In the past year or so, since I have been playing around with making cheese sauces based upon potatoes, carrots, nutritional yeast and some type of fat source (nuts, seeds or oil) over and over I have wondered to myself...."How did I ever survive for a quarter century as a vegan, and not know how to make some variation of this cheese sauce?" Although I change this up almost every time I make it, I am presenting this version of it here -- mostly because it is oil-free and nut-free (making it more "inclusive") and this one is a very inexpensive version too. The finished product stores well in a glass jar in the refrigerator for about week, and can be used with pasta, on a baked potato, drizzled over steamed broccoli or cauliflower, mixed with salsa for a great hot cheese dip, added to rice and peas, or used inside a burrito. And, unlike the dairy cheese it can replace, it contains no cholesterol, no cancer or acne promoting hormones, no trans-fats, has an exponentially lower carbon footprint, and doesn't require tearing baby calves and their mothers apart. Nutritional yeast can be found in the bulk section of natural foods stores and you can get it as a powder or as flakes. It is NOT the same as brewers yeast -- so make sure you don't confuse the two. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 lb scrubbed sliced potatoes (about 2 medium sized)
½ lb scrubbed carrots ends removed and sliced (about 4 medium)
2 cups water (plus additional water as needed)
2 medium sized cloves of garlic peeled and coarsely chopped
1/3- ½ cup raw ORGANIC sunflower seeds (use less to reduce fat, more to make richer sauce) *
2 TBS Lemon juice
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
¼ tsp ground yellow mustard seed
¼ tsp chili powder
1 cup nutritional yeast (flakes or powder)
* Alternatively -- you can use 3-4 TBS of olive oil in place of the sunflower seeds -- this makes the recipe nut and seed free, and less expensive to make.
Directions:
Ingredients:
1 lb scrubbed sliced potatoes (about 2 medium sized)
½ lb scrubbed carrots ends removed and sliced (about 4 medium)
2 cups water (plus additional water as needed)
2 medium sized cloves of garlic peeled and coarsely chopped
1/3- ½ cup raw ORGANIC sunflower seeds (use less to reduce fat, more to make richer sauce) *
2 TBS Lemon juice
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
¼ tsp ground yellow mustard seed
¼ tsp chili powder
1 cup nutritional yeast (flakes or powder)
* Alternatively -- you can use 3-4 TBS of olive oil in place of the sunflower seeds -- this makes the recipe nut and seed free, and less expensive to make.
Directions:
- Wash and scrub potatoes and carrots (if organic no need to peel) slice into about ½ inch thick slices and place intomedium sized covered sauce pan and bring to a boil on high.Turn down heat and simmer covered about 10 -15 minutes until vegetables are soft.Turn off heat.
- Place the potatoes, carrots and their cooking liquid into a large blender. Add additional water if needed to bring volume up to 4 cups.Add the raw garlic and blend on high until creamy.
- Measure out sunflower seeds and place them into a bowl and fill with water.Swish around a few times and drain through a strainer.Repeat a few times, then drain well and add to blender.Add the lemon juice, vinegar, salt, onioin powder, mustard and chili powder and blend on high until thoroughly blended and creamy.
- Add the nutritional yeast and blend one last time until well incorporated.If not using right away, transfer to a glass jar and store in refrigerator.Keeps well for about a week.
