Healthy + Cheesy Vegan Queso

Hiiii friends! I had a lot of questions about the homemade queso I posted on my IG not too long ago, so I wanted to share my recipe.

I know there are lots of vegan queso recipes out there, but this is my own spin on it. I feel like all recipes that I’ve looked at either have the boiled veggies with nutritional yeast or cashews and nutritional yeast. Well, I want really cheesy and the protein from the cashews doesn’t hurt either… so I combined. And the result was reeeeallly cheesy and delicious!

Recipe

You will need:

1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for about 30 minutes in hot water
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup water (best if you use the starchy water from boiling the veggies, but not necessary)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast (more or less to taste)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1-2 tsp salt (to taste)

To make:

Add raw cashews to a bowl with hot water and allow to soak for about 30 minutes.
While waiting on your cashews – in a large pot, bring carrots, potatoes, and onion to a boil. Let boil until tender.
After about a half hour, drain your soaked cashews and add to blender. Pull out 1/2 cup of the water used to boil veggies and blend with cashew for about 2-3 minutes, or until smooth. This helps breakdown the cashews before adding everything else (much smoother).
Strain out your boiled veggies first and add more water if you think it is necessary for consistency. If you are not sure, just save some on the side so you can add more later. It’s flavorful and starchy! If you forget, it’s okay – just use regular ‘ol water.
Add nutritional yeast, paprika, onion powder, black pepper, and salt to taste. I had to add more salt as I went to get exactly what I wanted.
Run blender for about 3-5 minutes, or however long it takes to get this queso silky smooth. It took a little bit so keep it running, if you are not satisfied!
Pour into a mason jar to store in fridge or serve immediately.

This is perfect for some homemade vegan nachos (it bakes so well!!) or as a dipping sauce. I immediately made some baked fries to have with it.

I also joked about drinking it straight, which… really… it’s not that bad for you… it’s basically nuts and veggies and some bomb seasoning. I totally ate some with a spoon.