Cashew-Less Vegan Queso

I really liked this, but I personally find that there’s too much cumin. It overpowers everything else, I can’t taste the garlic, the yeast, the chili… :( So next I make this (because otherwise it was a big win), I’ll be using a 1/4 tsp of cumin. Thanks for an otherwise great recipe!

What an amazing idea?! I love this! I’m obsessed with vegan cashew cheese but I find it so easy to over do it and worry about the high fat content of the cheese. Eggplant is the perfect solution! Thanks for your wonderfully creative ideas Dana this is definitely on my to-do-list for today ;)

The best ever!!! Was very hesitant to make this but I’m sooooo glad I did!!! Love love LOVE it!!!

Do you think I could add a homemade Pico de Gallo (drained first) rather than a salsa to this? I think eggplant is very creamy also. I like to juice eggplant (not for the juice though) and use the pulp in raw vegan dishes. It comes out silky and fluffy. Juicing takes out all of the bitterness when its raw. I also puree it into raw dips. We can’t wait to try this!

I didn’t have much luck with this recipe. I followed the directions exactly and it never really thickened up. I used nearly double the amount of corn starch and had to keep adding nutritional yeast because the flavor wasn’t right. As for the taste, it was just okay. I was expecting it to be more similar to queso. The color was kind of icky too.

Thank you so much! I went a little heavy with smoked paprika and loved the result.

I am making it for non-vegan friends this weekend and I won’t call it ‘queso’. There is some similarity, to be sure, but I think non-vegans expecting traditional queso are set up to be disappointed by any amount of deviation in taste and substance. This dip has a huge amount of stand-alone appeal among almost anyone, so it doesn’t need the comparison. :)

Hi there! I have candida and was wondering if this absolutely delicious looking recipe could work without the yeast? Cheers!

I tried this recipe this weekend with my family.
I was surprised by the small amount of cornstarch (2 tsp) for so much liquid. I ended up adding around 4 tsp cornstarch during heating process to get the pictured texture. I double checked I didn’t misread tbsp for tsp. How do you get that creamy texture?
Also, I’m in Belgium here and I’m not sure about the cheesy taste of my nutritional yeast. What brand do you use?
Anymay, taste and color were great! It was a success :) Thank you so much for all your great recipes!

Eggplant!!! That’s brilliant! Thank you for sharing this recipe with us! I’ve shared it on my blog (meaning I linked back the recipe to your site) for National Nacho Day.

Sorry if this question has already been answered – tried scrolling through but didn’t see it. What if you accidentally make a big batch and want to freeze it? Does that work out?

Mine came out brownish green. It’s tasty, but doesn’t taste anything like cheese…

I am so so buzzed to try this, I have been vegetarian for year but have recently turned vegan and am allergic to all nuts (apart from almonds) so I have been getting down about the amount of recipes I have been finding that use cashews etc.

I havent actually ever heard of queso though.. maybe its an american thing?
Could I use this to make macaroni cheese?

thanks

I want to make this for work next week but I have a co-worker who is allergic to almonds. I’ve tried it with hemp milk and didn’t like it. Do you think soy would be a good alternative or should I do rice milk?

Delicious recipe! I added roasted chipotles instead of rotel for a spicy, smokey flavor. Like some previous commenters, I had some trouble with the presentation–it came out as an unappetizing-looking greeny grey. The creamy texture more than made up for it, but I don’t think I can serve this to guests any time soon. Ah well–more for me!

I don´t know how mine is different from yours but mine turned out a kind of gross pea soup green color like Jennifer´s above, not that lovely orange color, and the taste isn´t anything too great either. It just tastes really strongly of nutritional yeast. I only used 2T. Tried tumeric but that didn´t help.

Mine was not this beautiful golden color. What did I do wrong? Mine was more the color of cumin–kind of greenish brown. Would turmeric work? I don’t really want to stain my Vitamix with it! Thanks.

J

Thank you so much for a cashew-free cheese recipe! I am terribly allergic to cashews and LOVE eggplants. ?

Love this concept!

I noticed that this turned out greens for others also. Any suggestions on how to make this dish the colour it is in the picture?

Also my preference would be to halve the spices for a smoother taste.

I love you. I love this recipe. That is all.

I was searching the Internet for the same old cashew cheese recipe when I stumbled on this recipe. I was highly doubtful at first. I’ve tried so many of these kind of recipes and have thrown out a lot of tries. And I am not especially fond of eggplant. But I figured let’s have a go at it because if it’s good it’s a healthy alternative to the norm.

Well I gotta say it’s fabulous! I’ve eaten half of it just taste testing! Yes it is green, but the texture is smooth and creamy and the flavor is really nice. I used a small Japanese eggplant and made a half recipe as a test and it worked great. I also used oat milk that I whizzed up in my vitamix while the eggplant was roasting.

Seriously brilliant!

do you think you could make this in a large quantity and freeze it?

i was wondering…would this freeze well?

First try over the weekend was tasty, but a bit off-colour. I tried slicing the eggplant with my mandolin and it came out too thin, so got a little too brown in the oven. I think next time I’m gonna try just char-roasting the whole eggplant halves the way I do for baba-ghannoush, then scoop it out. This would also make the process simpler. But otherwise I think it tastes great.

Made this and rocked it on some killer vegan nachos tonight! Thanks for this idea, it really does make the smoothest most amazing vegan queso I have ever tried and nachos are hands down my favorite food so I’ve tried a bunch, but this will be my go to from now on, it’s perfect. (I did tweak it but I do that with everything!)

I am a new vegan and I cannot control laughing at how delicious it looks. Please share your newsletter, if you have one. If not, make one!

Gracias.

This stuff is fantastic!! It is delicious and even my husband loved it, and he didn’t like the idea of it at first but gave it a try and he had more than he had planned to. I forgot to add the paprika for color but it was still really great. Next time I will peel the eggplant first, to save time. Thank you for this. It is a keeper for sure!! I will make this part of my rotation of meal plans.

This is geniously good, just tried it today! I think it would also work great as dip for vegan cheese-fondue, defenetly on my to-do list. :) love, Kathi

woahhhhh im eating it right now. Awesome! I broiled my eggplant a little longer to get a nice charred flavor I like. So happy this is not made from cashews, im not a fan of cashews in cheeses (in desserts yes!). But the only minor thing I was disappointed about was how my dip didnt look as orangy as yours, oh well still awesome

Looks amazing!! I buy Beanitos Restaurant Style taco chips. They are just like tortilla chips but made from beans…..gluten free!!

I LOVE this dip! My friend made it for me and ever since I’ve been making it all the time! I don’t even really like eggplant that much but this tastes so much like queso dip even cheese-eating friends like it! Awesome idea! I would love to hear about other things you use this on (I’ve done nachos so far)! Also, I have made some minor substitutions based on what I have on hand (coconut milk instead of almond and tapioca flour instead of cornstarch)- still terrific! I also added smoked paprika! :)

I was super disappointed. It didn’t taste cheesy at all. The texture was not velvety and the color was dull not orange. I’m pretty sure I might have screwed up with the yeast. I used instant yeast.

I followed exactly and it was just a pot of bland brown with a hint of nootch.

Okay, so I did not know what to expect from this recipe, but I ended up digging it. It’s sort of amazing how much this ends up looking like a jar of the Taco Bell queso stuff in the tortilla chips aisle! I *did* get it to turn yellowish, even without the use of turmeric. I doubled the amount of salsa, though, because or else I did not find it to be chunky enough.

The only sad part was that my eggplant did not end up producing a whole cup of roasted eggplant :( I used a whole, medium-sized eggplant, which I thought would be more than enough. Hell, I thought I’d have leftover roast eggplant slices. But after roasting, the slices got super tiny and condensed, and only made 1/2 cup of eggplant. The bummer part: I had already measured the almond milk + spices into the blender, so I had to mix that up and then discard half of it because I only had half of the eggplant amount. See what I’m gettin’ at? So I might recommend making more eggplant than you think you need. You could always use extra it in a sandwich or something. And I also found it difficult to get the eggplants sufficiently moist/roasty without oil… I don’t like adding oil to things, but I found it necessary. That’s the only “bad” ingredient in this, so no big.

My husband recently developed some allergies to cashews, so he saw this in the pan and thought it was a cashew sauce he couldn’t eat. And I was like, no, it’s actually eggplant! I feel like this would be really yummy spread on some corn tortillas with just some black beans on top. I’m trying to count calories these days, so it was great to see a lower-calorie vegan cheese sauce (because we all know those nuts are heavy). Thanks for the idea!

I am excited to try this!! I’m worried about the salt content though. Is there any way I can get around the first step of the process?

I just spent three hours at working looking at your food and I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to marry your blog. My daughter is horribly picky with food and since we’ve stopped eating meat I’m having a hard time getting her to eat anything. BUT everything I’ve made from your site has been approved by her! Can’t wait to try everything!

OMG, lady!! I’ll start by saying I’m not crazy about eggplant. This queso is amazing and not eggplanty at all. Genius. I’m placing it into my face with chips as I type this all in the name of “adjusting seasoning.” ;)

I added half a teaspoon of puréed, roasted jalapeños. Thumbs up!

This is my fourth recipe of yours that I’ve tried, and just like the previous three this was amazing! My husband and I aren’t vegans, but I’m pregnant and dairy isn’t an option for me anymore so I decided to try this… So amazing!!!! We both said “this is insane” about five times while eating this :)

I’ve noticed that you use a lot of almond milk in recipes. I generally don’t buy it because production requires so much water. In a couple of recipes I’ve subbed unsweetened coconut or hemp milk, but I was curious why you prefer almond milk, or what other options you think would provide a similar taste and effect on the recipe?

I made this recipe and featured it on one of my blog post. It was so good!

I ve been thinking of why the dip turns brown or why it sometimes doesnt taste good…
I think both problems are related to the quality of the eggplants…I bet the problems are from older eggplants..
You dont know how long your eggplant was in the field, did it get enough water? or how long before it was taken to the store…I think the season and the place grown can all have an effect.
There are some eggplants that are just plain bitter…Cooking it can bring it out..Brown can mean the eggplant was older or sat in the sun once picked so its not as fresh..Once you slice it it can slowly turn brown from oxidation and it can be enhanced as its cooked and mixed..Also bumps and bruises can turn parts brown..Old eggplants just dont taste good..Fresh is the key..However it can be pretty hard to figure out how fresh it is at the store.
One other thing…They still grow and sell the older bitter eggplants…Some varieties arent…Ive cooked with eggplants and sometimes it all comes out well and then same recipe same way and turns out bad…
Try to buy a fresh eggplant and when you find a store with consistent good quality eggplants buy from them…Also the longer you salt and drain an eggplant the less bitter it can be…And make sure your yeast is bright yellow which indicates a better quality. Especially for this recipe…let your toungue taste and let that be your guide.

Hey beautiful :) i was just wondering if there’s a way to sub the nutritional yeast? Or like omit it. I can’t seem to find any here and i really wanna make this dish:,(

Made this today to go on some vegetarian quesadillas, and it worked really well! I didn’t think there was enough flavor to it, though, so I also added about a teaspoon of powdered vegetable boullion–it worked great!

Great recipe!

Are you freaking kidding me? I don’t know how your mind went to eggplant for queso, but so glad it did! This stuff is darn delicious. Made nachos last night and the left over sauce is going on some veggies for lunch today. Is it wrong to eat this stuff daily? :o)

I’m new to the vegan lifestyle- today marks the 15th day! Anyway, I’ve been craving cheese, but didn’t like the high calorie content that comes with cashew recipes. So this is the first “cheese” recipe I have tried.

I followed the directions exactly and the results were GREAT! It satisfies my cheese craving and made me excited to know there are alternatives to my previous “comfort foods”. Thank you so much for your creativity. Love your blog and recipes!

I’m usually a good cook, so not sure what went wrong here, but I will not be making this again.

I didn’t end up with a creamy dip close to a cheese dip. I ended up with a nauseating mess that resembled a greenish liquid oatmeal. I thought maybe the appearance was just “off.” Well, the taste is horrible too. Not horrible if you’re expecting eggplant, but this doesn’t taste anything close to cheese dip. It tastes like liquified eggplant.

I’d never serve this to anyone and I’m trying to think what to do with it so I don’t have to throw it away, but what waste of eggplant and the nutritional yeast I specially ordered from Amazon. :(

I just made this and i love it, but the color of mine turned out greenish lol, it still tastes great it just looks like hot guacamole

What an innovative way to use eggplant! Like some of your other readers, I was was thinking it might be easier to use pre-roasted eggplant or roast one whole eggplan and then scoop it out. It is so easy to burn the slices! I’ll report back and let you know what happens. I’m an experienced vegan cook, so I’ll be ready to improvise to get the right texture and flavor. So excited!

So you go to all this trouble to make “cheese” and then you just use store bought chips? The chips are the WORST thing you could eat.

This stuff was oh-so-good. I poured it on some nachos with aaalllll the trimmings (tomato salsa, black bean & corn salsa, guac and plain greek yoghurt and had some cerveza con limon as my drink.

looks amazing! Can’t wait to try!!

i swear to everything i tired this and it came out nothing like the pictures. tired it step for step.

This was good but needed more flavour! Added an extra tsp of chilli powder, cumin, an extra tbsp of nutritional yeast, more salt and a few big squirts of Sriracha.

Thank you so much for this recipe. My husband who is a big fan of queso really enjoyed this recipe.

Hey Dana,

I was just wondering if you could explain the use of the colander and what you do for that step?

Thanks!

Made this tonight taste great. Was wondering how did you get yours to look orange like cheese sauce. Mine looks yellowish not orange like your pictures. Does not look pleasant but taste like tacos. Want to serve this to non-vegans so the color would put them off.

Hi! I posted a queso dip recipe on my blog and when surfing found your vegan version, so I linked to your as well. Hope that’s ok! Thanks.

Yeah!!!

Perfect but for the bifecta of deliciousness: a dash of vinegar and a pinch of sugar. A little goes a long way to masking the “this is hella vegan” taste.

Thank you! I can’t wait to try this. I eat a mostly plant based diet but I have a cashew allergy so I can’t use them in many of the creamy dishes I would love to eat. Yay!

Wondering how you would switch this up for something like mac and cheese? So it’s not necessarily spicy but still have a cheese type taste. Any suggestions?

You are a genius!! My 11 year old son son has a dairy sensitivity and he really misses queso. I saw this recipe and thought I’d try it. Everyone in my family loved it! My kids both said it tasted like the queso at Buffalo Wild Wings! Thank you!!!

MADE FOR TODAY”S PACKER GAME AND IT IS AWESOME! My daughter is vegan and I am slowing eating more and more vegan. It is so nice to make her things we all like!!! Yes, you HAVE TO use the nutritional yeast. It adds the color and the cheesy flavor! It’s a little expensive, but what a great find!!!

I don’t have nutritional yeast, does it matter if I use that or normal yeast?

Wow! This is so good. I just made it to bring to a family gathering. My eggplant didn’t peel very well, so I tossed it skin and all into my blender. In fact, just the roasted peel was so delicious that I was munching on it before I decided to blend it with the eggplant flesh. My dip is darker because of the added skin, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I will sprinkle it with smoked paprika and drizzle some hot sauce on top of it before serving later tonight. Thank you for a delicious recipe!

Was wondering if soy milk could be used as I have a family member has an allergy to almonds? but this looks so good and would love to try

SO GOOD – can’t believe this was made w/eggplant! May I suggest however adding 1/4 of a jalapeno? That really makes it yummy!

I have never used nutritional yeast before. What is it? and what purpose does it serve in recipies? thank you

Just made this with butternut squash instead of eggplant and it was so good! Also, being orange, it took care of the cheese colour! Thanks for the recipe, it’s going to get used a LOT.

I found this recipe and made this tonight. I followed the recipe exactly (something I do the first time out anyway) and I got the greyish version of the dip. My eggplant were cooked exactly to the color of your pics and I removed the skins. However I noticed your pic of the blender shows vibrant nutritional yeast. My store carried the Red Star brand which in the jar is already a light beige color…not at all yellow. So this could be the issue?

I ended up adding the rest of the eggplant (I roasted off the entire eggplant in slices but only used enough the first time to make a cup of eggplant as directed) and a few more tablespoons of nutritional yeast, some Cholula sauce for a bit of vinegar/acid, paprika for color and more salt. I got it to taste like queso and it was quite delicious but the color was still unappetizing. My final product was a light orange color due mostly to the paprika.

May I ask what brand nutritional yeast you are using? There aren’t a lot of variables to this dip so it’s got to be some kind of brand issue.

I was very much looking forward to making this recipe, but I was sorely disappointed with my results. I’m chalking it up to something I did wrong, because obviously nothing is inherently flawed with the recipe as many people have had great results.

Mine came out very brown. I tried adding turmeric, and that helped some, but yeah…still a brown, almost baby food like color. I don’t know if my eggplant was too old (the seeds were brown inside), or if my omission of the olive oil affected the color. I also thought it just wasn’t there for me flavor wise.

Thanks for the recipe and idea. I’m glad to hear other people have had success!

Hey Dana & John – thanks for this amazing recipe!
I tried it yesterday, unfortunately i totally messed up the amount of eggplants (those germans… can’t read any recipe :D) – so it turned out to be a delicious GREEN pastasauce instead of the queso dip ;)
But i’m totally in love with it!

♥

WOW! I just made this and it is WICKED GOOD!!! So happy that it is healthy & guilt free because I ate almost all of this in one sitting (please don’t judge…I have no willpower ;)) Someone prior mentioned using the base of this sauce for an alfredo/mac & cheese sauce and I’m definitely going to try, as I haven’t gotten much enjoyment from cauliflower alfredos. Thank you, thank you for this awesome recipe!

Just made this and it was DELICIOUS! Very easy to make as well. I was really surprised at how creamy and rich it tasted.

One question:
How did you get yours to turn so yellow? I might try adding some turmeric to get a “cheesier” look.

UPDATE!
I just made this, it’s quite good!
Not as “queso”ish as I was hoping, but I didn’t have almond milk, so I added only water.
PLUS I didn’t have fresh garlic cloves, chili powder, or cornstarch.
I improvised, I followed your recipe exactly but added only water, and mixed it in our blendtec, as well as altering the spices since we’re running low on some apparently.
My recipe:
7 large 1/2” cut egg plant rounds, prepared as in your recipe, so prepared with salt, broiled, more salt & olive oil etc.
1 tbsp nooch + 1/4 cup water
cumin (very little bit)
curry powder (1/16th tsp-ish)
smoked paprika (1/16th tsp)
1/8 tsp xantham gum blended in the blendtec with water & then added to queso when I put it on the stove-top.

It didn’t thicken too much, but I know that’s because I made such a teeny amount, I can’t risk boiling it because it’ll burn! I thought I’d cut enough egg plant, but after it broiled I had only about 3/4 of a cup. So this recipe yielded only about 2 servings, 1/4 cup each.
Will try it again, with fresh garlic and almond milk!
Still VERY impressed, so glad I found your blog!! ((:

Not sure if this was asked already, but we are fresh out of almond milk. Would water be ok? Also, What could I use other than corn starch or arrowroot?

Amazing!! Another awesome use for Eggplant. Sure wish I’d seen this earlier in the summer!

New to the vegan way of life as my daughter has decided it’s right for her so loving the website. Wondered if you can use dried fast action yeast.

I was SO excited to see that this was cashew-free, since my daughter is deathly allergic to all nuts, and then crestfallen to see it included almond milk. Any reason that I couldn’t substitute rice milk?

This may sound like a weird question, but I was thinking of making a bigger batch of this and possibly mixing some of it in with some cooked quinoa as a cheesy vegan dish for an upcoming party. I was wondering, do you think it could freeze? Maybe it would fare better in the freezer with the quinoa mixed in already? Do have any advice/suggestions/experience you could share with me? I’m kind of feeling a little over my head… Thanks so much!! <3

I LOVED this dip! It was easy to make, and went so well with chips. I added an extra teaspoon of nutritional yeast and, interestingly, a little white vinegar after removing the queso from heat, that gave it more of a tangy cheesy taste. This is officially added to the repertoire.

Thank you so much for your easy, simple recipes! I’d be lost without them.

I plan on making this today, I read one vegan nacho cheese where they added a orange pepper to the mix for the colour, do you think that would change the taste too much? Should I decrease the proportion of eggplant if I do? I’m thinking of roasting it with the eggplant for a smoky flavour. Thanks!

A little late to the party, but I CAN’T WAIT to try this! I’m allergic to tree nuts so all cashew cheeses are out for me. I think it will have to be made this weekend :)

Oh wow, never would have thought of this! Looks awesome!

This is the first recipe of yours that I have tried. My daughter is allergic to cashews, so most of the vegan “cheese” recipes won’t work for us. The eggplant was genius! I added some ground chipotle and a little extra nutritional yeast and we all really liked it. Will definitely make this again!

I just made a batch. At first, the color was a light brown–not too appetizing-looking. I added some pimentos, and the color became the orange-y queso color! And, the flavors are awesome. In fact, my non-vegan son said he likes this much better than the cheesy queso! Thank you!!

I wanted to love this queso but it didn’t do my craving justice. I will say that I loved the flavor as an eggplant dip. I even added more salsa and salt but it ended up tasting like a delicious bowl of eggplant soup puree. The consistency was very similar to queso so maybe I need to just tweak it here and there to get that queso taste I’m craving!

I wanted to love this but it just didn’t taste like the queso I was craving. I will say I loved the flav

Thank you so much for all the great “cheese” recipes which I have pinned. It is so great to have access to some absolutely wonderful basic yet yummy recipes in my arsenal. One of the best blogs I have found.

Oh where was this recipe for the past month when my CSA kept pummeling me with loathsome eggplant!?!? Now I may have to actually BUY SOME so I can try this nommy treat!!!

Browsing your site tonight and I am so glad to have found this recipe, bye-bye cheese.

First time I made this it turned out great, loved it and added it to some tacos. The second time I left out the chili powder, cumin, and salsa, then added steamed broccoli. It seriously tastes just like a creamy cheddar and broccoli soup, it was so good. I can’t wait to try it in another recipe for a “cheese” based fall soup! Thanks for the recipe, love your blog!!

Still the best Vegan/nut-free cheese sauce on the interwebz! Love it!

I am not a fan of nooch and one person here is allergic to yeast products, so we avoid it. Is there anything we could use as a substitute? We miss queso sooo much!

This was amazing! It’s the best vegan queso I’ve tried, and definitely stands up to the real thing (especially since it’s so healthy, I’d choose it over real queso any day even if I wasn’t vegan/dairy intolerant!). I love cashew queso as well, but I eat so many other cashew-based dishes that I figured it would be good to do something a little different. I make this twice a week because I’m straight-up obsessed with queso! Yeah, the colour is a bit off, but I think if you added a bit of turmeric that would make it more orange-y? I also don’t remove the skins. It makes the colour even weirder but my partner and I don’t care at all. I removed the skins the first time time and I found it created a lot of waste and took up a lot of time. The taste is the exact same either way, though. The skins don’t totally blend in so there’s tiny little pieces, but I don’t notice once I add the salsa.

Would this be ok to store in a jar with a tight lid or does it have to be eaten right away?

I got same color issue but taste was perfect …soooooo good

This is the third time I have made this, with stellar results. My soon to be hubby swoons over this! It was crazy thick this time, but I didn’t want to use any additional almond milk. So to thin it out, I used a few tablespoons of the rotel juice. That sent it over the top!! I am SO glad I made a double batch this time. :) Thank you for your wonderful eggplant-piphany!

I love this dip. Not cheezy, but very tasty. Ha, mine turned a green-ish tan color~definitely not an orange-y yellow color like yours. I added garlic and onion powder, too.
Easy, and quick. Fun to watch my eggplant sweat :’)
Thank you for the recipe. Cheers*

Can I roast the eggplant the day before then proceed in making the following day?

I tried this recipe yesterday and it definitely didn’t come out anything like yours!! First of all, mine is gray… how come yours is so yellow and cheesy looking? And second of all, mine isn’t the right consistency at all! I even tried making a slew with cornstarch and adding it back in but it’s still not right! It also tastes nothing remotely close to cheese… I’m so confused! Your pictures look so different than mine, help!!
(The only thing that I did that could maybe affect this is not measuring out how much eggplant. I cut about half of it and assumed that was good. Could that have been it?)

This recipe is amazing!!!!!!!! It’s so nice to find a cashew/soy free cheese recipe. Pure genius, thanks for this!!!