This creamy Vegan Queso is smoky, savory, and full of flavor! Made with sweet potato, it's an easy dairy-free queso dip and appetizer, perfect for nachos, tacos, and tortilla chips.
This Vegan Queso is ridiculously creamy, smoky, and full of savory, cheesy flavor-without a drop of dairy! Made with orange vegetables (carrots, yams, or orange bell peppers), cashews, miso, and warming spices, it blends into a silky-smooth queso that's perfect for dipping, drizzling, and spooning over just about everything.
What I love about this recipe is that it uses simple, wholesome ingredients-no nutritional yeast required. The vegetables give it body and that gorgeous golden color, cashews make it luxuriously creamy, and miso adds the savory umami depth that makes the whole thing surprisingly "cheesy."
Serve it warm with tortilla chips, spoon it over nachos, or drizzle it onto tacos and burrito bowls. It keeps well in the fridge and reheats beautifully, making it a great one to have on hand for easy meals and snacking. Check out all our appetizers!
Why you’ll love this Vegan Queso
- Wholesome ingredients: Packed with veggies and light on the nuts, this lighter version of vegan queso is low in calories and dairy-free.
- Nut-free option: Instead of cashews, try hemp hearts – just as creamy.
- Adaptable: Use carrots, sweet potatoes or orange bell peppers, or any combo of orange veggies. Talk about getting your vitamin A!
- Simple method: No pre-soaking the nuts, woo- hoo! So this can be made on a whim.
Vegan Queso Ingredients
- Olive oil - For sautéing the aromatics and adding richness.
- Shallot & garlic - Create a savory flavor base; substitute onion for the shallot and garlic powder for fresh garlic.
- Orange vegetables - Carrots, orange bell pepper, sweet potato, or a combination give the queso its beautiful golden color, subtle sweetness, and creamy body.
- Raw cashews - Blend into a rich, creamy sauce; hemp hearts are a great alternative.
- White miso paste - The secret to savory, cheesy-tasting depth and plenty of umami.
- Spices - Cumin, smoked paprika or chili powder, ground chipotle, salt, and pepper add warmth, smokiness, and a little kick.
- Lime - An optional squeeze at the end brightens and balances the flavors.
- Optional garnishes - Finish with fresh or pickled jalapeños, cilantro, scallions, or your favorite hot sauce.
Best Veggies to Use
Use 2 cups total of orange vegetables-carrots, orange bell pepper, sweet potato, or any combination. Slice them very thinly so they cook quickly and blend up silky smooth.
My favorite combination: carrot or sweet potato with orange bell pepper. The pepper adds sweetness and helps create that beautiful golden-orange color.
How to make Vegan Queso
Step one: Heat olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Sauté shallot and garlic until tender, golden and fragrant. This step adds a lot of flavor.
Step two: Add the veggies, spices, salt, pepper, cashews and water, stir, and bring to a boil. Cover, lower and simmer until veggies (especially carrots) are very tender, about 15 minutes. Set aside a half cup of the liquid.
Step three: Pour the remaining mixture into a high-speed blender, Vitamix, or regular blender, with the miso paste until the texture is silky smooth, only adding more liquid to get the blades going if need be. *If using a regular blender, be very careful when blending hot liquids, holding the lid down firmly with a kitchen towel, starting on the lowest speed. You can also use a food processor.
Step four: Taste and adjust salt and spice level to your liking. If it tastes bland, add more salt or miso. Lime juice adds a nice brightness here.
Pour vegan cashew queso into a serving bowl and garnish with sliced jalapeño (or pickled jalapeños), cilantro, and scallions.
Storage & Reheating
Refrigerate vegan queso in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat in a saucepan or in the microwave!
Expert Tips
- Make it smoky! A teaspoon or two of adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers adds amazing flavor. Or you can use ground chipotle. Start small, taste and adjust.
- Don’t skip the miso! It adds a delicious depth of flavor. So does the nutritional yeast (use 1-3 teaspoons).
- Do not add anything green to the blended queso, or the queso will result in a brownish color!
- Assemble stacked nachos: Layer tortilla chips with queso, black beans, avocado, tomatoes, jalapeño and cilantro, and repeat. Keep layering- the queso will help things stick together! Serve with fermented hot sauce!
Serving Suggestions
Serve Vegan Queso warm with tortilla chips for dipping, or drizzle it over tacos, nachos, burritos, burrito bowls, roasted vegetables, or grain bowls.
Top with diced tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, jalapeños, or green chiles. For extra tang and heat, add our Pickled Jalapeños, Pickled Shallots, 5-Minute Hot Sauce, or Fermented Hot Sauce.
I can’t wait to hear what you think of this Vegan Queso recipe in the comments! Enjoy!
Print
Vegan Queso Recipe
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 ¼ cups 1x
- Category: Appetizer, vegan
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This creamy Vegan Queso is smoky, savory, and full of flavor! Made with wholesome ingredients, it's an easy dairy-free queso for nachos, tacos, and dipping.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 fat shallot ( or half an onion), diced
- 4–6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped ( or sub garlic powder)
- 2 cups orange vegetables: carrots, very thinly sliced (any combination, see notes) or orange bell pepper or sweet potatoes.
- 2 cups water, more for blending if needed
- 1/2 cup raw cashews (or use hemp hearts)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika or chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle -or less for less spicy ( see notes)
- 2 tablespoons white miso paste, for depth
- squeeze of lime- optional
- Garnishes: sliced jalapeno or pickled jalapeños, cilantro, scallions, hot sauce
Instructions
- Saute. Heat olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Saute shallot and garlic until tender, golden, and fragrant, about 4-5 minutes.
- Simmer. Add the veggies, spices, salt, pepper, cashews and water, and bring to a boil. Cover, lower and simmer until veggies (especially carrots) are very tender, about 15 minutes.
- Blend. Reserve 1/2 cup of the hot liquid, and pour the remaining mixture into a high-speed blender or Vitamix or food processor with the miso paste. Blend until the texture is silky-smooth, adding more liquid only as needed to get the blades going if needed. *If using a regular blender, be very careful when blending hot liquids, holding the lid down firmly with a kitchen towel, starting on lowest speed.
- Season. Taste and adjust salt and spice level to your liking. (I like to taste this with a tortilla chip, if using). Add a squeeze of lime for a tangy note if you like.
- Serve. Pour into serving bowl (warm) and garnish with sliced jalapeno ( or pickled jalapenos), cilantro, and scallions- or see notes.
- Vegan Queso can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and reheated in a saucepan or microwave!
Notes
Veggies: you can use most any combination of orange veggies. Using carrots and yams helps add “bulk” and adding orange bell pepper is great for flavor. If using all bell peppers, I would strain the mixture before blending, as they will release extra water, and just add enough liquid to the blender to get the motor going. Make sure to very thinly slice carrots (1/16 of an inch- for fastest cooking). I recommend peeling the sweet potato for optional finished color/presentation. Do not add anything green like green chilies to this part, or queso will turn brown. 🙂
Chipotle: A teaspoon or two of adobo sauce from canned chipotle adds great flavor here. Or use smoky ground chipotle- be sure to go light, add more to taste.
White Miso adds great depth here. Feel free to leave it out. You can also add 1-3 teaspoons of nutritional yeast to the blender if you like.
To make stacked nachos, layer tortilla chips with queso, black beans, avocado, tomatoes, jalapeno and cilantro, and repeat, and keep layering- the queso will help things stick together! Serve with fermented hot sauce!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ¼ cup
- Calories: 87
- Sugar: 2.2 g
- Sodium: 171.9 mg
- Fat: 6.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 7.1 g
- Fiber: 1.5 g
- Protein: 1.7 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
FAQs
Most vegan queso recipes are made with cashews, which we use here. But we also offer a nut-free variation using hemp hearts! The orange veggies are a unique twist that make our vegan queso especially nutritious and a vibrant color!
Yes! Simply use hemp hearts instead of cashews.
If you wish to make this recipe gluten-free, simply leave out the miso!
Yes! Adding so many veggies makes this recipe high in potassium, beta carotene, and vitamin c.
This recipe was super easy to make and the spice profile was great! I also found it a little bit runny (I even used 3 cups of a mixture of peppers, carrots and sweet potato) so it was more of a drizzle than the thick nacho-cheese consistency. However, I do think it will make a fabulous Mexican-Style Sweet Potato Soup!
Hey Shana, thanks for the feedback. I adjusted the recipe a bit to thicken it up.:)
I was looking for a new type of dip and thought this sounded perfect. Of note… mine was a bit runny. I did half pepper half carrot. I’m thinking if I’d cooked it with the lid of some of the water would have evaporated. I have “Alfredo” recipe that is similar with cauliflower that requires the lid to be off during cooking. With 1 Tb miso I thought it was still bland. Tasted too much like bell pepper. I added a second. Still a bit bland. Maybe I have weak miso – it is the mild white kind. So I added a quarter cup of nooch. That helped a lot. I liked how easy it was to make and I like having something as a dipping option.
Hi Sarah, Glad you gave this a go. Recipe calls for 2 tablespoons miso, so maybe that is why it was bland. I used white miso as well. I made the recipe card more clear about only adding enough liquid to be able to blend it. Thanks for the feedback- super helpful!
And I owe an apology. After making my comment I went back and realized I had forgotten to add chipotle. I think that would have helped boost the flavor.
No worries Sarah! Thanks for circling back!
What a fun, delicious, and healthy recipe!! Now I can put delicious melted cheese in everything while eating vegetables! Thanks for another great one!
Wonderful Joanna! Glad you are enjoying. Appreciate the review!
Yum! Goes on everything and is SO easy to make. I had put aside several recipes but never tried any because they looked like a major undertaking. This hits the spot in no time.
I first paired it with your gfyg book omelette, then leftovers as a salade dressing and nacho topping. 💖
So glad you are enjoying this Renée!
My first venture in making vegan queso. It did not disappoint. Good flavor and easy to make.
Awesome!
This recipe is seriously delicious and easy. I have made it at least 5 times and everyone raves about it!
So glad to hear this Dawn! Thanks for taking the time to review.
So good!!!! I am impressed. It’s so perfectly balance. I used carrots only. I made nachos 🙂 I have a lot leftover!!! So it’s going on everything else this weekend 🙂 thank you for another amazing recipe!!!
Excellent, so happy you liked this one! 🙂
This is just delicious! Thank you for another fantastic recipe.
Thanks so much Sienna!
This queso recipe is incredible. I made it with hemp hearts and carrots and used it on nachos with your vegan chorizo. Easy, healthy and not overly caloric like many other recipes that are made with mostly nuts.
Great to hear this Helene!
Looks very intriguing and yummy! Sylvia said she would share info about a tortilla chip that does not use seed oils, yet I’m not finding more info about it or a link to a specific product.
Hi Angie- I just added it to the post. Seite Brand!
This was very tasty with the right combination of spice and sweetness. Thanks for sharing!
Awesome to hear Cindy!
Hi,
I used 2 cups veggies (one bell pepper and one carrot) my queso was not as thick as pictured. Actually, it was rather soupy, not sure why? Maybe the sweet potato is what thickens it?
Kindest regards,
Alicia
Oh shoot. Did you add more water to the blender by chance? I have made this with carrot and bell pepper and it turned out, but maybe I used more carrot?
Cant wait to try for Super Bowl!
Great! Let us know what you think.