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
Chickpea Cheese Sauce
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 15-ounce can, LIQUID RESERVED
- 1/4-3/4 cups low sodium vegetable broth adjust for desired thickness
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup lemon juice about 1 large lemon
- 2 tablespoons white miso paste (see notes for substition and info about miso + sodium)
- 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
- Sea salt to taste
- Optional: 1/2 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
Couldn’t wait to try this recipe. Searched and waited until I found all ingredients. Made the sauce, simmered it (as suggested) for richness of flavor. Served with ziti pasta but found it had a distinct, artificial flavor to me. In all fairness I am not a vegetarian or vegan which may have affected my taste buds. I was fearful that my husband wouldn’t care for it so I added a good handful of pecorino romano. He loved it. I liked it but not enough to make it again. Just didn’t taste like cheese to me without adding real cheese.
Hi Lisa, Sorry you didn’t care for this vegan recipe. The flavor you’re talking about is likely the nutritional yeast, which many vegans eat regularly, but some people don’t like at all. You’re probably correct, vegans and plant based folks have very different taste buds. I personally could no longer tolerate an actual dairy cheese sauce; it would be overwhelming.
This does not taste like cheese. I followed the recipe exactly. It was a good type of sauce, though. I served it on nachos.
A lot of plant-based folks find that the combo of nutritional yeast + garlic tastes pretty cheesy. I sure do! Sorry this didn’t give you the cheese fix you were hoping for.
Just tried this sauce and we love it! Not only is it very tasty, it’s quick and that is worth 5 stars.
Thanks for another great recipe. ?
Hi Jodi! Thanks so much for your review and kind words. SO glad you like this chickpea cheese sauce. I couldn’t agree more–5-minute recipes are something we all could use more of. 🙂
I followed the recipe above except I used water and not broth to help control the salt. It was delicious!
I’m so glad you liked it! I haven’t tried water rather than broth, but good to know it’s still delicious. 🙂
I made this for dinner tonight as a vegan mac & cheese. It was very good. Kids loved it and it was fast which made this working mom happy too. I also loved the nut-based cheese sauce but wanted something lower in fat!
Hi Kelly, So glad you gave this a go and that the kiddos went for it! Gotta have those quick & easy go to recipes on hand. And thanks for the kind words 🙂
I wanted so much to love this recipe. I’m only about 4 months in to WFPB way of life. I’ve tried 5 other ‘cheese sauce’ recipes, but I just didn’t like this one. I’m not sure what I did wrong as I followed the recipe to a T. I used 1/2 cup Pacific Foods organic vegetable broth. I added 3 TBSP of aquafaba. And another 1/4 cup of nooch in hopes I would like the taste. I did use the white miso paste. I felt like I made a good mustard for a sandwich. I have another spicy cheese sauce in my fridge. I tried mixing a small amount of the two. I still only tasted mustard. I didn’t save this batch of sauce. I didn’t know what to do for it. I am giving it 3 stars though because it was so easy to make. Plus , I love the nutritional value and the ingredients.
I can’t imagine why this would have tasted like mustard! I’m personally not a fan of Pacific broth (too carrot-tasting for me). I usually use homemade or buy a mellower tasting powdered or paste mix. It could be the miso. I tend to use Miso Master’s Mellow White Miso. But honestly, I’m lost on this one! :)))
Maybe it was the miso? It is so strong in flavor. I’ll probably try it again with the tahini/tamari substitution. I forgot to add that I actually really liked how creamy it came out despite the beans that some people commented on. My ninja isn’t the best with cashews and I wanted this to work so bad! I’m lost too
Well, I hope playing around with the ingredients works out! Thanks for hanging in there :))))