When I published my popular Easy Cheezy Sauce and Vegan Cheddar Cheese Sauce recipes, I immediately got requests for nut-free versions. It seems quite a few of you have allergies or want a lower fat recipe. I’ve been playing around with a bunch of ingredients, but this Chickpea Cheese Sauce has stolen my heart.
How to Make this Easy Vegan Cheese Sauce with Chickpeas
Just like my Eazy Cheezy Sauce, this chickpea cheese sauce is incredibly simple to make. You’ve got just seven required ingredients in this recipe. You simply dump everything together in a blender and process for a half a minute or so.
Then, I like to cook this sauce gently for a few minutes to marry the flavors. Most dishes you’ll probably make this sauce for—pasta, baked potatoes, a cheese dip—all taste better with a warmed sauce anyway.
That’s it—instant, easy, cheesy done! And probably one of the healthiest ‘cheese’ sauces you can put in your mouth.
Why I Love This Nut-Free Chickpea 'Cheese' Sauce
This chickpea cheese sauce has so much going for it. Let’s break down the healthy, whole food plant-based goodness:
First, it makes the BEST low fat, high fiber nut free vegan mac and cheese! I never expected this recipe to become a Shah family favorite, but indeed it has. I mean, it’s got some pretty stiff competition with the other cheese sauces in our repertoire. 🙂 But this chickpea cheese sauce is so darn tasty and satisfying, we keep coming back to it again and again.
Second, it’s low in fat and high in fiber thanks to the chickpeas. In fact, it has about half the fat as a nut-based cheese sauce. And of course, it’s oil free. Third, it’s budget friendly. Let’s face it, chickpeas are way cheaper than cashews. At least where I live.
Fourth, it’s full of beans! (Or legumes, in this case.) According to Dr. Greger’s recommended Daily Dozen, we should all get about three servings of beans and legumes a day. What a tasty, creamy, satisfying way to fit more in. Fourth, if you have nut allergies, or your kid does, or your co-workers—no worries here. This one is nut allergen free.
How to Make the BEST Nut Free Vegan Mac and Cheese
This cheese sauce is great on baked potatoes, nachos--wherever you want to add creamy cheesiness. But we love in as a healthy mac and cheese sauce.
I like to use a whole food, plant-based compliant pasta, like a brown rice pasta or even a chickpea pasta. And while it's great with just the sauce, I love adding extra flavors like:
- fresh parsley (so simple, and my favorite)
- crushed red pepper flakes
- diced sun-dried tomatoes (rehydrated)
- fresh basil
- Italian seasonings
- and if you don't mind a small amount of nuts, a sprinkle of vegan parmesan cheese
With this simple sauce and a pot of pasta, you can have dinner on the table in 15 minutes!
If you like this whole food plant-based recipe, you might also like:
- 5-Minute Vegan Chickpea Alfredo Sauce
- Vegan Easy Cheezy Sauce
- Vegan Cheddar Cheese Sauce
- Easy Vegan Oil Free Pesto Sauce
- Vegan Oil Free Mayonnaise
📖 Recipe
Chickpea Cheese Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 15-ounce can, LIQUID RESERVED
- ¼-3/4 cups low sodium vegetable broth adjust for desired thickness
- ½ cup nutritional yeast
- ¼ cup lemon juice about 1 large lemon
- 2 tablespoons white miso paste (see notes for substition and info about miso + sodium)
- ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- ½ teaspoons onion powder
- Sea salt to taste
- Optional: ½ teaspoon turmeric for color
For Nut Free Vegan Mac and Cheese, serve over macaroni or pasta shells
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and process on high speed until thoroughly blended, about 20-30 seconds. Add a little of the reserved chickpea liquid ('aquafaba') to thin the sauce if needed. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
- For the best results, gently cook the sauce for 2-3 minutes to combine the flavors.
Notes
- Nutritional information shown is for sauce only
- Sodium: the sodium in this recipe may seem high, but is primarily from the miso paste, which is a healthy "green light salt" according to Dr. Greger. You can read more about miso here.
- I use mellow white miso paste for this recipe. If you can't find it or are allergic to soy, you can substitute 1 tablespoon tahini + 1-2 teaspoons of low sodium soy sauce, tamari or Bragg's aminos.
- If the sauce gets too thick (especially after refrigerating), thin it out with a little reserved chickpea liquid, how pasta water or hot tap water
- To add extra flavor to your mac and cheese, add:
- fresh parsley (so simple, and my favorite)
- crushed red pepper flakes
- diced sun-dried tomatoes (rehydrated)
- fresh basil
- Italian seasonings
- and if you don't mind a small amount of nuts, a sprinkle of vegan parmesan cheese
Laurie
Gurl! I’m a cheesehead. This is the best cheese sauce I’ve ever tasted. It has the sharp cheddar taste/ bite . I didn’t have white miso, but your substitution is on point! Absolutely delicious!
Rachel
Wow, these ingredients have no businesses blitzing up into something this dang good! I was honestly shocked- but this will now be my go-to vegan queso.
Our daughter has to be dairy free, and so a lot of times I will make her the same thing her dad and I are having, but swap in a vegan dairy replacement when needed. After I made this, I used it on everyone's nachos even tho I had bought regular queso, because it was that good. (Disclaimer to say that we all like vegan queso, and this is definitely exactly the same as a dairy queso, but we enjoy the nooch flavor)
Anywwu, a true keeper!!!!
Elizabeth Shah
Love it! Thanks for the review.
Laura
This is a really good recipe! I'm making it for the second time and using it on pizza -- again. I've never found a vegan cheese (store bought) that I like. This hits the spot. Last time I spread it on with some garlic and olive oil, fresh green onions after it came out of the oven. Today I'm topping it with roasted tomatoes, and fresh arugula. Although a sauce pizza can be really good, this makes me extra happy to eat pizza again. Glad to have found your recipe!
Elizabeth Shah
Love this! Enjoy.
Danny
Hey great recipe! I’ll be honest and say I sub a lot of the ingredients 😆. It turned out well though… I used white beans( sub for chickpeas), rice vinegar(sub for lemon ), and a vegan chicken bouillon cube (sub for veggie broth). I also didn’t have miso but I added some mushroom broth powder and some vegan cashew yogurt. It turned out well but a little grainy. I think it could be fixed with a little more liquid and maybe some EVOO. Thank you for a good base recipe!!!
Sammy
While I do prefer my cashew cheese recipe, I have been trying to reduce/cut out unnecessary fat from my diet, so I just made this sauce. I haven't put it onto anything yet as it's not even noon yet, but will be using it over broccoli and potatoes this evening. The flavour is great, a bit strong on the lemon juice but completely acceptable as a lower fat, higher fiber/protein alternative, it's the best of everything!!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe as I know i will be making this often!!!
Allanah
I just made this with the slight adjustment of adding a little cathedral city vegan cheese and it is honestly the best vegan cheese sauce I've ever had! I had kind of given up on trying to recreate cheese sauce as there's nothing quite like the real thing and alot of vegan cheese sauces make me feel sick, but I had the ingredients so thought I'd give it 1 last go and I was blown away! Amazing! Thank you
Elizabeth Shah
Hi Allanah! So happy to hear you finally found a cheese sauce that you love. Life does seem better with good vegan cheese, doesn't it? :)))
Saundra
Hi
How long does this last and can it be frozen?
Elizabeth Shah
It lasts 3-4 days in the refrigerator, and can be frozen for about 3 months.
Brenda
Hi, I just made your sauce, and it has a strong sour taste. I'm not sure if I did something wrong for if my lemon was really strong. Does yours come out sour? any suggestions? Thank you
Elizabeth Shah
Hi Brenda, No, this should not taste sour. My guesses are perhaps the lemon as you suggest, or the nutritional yeast brand or miso paste. Some nutritional yeast has a bit of an off taste (I use Bob's Red Mill) and some miso is pretty strong. I used Miso Masters Mellow White Miso. Hope this helps.
Rebecca
Looking forward to trying this recipe. Wondering if anyone has ever used marmite instead of miso?
osei
wow, so simple, so easy, so fast, so delicious, this is to good to be true
Elizabeth Shah
Isn't it?!
Robyn
This exceeded my expectations. I didn't have miso so I subbed a teaspoon of soy sauce.
After blending, I put it in the microwave for 1 minute which was perfect.
This is definitely added to my rotation.
Alexandra
Delicious and Easy, and no unusual ingredients.
Elizabeth Shah
Thanks!
Kimberley
I've been having the worst acid reflux symptoms and needed to cut out a lot of foods from my diet but trying to figure out what to eat that I enjoyed was a task! When I came across this recipe I knew I just had to try it. Unlike many vegan sauces, this one doesn't contain cashews so it doesn't turn acid in my stomach. It was the one thing that I was able to digest easily with some quinoa pasta. Love this!
Elizabeth Shah
Hi Kimberly, While I love a cashew sauce, I realize they don't work for everyone. So glad this one is a good fit for your diet.
Jackson
An excellent recipe I can't wait to try it. Thank you
Elizabeth Shah
Thanks so much. Enjoy!
Molly
I'm going to make this with my bags of yellow split peas😊😊😊💛
Elizabeth Shah
Wow, I'd love to hear how that goes!
Tracy
If you made this thicker, then refrigerated it, would it become a block you could shred?
Elizabeth Shah
Nope, I don't believe that would work.
Tahira Akhtar
Was wondering could you use chickpea flour instead of chickpeas?
Elizabeth Shah
Hmm, I honestly don't know! I think the texture wouldn't be quite the same, but I'd love to hear how it works if you give it a try!
Jo
I can't find your note about a miso substitute for lower sodium, but you really should add too the main recipe that miso is not vegan unless it is specifically labeled as such. Miso contains tuna flakes
Elizabeth Shah
The substitutions for miso paste are at the bottom of the recipe. Miso paste does not contain tuna flakes--at least I've never found any that does. You might be thinking of miso soup or dashing--the Japanese broth made with bonito flakes.