I warned you things were going to get cheezy this week. Today I’m sharing another one of my favorite cheeze sauces. You can use this vegan sauce in so many ways: for nachos, as a dip, drizzled over burritos and tacos, dolloped over a loaded vegan baked potato, or as a filling for quesadillas or even grilled cheeze sandwiches. Just 4 main ingredients (not including spices), a blender, and 2 minutes of your time separate you from oozy, melty, gooey, cheezy bliss…

There are a lot of tasty dairy free cheese alternatives on the market today, but they are often quite pricey and made up of mostly oils and starches. You can make this yummy, healthy cheezy sauce for a fraction of the cost of store-bought alternatives. This recipe makes over a cup of cheeze sauce for about $2. The same amount of melted store-bought non-dairy cheeze would cost anout 4-5 times that.

I’ve tried several methods and various ingredients for making cheeze and cheeze sauce, and this is the quickest, easiest, and most delicious. I always come back to cashews. You can make this sauce without nuts (see my notes below the recipe) but if you’re able to eat them, I’d definitely include the cashews. Nutritional yeast and lemon juice are also a must for the most authentic cheese flavor.

I’m hoping that this post and my macaroni post will inspire you to try some homemade cheeze sauce. Whether you gave up cheese long ago, are trying to cut it out now, or even just wanting to reduce the amount you eat… definitely give this easy, healthier cheeze sauce a whirl.

Mexican Cheeze Sauce

1/3 cup cashews (soaked for a few hours, preferably – for digestion. Drain and rinse well. Not necessary if you have a high-speed blender)

2/3 cup filtered water

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes in olive oil (I rinse mine off)

2 teaspoon of lemon juice

1/3 cup of nutritional yeast

1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt

Spices: 1/8 tsp cumin, plus a dash of onion powder, garlic, chili powder, and paprika, cayenne – optional *

*You can omit the chili powder and cumin if you want a regular cheeze flavor (i.e. for grilled cheeze, etc)

Instructions

1. Simply add all ingredients to your blender and blend from low to high until completely smooth. Smoothest results will be achieved with a Vitamix or other high-speed high powered blender, but I used to make this a lot with my regular blender as well, just make sure to soak those cashews.

Notes:

For a nut-free sauce, simply use my macaroni cheeze sauce recipe (which uses carrots and sweet potato) and omit the cashews (you can omit the hemp seeds too if you wish). Reduce the water to 1/2 cup, increase the nutritional yeast to 1/2 cup, and add 2 tsp of lemon juice. Then add the above spices if desired for a Mexican cheeze flavor.