The most divine vegan hollandaise sauce with all the flavor you can dream of. Super easy to make and the best thing poured over roasted vegetables.
We were really thrilled with how well this vegan hollandaise sauce turned out. It’s silky and creamy and flavorful.
A ‘classic’ hollandaise sauce uses egg and butter and lemon juice to create an emulsion.
Well since this is a vegan one we threw out all the rules and came up with something that has all the flavor of a hollandaise sauce but uses quite different ingredients.
How To Make Vegan Hollandaise 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.
- This hollandaise sauce is a simple mix of raw cashews (soaked in hot water for one hour), nutritional yeast, lemon juice, white vinegar, water, turmeric, dijon mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, black salt (aka kala namak) and cayenne pepper.
- Add all the ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth.
- Add it to a double boiler or saucepan and gently heat over low heat. We made a homemade double boiler by placing a heat safe glass dish over a pot with a couple of inches of boiling water and let it heat gently that way, stirring all the while.
- You just want to heat it enough to be warmed and ready to serve. It is not supposed to be piping hot.
- The sauce will thicken a little while heating, this is entirely normal.
Pro Tips for the Best Vegan Hollandaise Sauce
Soak the cashews for one hour in hot water. So place the raw cashews in a bowl and pour over boiling water from the kettle and then leave them to soak for one hour.
Soaking the cashews makes them really easy to blend up in this recipe and also makes the sauce extremely smooth. There is enough liquid added to this recipe so soaking the cashews first is not mandatory. So if you forget and you need hollandaise sauce in a hurry you can skip it. But soaking will provide a little extra in terms of a really smooth silky sauce.
Distilled white vinegar works best for the flavor balance here. If you have to you can switch for apple cider vinegar, but try and use white distilled vinegar if you can.
Turmeric is really just for color. But oh my it creates a gorgeous color here and mimics what a ‘real’ hollandaise sauce looks like. We just use a small amount in this recipe but if you hate turmeric you can omit it, but you will of course lose the yellow color.
Black salt (aka kala namak) is not actually black in color at all, and adds a wonderful eggy flavor to this dish! If you can’t get black salt then you can use regular salt but I really recommend you try black salt some time. It’s really amazing how much eggy flavor it provides (in a good way).
How To Serve Vegan Hollandaise
It’s gorgeous poured over roasted vegetables, baked potatoes, oven roasted mushrooms, roasted asparagus, alongside your favorite breakfast scramble or just to dip your baked potato fries!
If you love hollandaise sauce then you can pretty much serve it with anything savory!
Storing Tips
Keep it stored in the fridge (covered) for up to 5 days. Give it a good stir before using. You can reheat it over a double boiler or in a saucepan over low heat, but you may need to whisk in a little water to thin it out if it starts getting too thick.
More Vegan Sauces
- Tahini Sauce
- Vegan White Sauce
- Vegan Cheese Sauce (Nut Free)
- Vegan Mushroom Sauce
- Vegan Peanut Sauce
- Cashew Cheese Sauce
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Hollandaise Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup Raw Cashews (150g) soaked in hot water for 1 hour
- ¼ cup Nutritional Yeast (15g)
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 tsp Distilled White Vinegar
- 1 cup Water (240ml)
- ½ tsp Turmeric
- 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- ½ tsp Black Salt Kala Namak*
- ⅛ tsp Cayenne Pepper
Instructions
- Place the cashews in a bowl and pour boiling water from the kettle over the top. Leave them to soak for one hour. Then drain the cashews.
- Add the soaked cashews to the blender jug along with the nutritional yeast, lemon juice, white vinegar, water, turmeric, dijon mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, black salt and cayenne pepper.
- Blend until smooth.
- Transfer the blended sauce to a double boiler if you have one or make a homemade double boiler* by placing a heat safe dish over a pot with a couple of inches of boiling water. Let it heat, stirring all the while, until it’s warmed through. It doesn’t need to get hot, just warm enough for serving.
- The sauce will thicken while heating.
- Serve over roasted vegetables or baked potatoes or anywhere you would serve a hollandaise sauce.
Video
Notes
- If a double boiler (even a homemade one) is not an option, then you can heat this in a saucepan, but make sure it’s at low heat and stir constantly until warmed through.
- If you don’t have black salt you can use regular salt but you will lose some of the eggy flavor.
- Prep time is for hands on time and does not include the time spent soaking the cashews.
- Leftovers will keep covered in the fridge for around 5 days. Give it a stir before using.
How many days can we store this sauce in fridge?
i tried making this turned out really great and awesome taste.
Around 5 days in the fridge. Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Literally just finished eating this as part of vegan eggs benedict and wow, it was delicious! Had to sub white vinegar for red wine vinegar and didn’t have lemon juice. Really creamy, little tangy and very velvety. Will 100% make this again, fiancé agrees too 🙂
Awesome Kelsey! Thanks so much!
guilt free and yummy!
So impressed with how close to the original hollandaise this is. Just make sure you have a good blender to get it silky smooth!
Thanks Tim!
Great recipe! Really enjoyed it. Thank you!
Awesome! Thanks so much Simona!
We wanted to celebrate our vegan anniversary, and veggie Benedict sounded perfect. Great veganized version.
Awesome! Thanks Jenna! And happy vegan anniversary!
I made this with asparagus for my friend who is really picky about sauce for asparagus and not yet convinced that vegan can be just as tasteful as non-vegan food. After a few bites, he became silent, which is a good sign, and after a while he said: You can make this more often.
Gamechanger, thank you so much!
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing Nina!
Chopped fresh tarragon gives Hollandaise a nice herb kick. The tarragon herb wakes up and sends out new leaves around the same time as asparagus spears appear, so they are a good team.
This hollandaise is amazing!! Makes enough for surf and turf and eggs benny the next day. Highly suggest! I soaked the cashews and used boiling water to mix the sauce. Used my high speed blender and skipped the step to heat double boiler. 🙂
Thanks so much Katie!
Made this tonight with broccoli. It was delicious! Will most definitely be making it again!
Fantastic! Thanks Anne!
I don’t know how “hollandaise” it tastes, but I make this sauce with chickpeas instead of cashews. That way I get a better nutrition profile, and the taste is still great!
I use chickpeas cooked in pressure cooker for 55min, with a few bay leaves and salt. Then blended with a Vitamix so it’s super smooth.
Thanks for sharing Peter! 🙂
If I have leftover sauce, what is the shelf life in the refrigerator?
Hi Robyn, about 5 days in the fridge (and thanks for asking I’ll update the recipe). 🙂
Scrumptious sauce!
Thanks Anna! 🙂
Looks wonderful. Can I use something in place of the cashews? ????
Hi Mary, I’m not sure what would work as a replacement for cashews in this recipe. Maybe check out this recipe from Simple Vegan Blog who did a hollandaise with tofu. 🙂
Can I make this recipe with almonds or seeds or nuts?
Hi Valeria, I’m not sure what would be a good replacement for cashews here, maybe blanched almonds but I haven’t tested it.