Homemade Vegan Cheese Sauce Powder

Cheese sauce powder, check it out! While we’re not vegan, I like the idea of creating our own shelf stable homemade cheese sauce powder for macaroni and cheese.

This recipe, adapted from Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman’s The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions will let us make kid-friendly mac and cheese from natural food items in our pantry.

While it’s a lot of ingredients, once it’s all mixed up it’s easy to add dairy-free milk or water, heat and add to pasta.

It’s just like opening up an orange powder packet to add to macaroni, without all the unpronounceables.

UPDATE: we made Kid-Friendly Vegan Mac and Cheese the next day and the kids loved it. It was creamy and delicious.

And so easy. Way better than the boxed stuff.

Also, if you’re not vegan and looking for an equally simple cheese sauce to make for your macaroni, try this Easy Cheese Sauce made with real cheese, milk, flour (gluten-free if needed) and spices. It’s so simple and even the kids’ cousins and friends love it.

The Results

This was really simple to mix up and I’m looking forward to trying it on some kid lunches and adult snacks.

It’s great on popcorn and that’s super simple to toss together. Just add your coconut oil (or butter) to your popcorn as usual, then add the cheese sauce powder and toss. Voila! Cheesy popcorn.

I think it may also work well in dips and slow cooker recipes as a cheese sauce substitute.

Here are the top two recipes we have been making with this homemade vegan cheese sauce powder: Vegan Cheesy Popcorn and Kid-Friendly Vegan Mac and Cheese.

Homemade Vegan Cheese Sauce Powder

Adapted from The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions.

Makes about 5 cups (10 batches of macaroni and cheese)

Ingredients

3 cups raw cashews (like these)
2 cups nutritional yeast (like this)
1/2 cup cornstarch or arrowroot powder (like this)
3 tablespoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon sea salt (optional; I left this out)
1 tablespoon ground mustard seed (I used hot)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin

Method 

Grind cashews in a dry blender or coffee grinder, in batches.

Add ground cashews and remaining ingredients to a sealable container (at least 5 cups capacity).

Seal and shake vigorously to mix.

Mix powder in a 1:2 ratio powder to water or dairy-free milk and heat over medium heat before adding to prepared pasta.

For example: mix 1/2 cup powder and 1 cup water or soy milk, heat over medium heat until thickened and mix with 1 pound prepared pasta.

Store refrigerated for up to a month or freeze.