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Cashew Queso
Course: Dips and spreads, Featured Recipes, PopularYield475
ml (2 cups)Active time2
minutesCook time5
minutesTotal time7
minutesHow do you write about one of the greatest gifts you’ve given to the world? The answer is: you don’t. Instead, you let other people do it for you. Below are some of our favorite stories staring the recipe that began it all. Originally from Life is NOYOKE, it’s Cashew Queso: Great hot or cold, lasts for days, adored by picky eaters young and old. It’s the return of cheese. It’s an irresistible appetizer to bring to a party. It’s a base for soup (Broccoli “Cheese”), a sauce for tacos, a dip for chips or veggies. This dairy-free cheese sauce may be the best Vitamix recipe ever. It’s mine, it’s ours, it’s here for the world to discover and enjoy. –Lenny Gale
Ingredients
1 cup (240 mL) milk of choice, unsweetened
¼ cup (20 g) nutritional yeast
½ cup (70 g) raw almonds, unsalted
½ cup (65 g) raw cashews, unsalted
1 red bell pepper, seeded
1 ½ tsp (8 g) salt
½ tsp (1.5 g) garlic powder
1 tsp (2.5 g) onion powder
crushed red pepper – a few shakes (to taste)
Directions
- Add ingredients to blender container in order listed.
- Blend on high for 6 minutes (or use pre-programmed ‘Soup’ setting).
- Enjoy with friends.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Equipment: This recipe assumes you have a high-performance blender that can heat ingredients. If you don’t have one, blend until smooth and heat on stovetop on medium heat until warm.
- Storage: Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Cashews allergy? Substitute with raw sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. Per our friend Andrew, this substitution works perfectly.
Great on jackfruit tacos or sliders.
Great as an easy kids dinner.
284 responses to “Cashew Queso”
I need some help. You list the dry ingredients in volume (cups) and weight (grams). The recipe calls for 1/4 cups (60 grams) of nutritional yeast. My 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast weights 26 grams.
Can you please verify?
Thank you.
Hey Dave, good catch. It *is* a quarter cup. The site I just checked said a full cup equals 60 grams. So there was the typo. 15 grams is about right
just tried it for the first time YUM!
You guys have been talking about this queso for years, and I finally made it. What was I waiting for?!??!!! It is SO good. Mine came out too thin at first, more like a soup (maybe my bell pepper was extra huge?), so I added extra nuts & spices and re-blended. Perfect. Thank you for satisfying my isolation-induced nacho craving!
Welcome to the party, Lucy! Probably just a coincidence that we just made a new video tutorial for it. 🙂
We loved it! So easy. Thank you!
We made our first two batches of this and it’s awesome, we used a dried Mexican chile (cascabel) instead of red pepper flakes and it gives it a nice smokey flavor.
Has anyone tried to use real onion and garlic in this instead of the powder? I’m going to try this week but was curious about the proportions.
We never have dried fresh onion, but it’s going to water it down a decent bit. So you’ll want to reduce the amount of almond milk (or whatever liquid you’re using) by a bit. Also, raw onions are pretty strong, so it might help and even make it taste better if they were sautéed for a couple minutes. 👍
Love this receipe however used Silk unsweetened coconut milk. My cheese needs to be a bit thicker and tips to thicken?
Add a bit more nuts or use a bit less liquid. 🙂
One of the best cheese sauce recipes I’ve found.
However, the red pepper I used make it a little too sweet.
Any ideas on how to make this less sweet?
Thanks!That’s a tough one — maybe a less ripe red pepper? If you use a green bell pepper, the color will be weird
Add some vinegar to tone down the sweetness factor 🙂
I want to make it the night before our pot-luck, can I just microwave it the next morning to warm it up? has anyone done this? Does it change the consistency or texture?
It’s best fresh, but you can def microwave it the day after. Just give it a little mix after so the top isn’t coagulated. 🙂
Oh Wow! Super Bowl worthy! We just made this today for the first time to snack on during the Super Bowl. Very delicious and such a healthy alternative.We are not vegan, but trying to get away from dairy and eat healthy. You are so right, the “queso” won’t last long. Thank you for sharing your recipes. I am love my new Vitamix!
Oh my goodness! I’m not vegan, but after watching the Life is no yoke videos to get some Vitamix training I had to try this. I can’t wait to make for the vegans/dairy free people I know that are missing their cheese. We ate it on tortilla chips with a bite of avocado. You really do an amazing service to people who are new to the vitamix. We’re stuck in for COVID social distancing, so I finally had time to play around with my new vitamix that has been in the box waiting for me to have some time for at least 4 months! I am in love. If you’re intimidated about getting started, don’t hesitate. Watch videos by life is no yoke. I got a great deal through the site and am happy to support them since their site gives such great information. Thank so much!
I just tried this and OMG so good! I used Hemp Milk as that’s what I had on hand.
MOST delicious Vegan sauce I have ever ever made !!!
Second time I made it I didn’t have a red pepper so I used roasted red bell peppers in a jar….yum. I’m going to use the sauce tonight to make vegan nachos along with Jason Wrobel’s Cauliflower-Lentil taco “meat”.If I don’t have almond milk on hand but I have homemade cashew milk, can I use that? Or should it be almond milk for a consistency thing? I can’t wait to try!!
This recipe has the best flavor! I think I do something wrong it’s always way too thick and I cannot get it out of the vita mix. I Add almost double the liquid and it still very thick it will not pour out of my vita mix. It also gets stuck underneath my blade. I do put the liquid in first. But then I have to add more because I can’t get it to pour. Other than my issues, it tastes wonderful!
Are you using homemade almond milk? If yes, you’ll need to add some water because that has much more almonds than store-bought almond milk. (source)
And here’s a link to the under blade scraper we like. Helps get some of the blend that got stuck under the blade 👍
Ok! Thank you!! I always use homemade milk. Thanks for the tip!
This is by far one of the easiest and tastiest recipes I’ve ever made. In my life. Almost too good to be true. Can’t wait for my vegan brother to try it. Our 2 year old daughter absolutely loves it, and of course we’re always looking for nutrient dense foods to fill her tiny tummy. Thank you! We were also big fans of your cauliflower soup recipe…
Love this! Thanks Jacqui. Try our Creamy Wild Rice Soup next. 🙂
The wild rice soup is great!!!
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I’m in love with this recipe! It’s the yummiest, easiest recipe in my rotation!
Though I couldn’t find raw cashews, only roasted.
Turns out truly raw cashews are poisonous – cashews are steamed or roasted before being sold to get rid of urushiol, a chemical also found in poison ivy.
So don’t feel bad if you can only find roasted cashews – they work well.
Well that’s helpful to consider. I think most “raw” cashews are actually pasteurized so not poisonous?
You can easily find raw, meaning unroasted, cashews in most stores. Nobody in America sells truly raw cashews as they would be poisonous. At the very least try a whole foods. The main reason they say raw is to not include the salt that usually comes with roasted ones.
Absolutely phenomenal recipe! I had to fight to stop eating it.
Take this away from me! 😉
Show it off to friends and send them our way?
OMG this was truly amazing. Just got my Vitamix and found this recipe. We ate it with chips and had all we could do to walk away and not eat it all. Yum !!!
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