Easy Low Fat Non-dairy nut-free cheese sauce

Sometimes I just want something yummy that tastes cheesy but without the guilt.   This vegan cheese recipe is just that.   It does not use ANY nuts.. and although it has a creamy gooey feel to it, it does not possess the richness of a vegan cheese recipe with nuts.   This makes it less calories and something you can use every day.   I get almost a quart of cheese sauce.  It is a firm and thick cheese sauce and I sometimes put it on rice cakes and it does not make a mess.   Heated it becomes thinner and works well on a baked potato or some steamed broccoli or rice.

The recipe is from Brand New Vegan:

https://www.brandnewvegan.com/recipes/dips-sauces-and-gravy/amazing-vegan-cheese-sauce

I recommend making this as is.   Especially the first time you make it.  I did not do this and missed out on the great gooey texture that you get from the potato starch in the potato.    I added in a couple of onions and some garlic, while it tasted good it was not as good as it is by itself.  The ratio of the starch of the potatoes to the carrots gives it a great texture.   The flavor from his spice choices make it taste delicious, just enough salt and tang flavors.

It only takes 15 minutes to throw this together.. the insta-pot cooking takes longer but it is a good time to do other things.   The 15 minutes includes the peeling of the potatoes, peeling the carrots, and setting aside your ingredients for addition to your blender after the veggies have cooked.

I do not think you need a high speed blender for this recipe, since the vegetables are cooked they are easily blended by most blenders.. I have not tried it but I would think that even an immersion blender would work.

The Beginning - Vegan Cream Cheese

Recently I have ventured into the fine art of non-dairy(vegan) cheese making.  I was motivated by the high cost of vegan cream cheese... $6 for a small container. .this is more than 3 times the price of diary cream cheese.   In my house it gets eaten so quickly that buying it at that price is not affordable.


Soy Vegan Cream Cheese

The first cream cheese recipe I tried is one that uses soy milk as the base.   It was relatively easy to  make, I heated the soy milk and added lemon juice to it so that it would curdle.(DO NOT Boil the soy milk)  Once the curdles form I drained it through a cheese cloth and added it to a blender with some spices and salt and ended up with a nice creamy spread.

It tasted great but it did not have the richness of  dairy cream cheese.   It was incredibly creamy and smooth.. this was the smoothest of all of the cream cheeses that I have made.  I love that it has soy in it and I feel that this spread would be a great base for things like a vegan mayo or vegan dips.  I have made this several times.   I love it as it does not weigh me down and spreads easily.  I consider this to be a sort of guilt-free cream cheese.  Here is a link to the recipe and video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kiPGq2HcKY

Cashew Vegan Cream Cheese

My next attempt was a recipe that called for cashews.   There are a lot of cashew cream cheese recipes on the web.   Some use probiotics and some do not.  I wanted to try one that used a probiotic.  I have a great probiotic powder that I often put in smoothies and I wanted to see if it would work.   This is a very simple recipe.. I think it works best with soaked cashews.. I know you can boil them to soften but I like to boil as little as possible.   I added about a 1/4 teaspoon of the probiotic to my creamed cashews.(I blended cashews in my blender)   I put this in a bowl and covered it with a cloth and within a couple of days I had a nice creamy cashew cheese with a sour tang to it.  This cheese had wonderful taste and richness but it was not as smooth as the soy cream cheese.  It was very similar to the store bought vegan cream cheese.(I think the brand was Miyoko)

This is the recipe that I used.  I did not add the nutritional yeast.

https://www.thecuriouschickpea.com/homemade-cultured-cashew-cream-cheese/


Other things I want to try.   

I think Macadamian  nuts would make a great cream cheese.  Walnuts would make an interesting one as well.   I do worry that something in the walnuts might prohibit the probiotic from growing.   When I have made walnut milk there is very little leftover pulp.  I find this very interesting.  Cashew milk, I also have very little leftover pulp.   When I have made almond milk I have a lot of pulp.   I think this is due to the skin of the almonds.   I am surprised that the walnuts had very little left over pulp.. as they have a brown skin too.  maybe the skin of the walnut is thin enough that it dissolves in the nut milking process a little ?

In summary, if you are tired of paying a lot for non-dairy cream cheeses try making one of your own, it is really easy.   You do not need to culture it, the sour taste could easily be achieved by a touch of vinegar or lemon juice.    I am having a lot of fun making vegan cheeses.   You will too.   Non-dairy cheese making does not require much equipment.. and although a high speed blender is helpful.. I have used a Kitchen Aid blender for a lot of the recipes and been fine.  Homemade vegan cheeses are so much easier to make than I expected and it does make giving up cheese a whole lot easier.    I can honestly say that I do not miss dairy cheese anymore.