Vegan Queso
The best vegan queso is made with cashews, green chilies, and warm spices, creating a healthy dip made with whole food plant based ingredients and ready in minutes!
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Total Time: 15 min
- Yield: Serves 6 - 8 1x
- Category: Condiment, Appetizer
- Method: puree
- Cuisine: Tex-Mex, Mexican
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup water
- 1 clove garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 – 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 4oz can green chile peppers
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 salt, or to taste
Instructions
Soak the cashews. I like to soak my cashews covered in hot water for 5 minutes. This helps them soften up nicely and blend into pure creamy perfect. To help with digestion, it’s recommended to soak them for up to 2 hours in cool water. Soaking can be optional.
Blend the ingredients. Add the cashews, 1/2 cup water, garlic, nutritional yeast, cumin, chili powder, and salt to the blender cup. Blend until creamy, about 1 – 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Add more water as needed. Taste for flavor.
Warm it up (optional). For a warm vegan queso, pour queso dip into an oven safe bowl, cover with tin foil, and place in a preheated oven set to 350 degrees F. for 10 – 15 minutes. Alternatively, warm in the microwave, uncovered, using 30 second intervals, stirring after each until warmed through.
Serve: Serve warm or at room temperature with your favorite tortilla chips or veggie sticks. For color and texture top with sliced or diced, jalapeno, red bell pepper, tomatoes, green onions and/or cilantro.
Makes about 1 1/4 cups
Serves 4 – 6
Store: Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 – 7 days, in a covered container. Give a good stir before serving.
Notes
If you find you want more flavor, bump up the spices a bit to suit your taste.
For a chunky style queso dip, instead of adding the green chile peppers when blending, stir them in after the dip has been blended. You may even like to add finely diced tomatoes or red bell pepper for color.
Nightshade free: To make queso nightshade free, simply omit the diced green chilies and chili powder. In place of the chili powder, use 1/2 teaspoon EACH garlic & onion powder. Also make the cumin a heaping teaspoon.
Nutritional values are estimates only. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Find it online: https://simple-veganista.com/vegan-queso/