If you want a cheese sauce to drizzle on your pizza, then you’re looking for a cashew cheese sauce! Or you can even grate up some hard sliceable cashew cheese and melt it on your pizza!
Storing and Freezing
Keep leftovers stored in the fridge and enjoy within 4-5 days.
It’s also freezer friendly for up to 3 months. Thaw it overnight in the fridge. It may look watery and separated but simply reheat in a saucepan, whisking all the while and it will come back to its full glory.
More Delicious Vegan Sauces
- Vegan Mushroom Sauce
- Vegan Peppercorn Sauce
- Vegan Chipotle Sauce
- Vegan Teriyaki Sauce
- Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
- Vegan Buffalo Sauce
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 6 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 5 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 4 cups Soy Milk (960ml)
- 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- ½ cup Nutritional Yeast (30g)
- ½ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper
Optional:
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- Grated Vegan Cheese
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a pot on the stove and turn the heat to medium high.
- When the oil begins to heat up, add the flour, stirring briskly all the time.
- Fry the flour in the oil for a bit, stirring vigorously, and then add in all the soy milk at once. Stir vigorously. Alternate with a hand whisk and a wooden spoon while it heats up to prevent any lumps from forming.
- Continue to stir until the sauce begins to thicken.
- You will usually reach the right thickness a few minutes after the sauce has reached boiling point.
- When it has reached the desired thickness remove from the heat (bear in mind that it will continue to thicken as it cools).
- Stir in the mustard, nutritional yeast, salt and ground black pepper.
- Taste test and see how you like it. If you want to intensify the flavors, add in the onion powder and garlic powder and stir in. Depending on what you want to use the cheese sauce for, you may prefer it plain or you may want to intensify the flavors with the onion and garlic powders.
- Serve with pasta or use as a sauce in a vegan lasagna. Add some grated vegan cheese to the sauce as well if you like.
Video
Notes
- My favorite oil to make this with is olive oil, but canola oil or vegetable oil also work.
- You can use different non-dairy milks with slightly different flavor results.
Sarah says
Absolutely love this recipe! literally just made it and was so impressed. I’m trying to go vegan (it’s a little hard as my dad is a chef and south american and my mum is spanish – both cultures have fish/cheese/meat heavily featured in their diets). I am a vegetarian and no longer eat or drink dairy products so will definitely be following and looking for more inspiration from you as i slowly transition to veganism! Thank you! ??❤️
Alison Andrews says
Hi Sarah! So awesome that you’re transitioning to veganism! So pleased you like the recipe. Hope you find lots more recipes here that you like! 🙂
Missy Scarlett Carhart says
Great recipe!
Jay Jizzle says
Curious, do you have any substitute for flour…such as garbanzo bean flour..etc?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Jay, I have made it with a gluten-free all purpose flour blend and that worked well! I haven’t tried it with garbanzo bean flour so not sure about that one. 🙂
Rachael says
Oh thank you! This was so simple and made a great lasagne sauce. Will be using again! X
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Rachael, so glad you liked it! Thanks for posting! 🙂
Terri says
Made this evening. As someone who has only recently become vegan, i still have the very distinct memory of what all types of cheese tastes like, and this did not taste cheesy. The nutritional yeast helped make it palatable, but the mustard is an obvious and uncheesy flavour and as a whole it just couldnt be mistaken for cheeae sauce. The mustard does add an extra welcome tang. It was nice nonetheless, and i called it “pizza drizzle sauce” when the kids asked what it was because they definitely wouldnt believe its cheese sauce. It added some flavour and topping to our pizzas and was nice enough for me to keep and freeze the leftovers for the next round of pizzas, so im not saying its a bad recipe at all. Just not cheesy.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Terri, this is definitely more the kind of sauce to use in a lasagna or on veggies than as a pizza sauce. It’s basically a white (bechamel) sauce flavored to be cheesy. This isn’t what I would use on a pizza at all. That would be something like my cashew cheese sauce if I wanted to drizzle it over, or my sliceable cashew cheese if I wanted to grate some up to serve on top. In terms of flavorings, you can play around with stronger flavorings to get more ‘cheesy’ flavor, things like onion powder, paprika, garlic powder etc can all work, just see what you like.
Susan Tuffnell says
Amazing! I made this and your choc cookies for dinner tonight and everyone loved it. I used it to make a mac n cheese with veggies and my 6 year old veg adversed son actually ate it all. My 10yr old daughter, who thought we would have to give up cheese pasta almost cried with joy when she saw the dish. Thanks for sharing.
Alison Andrews says
Oh my goodness, I am so happy to hear that, yes your gorgeous 10 year old has lots of treats in store, because she can definitely still have all the good stuff, just made a little differently! So glad this recipe was able to help! And it’s a great way to ‘mask’ the veggies for 6 year olds too! Clever! Thanks so much for sharing Susan! 🙂
Stella Goddard says
I love the simplicity and versatility of your recipe. It can be varied with a tweak here and there, and always with great results. I like to add a teaspoon of garlic granules and a pinch of turmeric for colour. Thank you for sharing!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Stella – garlic powder is a great addition to this, enhances the cheesy flavor! Thanks for posting! 🙂
Paula says
I just made this and it was delicious! I used vegetable oil rather than olive as its what I had, and unsweetened almond milk. I mixed it with roast peppers and mushrooms, spinach and pasta. Looking forward to putting it in a lasagne next!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Paula! Sounds great! It’s really good in a lasagna too. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Ophelia says
Forgot to add rating! Oops!
Ophelia says
I just made this and I’m really happy with the taste and consistency. I didn’t have nutritional yeast so I made it without. I added a bit of coconut-based vegan cheese and a sprinkle of nutmeg, and used oat milk instead of soya. It’s a surprisingly rich sauce so you don’t need a tonne of it!
Alison Andrews says
That’s awesome Ophelia! So glad you liked it. Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Leisha says
I just made it. As written, the sauce was very bland. I highly suggest adding a generous amount of paprika (1Tbsp) , garlic powder, a dash of soy sauce and extra salt. I also added a few dashes of jalepeno hot sauce because it seems to give it a fuller flavor, but it would be okay without hot sauce.
I can’t have any form of dairy. Every non-dairy cheese recipe I’ve found is vegan, which is fine… But I say that because not all visitors to a vegan food blog are actually vegans. I know you’ll delete my comment, but I also hope you’ll try the additions I recommended. Perhaps your years of vegan living have made you forget what cheese actually tastes like. ?
Alison Andrews says
I think adding your own additions to a recipe are really a given. ‘To taste’ is to taste after all! I realized that I had said ‘sprinkle’ instead of ‘to taste’ so I updated it. But to me that’s obvious too so not something I always think of to spell out. Paprika is a great addition and something we’ve used in other cheese sauces, like our mac and cheese. And we have a hard sliceable cashew cheese coming up that uses both paprika and garlic powder. I think 1 Tbsp of paprika is a lot! But to each his own. I think I have a great idea of what cheese tastes like, have you tasted some of the vegan cheeses on the market? Even non-vegans are often fooled. 🙂
Steve says
Hi Alison,
I’m guessing you meant “prepared yellow mustard” as opposed to the ground mustard powder, but adding the “p” word would save us nitnoids a heap of grief!
Keep up the good work,
Alison Andrews says
Oh yes, definitely prepared yellow mustard! I imagine it must have been very strong tasting with mustard powder! 🙂
Gail says
So quick and easy! I used coconut milk and almond flour with a teaspoon of xanthan gum and it is perfect! My kids both loved it as well!
Alison Andrews says
That sounds awesome! Thanks for posting! 🙂
Freya says
This looks scrumptious! Can I just ask, have you tried this with oat milk? I love sweetened soya and almond milk but they just don’t work for savoury dishes! So I was wondering if there was a better alternative out there and oat milk seems have a pretty neutral base. Thanks 🙂
Alison Andrews says
I haven’t tried it with oat milk but I really think any non-dairy milk would work great here!
Susan says
Hi, this looks so good. I have been looking for a cheese sauce without nutritional yeast because I am not a fan. Any substitute suggestions? Thx!!
Alison Andrews says
Hmmm, if you make it without the nutritional yeast but just use a bit more mustard, it can get a pretty good ‘cheesy’ flavor just from that, no idea why!