Vegan Nacho Cheese by School Night Vegan (2024)

🥜 NF

🌾 GF

<15 mins

🌱 VG

Publised on 24/11/2022. Last Updated on 24/11/2022 by Richard

The easiest vegan nacho cheese you'll ever make! No need to boil carrots and potatoes! Silky smooth and so cheesy in minutes!

When I say that mine is the ultimate vegan nacho cheese, I mean it. For starters, the flavour is next level: cheesy, nutty and tangy, like a sharp cheddar. But guess what? It's also INSANELY easy to make.

Most vegan nacho cheese recipes require you to boil down potatoes and carrots which then get blended into a gloopy sauce with a texture that doesn't even come CLOSE to nacho cheese. This recipe avoids all that faff and jumps straight to the flavour! Here's how!

🧈 Vegan Nacho Cheese Ingredients

Before we can talk about HOW to make this vegan nacho cheese, we should talk about what goes INTO it. Ingredients are important, so let's give em some air time! Here's everything you'll need to get cracking!

• Carrots
• Soy milk
• Tapioca starch
• Cornstarch
• Pickled jalapeño brine
• Lime juice
• Chipotle paste (or canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce)
• Tomato puree (aka tomato paste)
• Nutritional yeast
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Fine sea salt

As always, the full recipe is at the bottom of the page - don't panic! Check there for quantities.

🥣 Method

Now, here's what makes this recipe special! The method behind my madness! It deviates from other vegan nacho cheese recipes quite dramatically, but it's easier and more fool-proof for it! I've broken the process down into 4 steps!

1. Blend the soy milk and carrots! When you boil carrots down before blending, you add a bunch of extra carrot flavour to your vegan nacho cheese. We're just going to blend them with our soy milk to give it an orange colour and slight sweetness. Use a nutmilk bag to remove the blended carrot bits!

2. Prepare the nacho cheese mix! Next we're going to return the golden milk to the blender but with a bunch of extra ingredients. Some starches, to help the sauce thicken, but mostly big bold flavour bomb ingredients like chipotle paste, nutritional yeast and even jalapeño brine from a jar of pickled jalapeños!

3. Cook the sauce down! This won't take long, promise! Just five mins of simmering and stirring and the starches will activate. The sauce will become thick but not gloopy. It should be a really glossy, smooth runny cheese sauce.

4. Serve! Your nacho cheese is now ready to serve! It's that easy! Keep it hot over a low heat before serving and pour over nachos, quesadillas or even in burritos! Live that nacho cheese fantasy!

🔄 Subs and swaps

Here's how to make nacho cheese that works for everyone! No matter their diet!

• Soy free - I always recommend using soy milk because it's so consistent, but feel free to use any plant milk for this recipe. It's essential though, that your plant milk is unflavoured and unsweetened.
• Vegan Butter - Don't fancy using vegan butter? Or perhaps you can't get hold of it? Vegetable oil should work just fine instead.

Let me know if you make any subs or swaps of your own - I'd love to hear how they turned out!

🍪 Vegan Nacho Cheese Uses

You're now the proud owner of a pot of vegan nacho cheese! So what next? Here are my fave things to use this delicious cheese sauce on!

• Nachos, obvs!! - Pair with my vegan sour cream and all your other fave toppings to create the perfect loaded nachos!
• Cheesesteak! - Looking for a spicier Tex-Mex take on my Vegan Philly Cheesesteak? Swap out the cheese sauce in that recipe for this nacho cheese!
• Jacked potatoes! - There's no better match! Jacket potatoes and nacho cheese! It's gotta be done!

And hey, if this vegan nacho cheese isn't for you, don't worry! You've got loads of other cheese options right here on SNV! Try my vegan mozzarella recipe, for beautiful mozz that melts and browns. Or you could try my vegan grateable cheese!

🔪 Equipment

Here's everything you'll need to make the best vegan nacho cheese, and what fun you're going to have while doing it! OOOh cheesy!

• Cheese grater
• High-speed blender or food processor
• Nutmilk bag
• Medium Bowl
• Silicone spatula

🤷‍♀️ Vegan Nacho Cheese FAQs

Vegan Nacho Cheese

The easiest vegan nacho cheese you'll ever make! No need to boil carrots and potatoes! Silky smooth and so cheesy in minutes!

5 from 6 votes

Print Pin Rate

Cook Time: 5 minutes minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 135kcal

Equipment

• Cheese grater

• High-speed blender or food processor

• Nutmilk bag

• Medium Bowl

• Silicone spatula

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 carrots
• ▢ 480 ml soy milk
• ▢ 40 g vegan butter melted
• ▢ 3 tablespoon tapioca starch
• ▢ 2 tablespoon cornstarch
• ▢ 3 tablespoon pickled jalapeño brine
• ▢ 1 teaspoon lime juice
• ▢ 1 tablespoon chipotle paste or ½ a canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
• ▢ ½ tablespoon tomato puree aka tomato paste
• ▢ 4 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• ▢ 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

• Grate the carrots and place in the cup of a high-speed blender or food processor. Add the soy milk and blend or process for 1 minute or until the milk looks slightly golden in colour and the carrot is very finely blended.

  2 carrots, 480 ml soy milk

• Place a nut milk bag over a medium bowl and pour the milk through. Squeeze out all the milk into the bowl and discard the carrot pulp. Rinse out the blender and return the golden milk to it. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

  3 tablespoon tapioca starch, 2 tablespoon cornstarch, 3 tablespoon pickled jalapeño brine, 1 teaspoon lime juice, 1 tablespoon chipotle paste, ½ tablespoon tomato puree, 4 tablespoon nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, 40 g vegan butter

• Transfer the blended mixture to a medium saucepan and place over medium/low heat. Stirring constantly with a silicone spatula, heat the mixture until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. This will take around 5 minutes. The mixture should still be runny but should fall in ribbons.

• Serve the vegan nacho cheese while still hot. To reheat, stir in a few tablespoons of water and place over a low heat. Stir constantly until hot and smooth again.

Nutrition

Calories: 135kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 0.3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Sodium: 373mg | Potassium: 442mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 5577IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 181mg | Iron: 1mg

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