Sweet Potato Cheese Sauce (Vegan) (2024)

This Sweet Potato Cheese Sauce is packed with wholesome ingredients, amazingly delicious, and diabetes-friendly. Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, and dairy-free.

Delicious on steamed vegetables, veggie pizza, and so many more recipes, this vegan cheese is going to become a family favorite.

You’ll love this sweet potato sauce because it’s…

• Full of wholesome ingredients
• Creamy
• Healthy
• Low glycemic
• Oil-free
• Vegan
• Amazingly delicious!

Ingredients for sweet potato cheese sauce

Incredibly some of the ingredients used to make this amazing sweet potato sauce are so wholesome and simple, you may even already have everything needed in your kitchen. At my house, we eat a lot of sweet potatoes because not only are they delicious but they are loaded with nutrition.

• Sweet potatoes
• Onions
• Carrots
• Raw cashews (or white beans)
• Nutritional yeast flakes
• Lemon juice
• Few spices

How to make sweet potato cheese sauce

The recipe card at the bottom of the page has the full list of ingredients with measurements and instructions.

Begin by peeling and dicing the sweet potatoes. They can be a little tricky to peel, so a potato peeler may be just what you need to keep those fingers safe.

Dice up the onion and carrots. Personally, we usually have baby carrots on hand for snacking like with my Spinach Artichoke Dip, so I tend to just include a few of those and don’t even cut them up.

Place the diced vegetables in a stockpot with enough water to cover them well. Cook on medium-high heat until they are tender which should be around 15 minutes depending on the size of the chunks of potatoes.

Once they are cooked, drain the water from them but reserve 1 cup of the broth to use in the recipe.

Next, add all the ingredients–cooked sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, and cashews (or white beans), along with the spices and seasonings in a food processor or blender.

I love to use my Vitamix blender because it is so powerful, so I don’t soak my cashews. However, if you’re using another type of blender, it might be necessary to soak the cashews in warm water for about 30 minutes prior to blending. This will help the cheese sauce to be nice and creamy.

Use raw cashews or white beans

The original recipe for this vegan cheese sauce calls for 1/2 cup of raw cashews. However, some folks are avoiding nuts due to allergies or the fat content, so white beans can be used instead.

The white beans will need to be a softer variety such as northern beans, navy beans, or white kidney beans. Garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) are just not soft enough to allow the sauce to be nice and creamy.

Allow it to process in the blender until creamy and smooth. It will continue to thicken as it cools and especially after refrigeration.

Pro tips for making sweet potato sauce

• You really can use almost any variety of potatoes. I love to use russets, red potatoes, or yellow potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Just make sure they are cooked until soft.
• To reduce a little bit of fat, try using 1/4 cup white beans + 1/4 cup cashews. I like to use at least a few cashews because it comes out the creamiest.
• I have a Vitamix blender and so don’t take the time to soak my cashews. That thing is powerful and everything that goes into it comes out creamy. However, if your blender isn’t jet engine speed, soaking the cashews in warm water for at least 30-minutes will help this recipe come out more creamy.
• One of the steps of this recipe is to boil the potatoes, onions, and carrots on the stove. Remember to save some of that broth for adding to the blender.
• Keeps in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Freezes well but will need to be put back in the blender for a spin after defrosting to get creamy again.
• If you’re looking for a firm cheese instead of a sauce, check out this Sliceable Vegan Cheese.

Tweaking to your taste preference

Most likely this cheese sauce will come out amazing as soon as you dip that spoon into the blender (after it has stopped, of course) to give it a taste. However, if it needs a little tweaking, first try adding a little more salt or nutritional yeast, as those two ingredients can make a big difference, in my opinion.

Use this deliciously healthy sweet potato vegan cheese sauce in recipes like Nachos, Tacos, Veggie Pizza, and Spinach Lasagna.

*Originally published April 2018.

More amazing vegan cheese recipes

• Best Vegan Cheese Sauce
• Cashew Vegan Mozzarella
• Nacho Cheese
• Vegan Ricotta
• Vegan Parmesan Cheese
• Easy Vegan Cream Cheese

For those of you new to the whole food plant-based lifestyle, we’ve created a FREE 7-Day Plant-Based Menu Planner to help you get started!

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