This Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce is made with sweet potatoes and, believe it or not, is everything you want from a creamy, spicy cheese sauce. This plant-based vegan nacho cheese dip is so good, you might even forget that it’s also healthy! Serve it with chips or drizzle it over steamed broccoli or your favorite veggie burgers.
If you are like me, a fan of the nacho cheese, you will love today’s post.
Because, you might also be like me and feel like the only way to make nacho cheese involves a big block of orange goo, called American cheese, aka Velveeta.
At least, that’s what I believed for years! One block of velveeta, one can of rotel and voila! Nacho Cheese Sauce!
Then I did the unthinkable and went vegan. What was I thinking! Oh, I know, I was thinking:
- healthier
- better for the environment
- better for animals
- cooler lifestyle
OK. That last one is all about me. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to go vegetarian in the first place. I just think they’re cool. I have no words to explain why! 😬
How to Make Vegan Nacho Cheese
I decided the only way to make a vegan nacho cheese sauce was to make it easy. I mean, tasty has to be part of the outcomes, for sure. But if the SAD (Standard American Diet) version of nacho cheese sauce is easy, then the plant-based version should be easy as well.
This recipe has 10 ingredients and they’re all ones you probably have on hand right now. Here are the ingredients:
- cornstarch
- sweet potatoes (with skin…it’s where the nutrients are!)
- nutritional yeast flakes (for cheesy flavor)
- lemon juice
- sea salt
- dehydrated onions (or onion powder works)
- garlic powder
- paprika
- 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilis (aka, Rotel)
That’s it. Of course, you might want some other fun ingredients for toppings, like freshly diced tomatoes, chopped cilantro, chopped red onion, and more.
That’s the basics of this recipe. I said it would be easy!
Favorite Vegan Cheese Dip Recipes
If you don’t think of vegan and cheese in the same sentence, you haven’t spent much time here! Because I love sharing delicious vegan cheesy recipes. Here are some of my favorites:
- Vegan Cheese Sauce – perfect for drizzling over baked potatoes and more
- Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip – take this to your next party
- Easy Vegan Queso — talk about easy, this one takes the cake (or cheese)
- Vegan Spinach Dip — for the days you don’t want artichokes
Those are some of my favorite vegan cheese dip recipes. Keep reading below for recipes from some of my favorite food blogging friends celebrating National Nacho Day!
I hope you love this recipe for Vegan Nacho Cheese sauce as much as we do! If you make it, be sure to snap a photo and share it with me on Instagram. I love seeing your photos!
Vegan Nacho Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 cup water
- 3 cups unpeeled diced sweet potatoes
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 14.5 ounce can Diced tomatoes and green chilis (with liquid) (Rotel)
Instructions
- Combine cornstarch and water in a skillet. Stir to combine. Place over medium heat and add diced sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil then reduce to low heat and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender.
- Pour sweet potato and water in a high-speed blender along with nutritional yeast flakes, lemon juice, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Blend until smooth. Add can of tomatoes and chilis, and pulse a few seconds to combine. Leave some texture from the tomatoes and chilis.
- Let cool for 5 - 10 minutes to thicken.
- Transfer any unused vegan nacho cheese sauce to a sealable container, cover and refrigerate for up to 7 - 10 days.
It’s National Nacho Day!
Come celebrate National Nacho Day with me and some of my favorite food bloggers! Below are some awesome recipes for you to try in honor of this tasty national holiday!
Please note, many of these recipes are not vegetarian, let alone vegan. Feel free to reach out to me if you’d like help veganizing any of these recipes. Believe me, it can be done because vegan nachos are my favorite guilty pleasure!
Celebrating National Nacho Day with over 10 mouth-watering nacho recipes from a variety of bloggers:
- Vegan Baked Nachos
- Cheesecake Dessert Nachos from Ashlee Marie
- Nacho Soup via Creations by Kara
- Hawaiian Barbecue Nachos from the Crumb Blog
- Vegan Loaded Nachos
- Buffalo Nachos from Savory Experiments
- Easy Dessert Nachos from the Real Mom Kitchen
- Vegan “Chicken” Nachos
- Instant Pot Nachos from 365 Days of Slow Cooking
- Fajita Nachos from The Baker Upstairs
- Spicy Nachos from Super Golden Bakes
- Homemade Nacho Cheese Sauce from My Mommy Style
That’s it! I hope you enjoy National Nachos Day!
We love Rotel in just about anything at our house. This sounds so good!
You are a genius! I have some friends coming for football that don’t eat diary, so I am totally trying this.
This looks great! I also grew up with the Velveeta + Rotel nacho sauce, and I’ve definitely found that making my own homemade sauce is just so much better! I have a bunch of nutritional yeast in the pantry that has just been waiting for the right recipe to come along, and this looks like the perfect way to use it!
What a genius way to turn nachos into a healthy, veggie-filled treat. I can see this being a huge hit with some of my friends who are on dairy-free diets… they’ll be so excited to have cheesy nachos they can eat!
Doesn’t taste anything like cheese sauce. Not bad, but shouldn’t be called cheese sauce.