One of the things that has surprised me the most with vegan cuisine is how I’m able to create similar flavours and textures that I used to enjoy while eating animal products. The goal, for me, is not to aim for the vegan dish to taste exactly the same, but to try to bring out something about the non-vegan dish that I really enjoyed, like a rich sauce or a thick chocolaty pudding. This doesn’t apply to all foods however, I have no desire to create a dish that has the texture of meat because I just don’t crave that texture or taste anymore. It really just depends on the food!
[Butternut Squash Mac n Cheeze: Two Ways]
One of the things I’ve always loved about Mac ‘n Cheese is that it’s comforting and creamy. When I make a vegan version of Mac ‘n Cheese, I’m not trying to create a carbon copy, but a dish that gives me that same type of comforting feeling when I eat it.
Over the past couple years, I’ve found that I can create dishes that satisfy my cravings without having to sacrifice. I crave the new dishes that I make, instead of the dishes I used to eat. Now that I’m used to this lifestyle I rarely feel like I’m missing out. The only time I feel left out is when I am eating at a non-vegan friendly restaurant, otherwise I have so many choices the hardest part is trying to decide what I will eat!
One thing I don’t always enjoy about vegan cooking and baking is the often long ingredient list that is required to make some recipes. The recipes tend to involve more creativity, more spices & seasonings, and other ingredients to achieve that outcome that I’m looking for. It’s not necessarily a bad thing per say, but sometimes I just want a quick and dirty recipe that I know I can whip up within a minute’s notice.
This 5-ingredient cheeze sauce is one of those quick and dirty recipes that I know I will keep coming back to again and again! It’s hands down the easiest cheeze sauce I’ve made and it doesn’t require a food processor or other special kitchen tool. Just a stove top and a whisk…gotta love that!
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Low-Fat Vegan Cheeze Sauce
Yield
2/3 cup
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This is the Lexus of all the cheeze sauces I’ve made to date. It’s extremely smooth, buttery, and comforting!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsweetened, unflavoured almond milk (or more as needed to thin out)
- 6 tbsp nutritional yeast (Bob’s Red Mill makes one in natural food section of most grocery stores or bulk food stores)
- 1 tbsp Earth Balance or other non-dairy buttery spread
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour (or other flour)
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
- In a skillet or pot, melt the Earth Balance over medium heat.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour and milk until all clumps are gone.
- Add milk & flour mixture and nutritional yeast to pot and whisk well. Reduce heat to low-medium.
- Add Dijon, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste and whisk frequently until the sauce thickens up, for about 5 minutes. If it’s still too thin you can add more flour to achieve the thickness you desire. To reheat: reheat in the microwave or on the stove-top (add a splash of milk if it’s too thick) and whisk well. Store in an air-tight container for up to 5-7 days.
Just 5 ingredients and just as delicious as the other sauces I’ve made!
I first made this sauce a couple weeks ago and we’ve been enjoying it a lot! I’ve poured it into pasta, on vegetables, sandwiches, etc. It’s so silky and delicious, you really have to try this. You could also get creative and add some herbs or spices to it to change it up quite easily.
Yesterday, I also made a fantastic lunch with it…
more on that recipe tomorrow!
The Quick & Dirty 7-Ingredient or Less Challenge
Speaking of short ingredient lists, I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to create more vegan recipes with as few ingredients as possible. Quick & Dirty recipes if you will!
My goal is to create more recipes with 7 ingredients or less that don’t require a lot of time or even special kitchen tools. It’s going to be tough, but I’m really excited for the challenge!
I’m curious, what’s your biggest cooking or baking hurdle? Long ingredient lists, hard to find ingredients, special kitchen tools, not enough time?
Leave me a comment below if you have any recipes in mind that you’d like ‘condensed’…no pun intended!
My biggest challenge is living with someone who doesn’t like vegetables! But I survive-more for me!
You can find some great short recipes on “The Vegan Stoner” blog. Plus the sketches are adorable!
When I saw the title for this post I groaned because I figured it would have cashews in it. So I was super excited to see that it doesn’t! I will definitely be making this! :D
Something that takes forever to prepare always turns me off. I’d definitely like something that can be completely done in 15-20 minutes.
I have two big challenges: One is that I currently live in an old apartment where the oven is, in a word, jankity. Since I love baking, the oven and I have had a lot of fights. The second is that I have trouble being as creative in my cooking as I am in my baking. Baking is such a fun science experiment for me! Cooking on the other hand is something that I have trouble deviating from tried and true recipes.
One thing that I am horrible at making is crepes! I’ve basically failed every time I’ve tried – but rest assured that never stops me! I would love to see a crepes recipe with the “Glow” twist that makes cooking delicious and enjoyable!
My biggest cooking hurdle is CLEAN UP! I have two small children, and after taking the time and energy to assemble ingredients, cook them up, and serve it all, it’s such a CHORE clean up everything!!
Hi Angela,
Tonight I discovered the absolutely best substitute for whipped cream – HANDS DOWN! I took a can of coconut milk and put it in the fridge for a while, then scooped the thick white cream that separates from the watery part into a dish, whipped it with an electric whisk! Fantastic consistency. My husband isn’t a fan of coconut flavour, even though it is VERY subtle, so I melted some dark chocolate and stirred it in to the whipped coconut cream. A huge dollop on top of rasberries and I was in heaven. I think it’s actually better than real whipped cream :)
Ive heard this and tried it once but I failed…I wonder what I did wrong? it melted on me…
I think having kept the can in the fridge for a long while helped…and the melted chocolate is optional. I think it would be just fine without :)
I also didn’t put much chocolate in it,which may have helped….and used full super-duper fat coconut milk….
That pizza looks so good! Can’t wait for the recipe!!!
I’ve got a recipe I am posting tomorrow for a quick n dirty corn relish. Super fast, super easy, super tasty.
I’ve also found that zucchini works in place of butternut squash with nutritional yeast cheeze-type sauces. I have found lots of creative zucchini recipes since my garden is going OFF.
Mine is hard-to-find ingredients. I LOVE to cook. I also read a lot of food blogs, most of which are NA based. Alas, a lot of the products you have there, particularly on the health/natural/vegan/gluten-free etc side of things don’t exist here. Either we don’t import them, don’t produce them here, or have yet to realise there’s a market for them. Australia’s still a bit old-school-English in it’s meat and potatoes diet and things like whole wheat options in cafe’s etc. are never going to happen.
I just made this for dinner tonight – loved it! I’m not vegan, but I avoid dairy and have been looking for a solid cheeze recipe for mac n cheese. The texture was great! I served it over shells and some chunks of tofu with sauteed veggies on the side. I would definitely consider adding some spices (mustard powder or chili powder come to mind) to mix it up, but this will be entering our regular menu rotation.
My biggest cooking challenge is that I’m allergic to garlic (I know, it’s awful). I’ve gotten pretty good at tweaking recipes, but it’s a real obstacle for daily cooking. Thankfully, shallots and some creative spicing help.
Mmmmm diiiirty cheeeese! That sounds delicious!
Made this for dinner and I loooved it. I didn’t have Earth Balance so I used 4 TB of Canola Oil and it tasted amazing. So creamy and delicious. A little nutty, I think I didn’t cook the flour enough or overcooked it, but whatever…it was amazing. Thank you, Angela! I have tried SO many mac and cheese recipes, all good, but this sauce is so realistic in texture and taste…and only FIVE ingredients. insane. I can see myself using this plain but also having fun adding other things like rotel to it.
I was just taught a similar cheese sauce recipe, and use it all the time! YUM.
Ingredients, tools, and courage are my biggest hurdles. I keep wanting to try Nooch recipes, though, and I’ve finally bought some Nooch. So I hope I get to it soon!
I would say my current recipe hurdle is recipes that required either a blender or food processor, because I currently have neither, and being a student again means they just aren’t in the budget. I refuse to buy a cheap kitchen appliance that I will just have to replace again in a year or two, so instead I suffer not being able to even make smoothies anymore! Le sigh.
This looks delcious!
I have made this sauce before and really like it with a few drops of sesame oil. And after seeing that pizza I bet it would make an excellent pizza sauce maybe with some garlic in it! ohhh yummmm!
My hurdle is the ingredients I’m not a vegan I just love helthy food. I do believe I may have a gluten issue but I have not confirm this I just try to eat healthy and I know this are awesome recepies. Which I can make all of them but there so many ingredients I have never heard of and,or I defanaly I do not have them in my cover. I which I can just get a few items and make diferent recepies and then just add one or two more items and so on.
I just tried your quick alfreo and am in love. That is one dish I really miss but I actually liked your version better than the actual cheese alfredo! I am not sure if this counts as a quick and dirty recipe but I tried it for the first time the other day and am adding it to my favorites. Peaches and cream chia pudding, peaches are abundant right now so I wanted to take advantage of them! 3 Tbsp of chia seeds, 3/4 to 1 cup of almond milk and two drops of liquid stevia (optional). Let the chia seeds absorb the milk then I diced up half a peach and added it in. So delicious!
I love this recipe and I will make it tomorrow.
Just one question, why do you not prepare this sauce like a regular roux?
I am sometimes put off by veggie burger recipes. Although I make them quite often myself, I never follow a recipe, as the mostly long ingredient lists just make me want to add to the dough whatever I have on hand!