This Vegan Chipotle Cheese Sauce is made with cashews, garlic, nutritional yeast, chipotle peppers, chili powder, paprika, and blended with hot water.

This is one of my favorite dips ever. It is similar to a queso but I personally like my queso thick and spicy – hence the name. My cheese-digesting powers have not been up to par lately, so I decided to try making this dip.

Fall is my favorite season ever. I walked into ShopRite and their limited edition chips were available. The Turkey and Stuffing flavor was completely sold out which was a bummer, but they still had their Bowl & Basket Wavy Chip Baby Back Ribs flavor. I decided, what would be a better way to eat these chips than a nice cheesy dip?

If you love this recipe, feel free to try my Vegan Egg Rolls or my Vegan Scallion Pancakes.

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Ingredients
Instructions
Substitutions
Variations
Equipment
Storage
Top tip
Vegan Chipotle Cheese Sauce
Food safety

Ingredients

You'll only need a few simple ingredients to make this. The exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below. Here's an overview of what you'll need:

Cashews
Garlic
Nutritional yeast
Chili powder
Paprika
Chipotle in adobo sauce
Hot water

See recipe card for Vegan Chipotle Cheese Sauce quantities.

Instructions

Add all the ingredients to a blender.

Blend until creamy.

Add more hot water as needed to blend until creamy and smooth. I would use a high speed blender for this.

Taste and adjust flavor as needed adding more nutritional yeast for cheesiness, salt to taste, or chipotle for heat.

Hint: If the consistency gets too thin, feel free to add more cashews and if it's too thick, add more hot water.

Substitutions

Cashews: You should use raw cashews for a smoother texture. If you use roasted cashew, you’re essentially eating altered nut since it was removed from its shell, and that changes the texture.
Garlic: I minced the garlic before adding into the blender for a nicer, finer taste.
Nutritional Yeast: This ingredient is important because it gives the dip the cheesy flavor it needs. Nutritional yeast is a good source of vitamins, minerals and even prevent muscle loss.
Spices: You can alter the amount of paprika and chili powder in the dip. For a more smoky flavor, add more paprika. For more heat, add chili powder.
Chipotle pepper: Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce can be found in the ethnic food section of your grocery store. This will give the dip a lot of heat, and feel free to alter the amount.
Hot water: The water must be hot to be able to blend thoroughly well. I put the water in a coffee mug and heated it up in the microwave for 2 minutes before mixing in.

Variations

Cooking is a chance to be creative! Have fun with it and feel free to make your own variation.

Spicy - add more chili powder for more spice, or cayenne pepper.
Deluxe - top with cilantro and jalapeno slices.
Kid friendly - Dip with potato chips.

Check out my Vegan Gazpacho.

Equipment

Equipment can have a big impact on how a recipe turns out. Stone bakeware takes longer to heat up than metal pans, and also retain heat for longer, which could make the recipe more watery, or burnt on the outsides.

I love using my Caraway pots, pans and baking sheets for best quality. Get yourself a discount by clicking here!

Storage

This will be good in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

This cheese sauce can be frozen for up to three months.

Top tip

If the consistency gets too thin, feel free to add more cashews and if it's too thick, add more hot water.