I love meal prepping with my Instant Pot! In this post I share my quick and easy vegan cheese sauce recipe made in just 7 minutes cooking time. Keep reading to watch my video tutorial and get this recipe.

 

YouTube tutorial

Here’s my video tutorial for how to make this sauce:

 

Watch this video on YouTube

What is vegan cheese sauce?

• Vegan cheesy sauce is a term used to describe a recipe for a creamy, cheesy-flavored sauce made with nutritional yeast, cashews or olive oil, potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, garlic, onion and lemon juice.
• This is a dairy-free sauce.

Why make a vegan cheese sauce?

Here’s a few common reasons to make this sauce recipe:

Dairy-free mac and cheese sauce

Many people are choosing not to cook with dairy for a variety of reasons, which makes a vegan cheesy sauce recipe a great substitute.

Daily Dozen servings

I follow the Daily Dozen dietary recommendations which includes daily servings of vegetables and nuts. This recipe for vegan cheesy sauce is packed with a variety of vegetables and is great for the Daily Dozen.

• Beginners Guide to Daily Dozen Meal Prep

Daniel Fasting recipe

In my Free Daniel Fast plant based meal plan I share a recipe for Vegan Queso Sauce as part of the 10-day fasting meal prep. This vegan queso recipe is a great alternative to dairy. The Daniel Fast is a whole food, plant-based fasting meal plan which helps people overcome food addictions, especially to dairy.

Why make vegan cheesy sauce recipe in the Instant Pot?

The Instant Pot is a pressure cooker which makes meal prep very quick and easy. To make this type of recipe on the stove, it takes me usually about 30 minutes. However, in the Instant Pot, this same recipe can be prepared in just about 10 minutes preheating and 7 minutes of cooking. I also was able to blend the sauce right in the pot with my immersion hand blender.

How to enjoy vegan cheese sauce

You can enjoy vegan cheesy sauce a variety of ways, for example:

• For a dairy-free Vegan Mac n Cheese
• Poured over potatoes and broccoli
• As a Nacho Cheese Sauce
• Cheese substitute for Mexican Casseroles

and more.

 

Instant Pot vegan cheese sauce

This recipe makes about 6 cups of dairy free cheesy sauce

Nutrition Facts

Here’s the full nutrition facts for this recipe on Cronometer.com.

• 1 serving = 1 cup sauce
• 162 calories
• 5.5 grams fat (.9 grams saturated fat)
• 11.7 grams protein
• 1.9 mg iron
• 647.7 mg potassium

Equipment

• Instant Pot, I used the Instant Pot Pro 8 Quart
• Knife
• Cutting board
• Blender, I used a Kitchenaid Immersion Hand Blender
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons

Ingredients

• 2 cups yellow potatoes, such as Gold Potatoes or other waxy potato (not Russet), quartered
• 1 cup red or orange vegetables, such as Carrots, Bell Peppers, or Butternut Squash, chopped
• 1/2 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup nutritional yeast, I used Micro Ingredients Non-Fortified Organic Nutritional Yeast
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 clove fresh garlic
• 1/2 cup raw cashews or 1/4 cup olive oil or vegan butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, I used Redmond’s Real Salt, optional
• 1/4 cup lemon juice, I used Santa Cruz Lemon Juice
• 2 cups water

Instant Pot Directions

1. Combine all ingredients into Instant Pot inner pot.
2. Cover with lid. Set on Pressure Cook at High temperature with the vent Sealed for 7 minutes.
3. When finished cooking, do a Quick Release until all steam is emptied.
4. Open Instant Pot lid.
5. Blend sauce with hand blender directly in the inner pot, or when cooled to room temperature transfer to blender and blend sauce until creamy.
6. Enjoy immediately or store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Stovetop Directions

• Same as above but place all items into a large pot on the stove. Simmer over medium high heat for 30 minutes.
• For best results, first boil potatoes, then after 20 minutes, add rest of ingredients.

Serving suggestions

1. Enjoy this sauce over pasta for a Vegan Mac n Cheese
2. Add 1-2 teaspoon Chili Powder to make Vegan Queso Sauce
3. Add 1-3 tablespoons diced jalapeno or green chiles for a spicy sauce
4. Increase salt to 1 teaspoon for a more salty flavor
5. Add 1-2 cups broccoli and 1-2 cups more water to cooking pot  before cooking to make this a Vegan Broccoli Cheesy Soup.

Further reading:

• Daniel Fast queso sauce recipe

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