Yeah, I would be skeptical of this cheese-less queso if I were you. Queso literally means “cheese” in Spanish. This dip is a dairy-free, cheese-like fraud—a fraud that this dairy-eating queso lover thoroughly enjoys. That counts for something, right?
I was highly skeptical of vegan queso until Ali convinced me to give Füd’s vegan nachos a chance. She said they’re the best nachos in town, vegan or not, so I agreed to meet her there for lunch. While I would still argue that the world’s best nachos feature golden, bubbly, baked cheese (and are cooked to order at The Library Bar and Grill in Norman, Oklahoma), Füd’s nachos were pretty good.
They were good enough that I happily polished off my half of our heaping plate of nachos and left with a belly full of chips and “cheese,” like I would if presented with real cheese nachos, except this time I didn’t need a nap afterward. Bonus point for dairy-free queso.
Even after sampling those nachos and a couple other vegan “quesos” since, I had no intention of posting a recipe for one. Then I tried Ali Maffucci‘s (she’s another Ali) recipe for chipotle carrot mac and cheese in her new book, Inspiralized. I was hungry and the recipe sounded interesting and easy enough. It was really tasty, too. I got hooked on the creamy chipotle-carrot mixture and after playing around with it a few more time, realized it would make a great queso. I mean, “queso.”
If you’re going to give cashew-based queso a shot, you’ll need to adjust your expectations first. Beware that it won’t taste quite like cheese and it won’t have that cheesy stretch-and-pull effect to it. It will be creamy, however, thanks to the cashews, and cheese-like in flavor, due to nutritional yeast. Mine includes cooked carrots, which lend a golden color and a light sweetness that is balanced out by spicy, smoky chipotle peppers. Try it and let me know what you think!
Vegan Chipotle Carrot Queso
- Author:
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups 1x
- Category: Appetizer
- Cuisine: Mexican
This dairy-free, vegan queso recipe gets its authentic yellow hue and slight sweetness from carrots, its “cheesy” flavor from nutritional yeast and smoky spiciness from chipotle peppers. You can serve this queso with chips as a dip or drizzle the mixture over nachos, burritos, enchiladas or any other Mexican dish with complementary flavors! This queso turns out best in a high-powered blender, so if you’re not sure your blender is up for the job, be sure to either soak the cashews or use an alternative method (available in the recipe notes). Recipe yields 3 cups queso.
Ingredients
Queso
- 3 large carrots (about ½ pound), peeled and chopped
- 1 small white or yellow onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 ½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours if not using a Vitamix or Blendtec blender (see notes for quicker alternatives)
- 1 ¼ cups vegetable broth
- 3 to 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes, to taste
- 1 to 3 tablespoons adobo sauce (from canned chipotle peppers)
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt, more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Recommended mix-ins and garnishes
- 1 small can green chilis, drained
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped pickled jalapeño peppers (optional, for a vinegary kick)
- Big handful cherry tomatoes, chopped
- Handful chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Warm the olive oil in a medium-sized pot over medium heat. Add the chopped carrots, onions and garlic and a dash of salt. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent and the carrots are tender, around 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
- In a blender, combine the cashews, vegetable broth and carrot-onion mixture. Add 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast, 1 tablespoon adobo sauce, ½ teaspoon cumin and ½ teaspoon salt. Puree the mixture until it is completely smooth.
- Taste and adjust as necessary—add more nutritional yeast for more cheesy flavor and/or more adobo sauce for more heat. (I find that the heat mellows out with a short rest and that it tastes less intense on a corn chip than by the spoonful.) Season to taste with salt and black pepper and blend again.
- Next, warm the queso, either by using the soup function on your fancy-pants blender until it’s sufficiently heated or by pouring the queso back into the pot and warming it over medium heat, stirring frequently, until warmed through.
- Stir the drained green chilis and optional chopped jalapeños into the mixture. Pour it into a serving bowl and top with chopped cherry tomatoes, cilantro and more jalapeños, if you’d like. Dig in!
Notes
Recipe roughly inspired by/adapted from Inspiralized: Turn Vegetables into Healthy, Creative, Satisfying Meals by Ali Maffucci.
Where to buy chipotle peppers in adobo sauce: Look for small cans of chipotle peppers in the Mexican aisle of well-stocked grocery stores or specialty Mexican groceries. (You can freeze the leftovers of the can in a small freezer-safe bag for later!) If you can’t find canned chipotles, try seasoning the queso to taste with ground chipotle powder or a smoky/roasted/chipotle-flavored hot sauce.
About those cashews: Soaking the cashews makes them easier to blend and to digest, so that’s a good option albeit a time-consuming one. My Vitamix had no trouble blending the raw cashews as-is. If you don’t have time to soak the cashews and don’t have a fancy-pants blender, try this instead: Heat the broth on the stove until it’s pretty hot and pulse the dried cashews in the blender until they resemble a fine powder (stop before they turn into cashew butter). Then, pour the broth into the blender and blend until smooth (beware of hot steam escaping from the top of the blender). Proceed by adding the carrot mixture and spices as directed.
▸ Nutrition Information
Vegetable enthusiast. Dog lover. I'm probably making a big mess in my Kansas City kitchen right now. 
Abby @ The Frosted Vegan
Oh myyyy goodness! I had the hardest time finding a queso that I liked, but carrots in queso? LOVE it. I can’t wait to try this Kate.
Alexa [fooduzzi.com]
Love this! Look at how creamy that queso is! I can’t wait to surprise my mom with this recipe – I’m sure she’ll love this healthier take on one of her favorite treats!
Trisha
As an ardent cheese lover, my initial reaction to vegan “queso” is WHY? BUT the more I think about the sweetness of the carrots, the flavor of the nutritional yeast, and the kick from the adobo sauce, the more I think this is something I want to try. And I really like the fact that I can eat a whole plate of nachos with this sauce and not feel gross and bloated afterwards. Anytime nachos are in front of my face, that usually happens…..:)
Kate
I’m with you, Trisha, I love me some queso! This is really just a creamy, flavorful dip that I really, truly enjoy. Bet you would, too!
Elaine Miller
My husband and I have been mostly vegan (I call it “flegan”–flexible vegan) for 3 1/2 years now and have experimented with various “cheese” sauces. The husband has been adding a dash of red miso to our “cheese” sauce to give it that slight umami kick and it transforms the sauce. You don’t want to add so much that you taste miso. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Kate
Flegan, that’s great! I just mixed in a bit of my white miso, can’t decide which way I like it better! I may have added a bit too much.
Mandy
I will definitely be working Flegan into my vocab!
Anna
This looks delicious! I have only ever had vegan queso made with butternut squash. Seeing as I adore carrots, this will have to be made soon.
Kate
I bet this one will taste similar! Hope you love it!
Cassie
Me gusta!
jenna @just j.faye
I love cashew and yeast “cheese” sauce – it’s surprisingly tasty! I bet the addition of carrots and chipotle peppers make it even more delicious!
RutsWife
Wow! This sounds amazing! I am going to try it ASAP. I actually have most of the ingredients already except for the tortilla chips, Grrr!
Kate
Perfect! Hope you love it!
Alex Caspero MA,RD (@delishknowledge)
Love this idea! I make a pretty stellar cheese sauce (if I do say so myself) using orange bell peppers for sweetness and I bet carrots work the same way! Can’t wait to try this.
Kate
I bet so! Great idea, Alex!
Gaby
This queso makes me want to dip all the things! Yum!
Vikkie
holymoly… I wish I hadn’t discovered this while I was hungry lol. It looks incredible!! x
Caitlin
this looks like a creamy non-cheesy cheese dip I could wrap my head around! And it actually looks like the velveeta dip i know and (not so secretly) love but am grossed out by. Can’t wait to try it.
Kate
Haha, it does, now that I think about it! I can’t resist a big dollop of Velveeta dip when I find it at parties…
Sarah @ Making Thyme for Health
Now that is one sexy vegan queso! I actually just cooked with chipotle peppers in adobo for the first time a few weeks ago and couldn’t believe what I had been missing. They are loaded with flavor! I bet they make this queso taste even better than it looks!
Kate
Right?! So good. I’ve been on a chipotle kick lately.
Trish
Making this Friday for our fun dinner night along with your super yummy roasted cauliflower/lentil taco :)
Kate
Great idea! Hope you all love it!
Lauren
Yum! What a wonderful recipe; I’m looking forward to trying it out. Thanks for sharing!
Amy @ Thoroughly Nourished Life
There’s no harm in trying new ways to make old favourites! This sounds like a great different version of nachos. Nachos for the nights when you know you need to eat vegetables instead of cheese…
I can’t wait to try this queso, sorry, “queso” sometime soon. Might have to invite some girlfriends around though because my man is very specific about me not messing with his nachos….
kristie {birch and wild}
Whoah, this is blowing my mind! It looks so darn good.
Sander
Hey, quick question,
My friend brought me a huge stick of Tamarindo from Mexico. I have no idea what to do with it. Ideas? Thanks.
Kate
I’m sorry, I’ve never cooked with fresh tamarind! You might find some ideas here: http://www.finecooking.com/item/5801/tamarind
Erin
I have never used nutritional yeast flakes before. I went on Amazon to buy some and I was wondering if Bragg’s nutritional yeast seasoning was the same thing. It looks more manageable sized to keep in my spice cupboard:)
Kate
Yep, same thing! That container is bigger than it appears on Amazon (much bigger than a regular spice jar). You can also find it at health food stores, sometimes in the bulk section.
RACHEL
Yum! Looks delicious!
★★★★★
Jennifer
I love your food blog! Please check out mine and let’s connect?
swedishcavegirl.blogspot.com
★★★★★
Trish
Made this last night along with your cauliflower lentil tacos. My husband, upon having a huge dollop of queso on a chip, says “Trish, you out-did yourself on this one.” My oh my this was fabulous. Never expected it would turn out this flavorful! Kate, I used to first go to vegan sites as my go-to websites, but lately you’re my go-to website. You typically always have a ‘make it vegan’ option which I love about you. Anyway, I digress :) This queso will not disappoint! Make it and you’ll be in vegan queso heaven! Thanks, Kate for another hit!!
Kate
You’re the best, Trish! So glad you two enjoyed my tacos and queso. Hooray! Hope you’re having a great weekend.
Melody
Made this “queso” this week. So good! I love the savory “cheese” indulgence, without hating myself or my digestive system afterwards.
However, as a Texan, I found it necessary to more than double the amount of chipotle peppers. This dip was approved by vegans and meat-eaters alike. :)
★★★★
Kate
Thanks, Melody! Two thumbs up for adding more spice. You are my kind of girl.
Joanne
I am a self proclaimed cheese addict, but I daresay I could get down with a big bowl of this and a plate of chips!
AC
Thanks for the recipe. This is now my go-to queso recipe.
The viscosity and mouth-feel are great, as well as the colour. There’s a real difference, as well, when you add the jalapeños, cilantro and tomatoes. Really, really good (great, actually).
The cashews dial up the richness really nicely.
One observation: the sauce could almost be served as a rich and creamy carrot soup if its thickness were reduced a bit (another 3 cups of stock?), and it does come across as sweeter than cheese sauce because of the soffritto.
Thanks again.
Kate
Thanks, AC! Delighted to hear that you appreciate the queso. Yes, I think you could turn this into a soup. It can also be used as a pasta sauce, although I’d probably hold off on the jalapeños for that and maybe add a splash of vinegar instead.
AC
Just made it again and was thinking that it could work as a mac & cheese sauce, with or without jalapeños–as well as working with other pastas (perhaps with parsnips instead of carrots?)
I made the sauce today with someone who doesn’t have great knife skills and was pressed for time; so we grated the carrots and onion with a box grater before sautéing them. I highly recommend this (just be sure not to heat the grated veggies at too high a temperature as they’ll burn more easily when they’re grated).
★★★★
Kate
So many great ideas! I can confirm that this sauce makes an awesome mac and cheese. Thanks, AC!
Grace
I made this last weekend for some dairy intolerant friends and it was a big hit! We had a full taco bar with all the fixings and this sauce was everyone’s favorite – even the cheese loving people were happy to keep going back for more. I will definitely be making this again! Loved it!
★★★★★
Kate
Wow, that’s so great! Thank you for letting me know, Grace. :D
Kelly
This was really tasty! I don’t (yet) own a high-power blender, and even with soaking the cashews had some trouble getting the queso perfectly smooth in my food processor. I also ended up adding more adobo sauce + a whole chipotle, more nutritional yeast, and some extra cumin. The end result — while not as pretty as yours! — was addictively good. I’ll definitely be making this again!
Kate
Thanks, Kelly! Glad it worked out for you!
Emily
I was a little nervous about this one but I was wrong! I am not a vegan and love my cheese but this was good (not cheese but creamy and flavorful). I served it with nachos (yum!) and then I used it on some roast veggies enchiladas. Delicious! Thanks!
★★★★★
Kate
Yay, glad we agree on this queso! Your enchiladas sound epic.
Erika
This looks insanely mouth watering good! I’m dying to try some of this!
Kelly
This looks great but one question my sister has to eat gluten free and says she can’t have the yeast flakes is there any substitute you know of?
Kate
Hey Kelly! Bragg’s nutritional yeast is gluten free. I can’t think of a substitute. If you omit it, you’ll still end up with a creamy, spicy dip—it just won’t be as “cheesy.”
Ana
Oh my god! I’m drooling with that recipe and I’m not even a fan of chipotle!
★★★★★
Gem
Just made this. While it definitely does not taste like cheese it is still a delicious and addictive dip. I added a half tsb of white miso to up he creamy and savory factor.
Kate
Thanks, Gem!
Laureen
I followed the recipe exactly and used the larger amount of adobe sauce. Huge hit with my non-vegan husband. He even commented that he doesn’t get tired of the flavour, as with a cheese-based sauce. This will definitely be a standard in our house. Thank you!!!
Kate
Awesome! Thanks, Laureen!
Mike Broadhurst
Delicious! We soaked the cashews and used our dinky immersion blender, so it doesn’t look as smooth as yours but it’s nevertheless in-cred-ibly good. Thank you for the guilt free treat.
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you, Mike!
Leanne
This looks just delish ! I’m wondering if you have any ideas on what I could use instead of Nutritional Yeast ? I’m in France and not sure if I can get it. I’m not Vegan or Vegetarian so am wondering if any UMAMI adding ingredient would do the trick ? Very creative recipe, thank you :)
Valerie
Hi Kate, I’d love to make this as a dip for Superbowl Sunday but my husband is allergic to cashews. Any recommendations for a nut swap?
Suzanne
Love this “queso”! My husband went crazy for it. I added some black olives for garnish too. I was toying with swirling in some Rotel tomatoes too. Has anyone tried this?
Lindsey
Oh my goodness! This is amazing! And super easy and quick! Do you think it would freeze well?
Kim
Kate, super late to the party but made this recipe tonight for a game….SO DELICIOUS! I’ve made other vegan “cheese” dips before and have been disappointed – this is great. You never let us down!
Kenzie
I made this last week and have been eating the leftovers out of the fridge since then–I can’t get enough of this. This “queso” is delicious and a perfect (healthy!) vegan dip. The texture isn’t quite like true queso, but after having avoided cheese for so long I don’t even mind. Thank you Kate!
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome, Kenzie!
Poli
Hi Kate…and cookie!
Made it for tonight’s game. I can’t stop eating and our friends didn’t even get here yet! Awesome queso.
All you’re recipes are delicious!
Cheers!
★★★★★
Kate
haha!! May want to double it next time ;) Cookie says hi!
Kelly
I’ve never felt the need to comment on any internet recipe before…but this “queso” is INSANELY AMAZING. Every time I make it, I fall in love with it again…it’s SO SO GOOD. We’ve made it countless times for different parties and events, and I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t like it.
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you! I’m so glad you found it that good.
Sheri
I’m not vegan, but was curious about this dish si I made a half batch. I also don’t have a fancy blender but my kitchen aid did just fine. Followed recipe exactly and wish I would have made the full recipe! The creamy cashew and adobo flavor is addicting! Thx again, Kate…
★★★★★
Marla
Just made this for the first time, and it’s fantastic! Used it to top my veggie tacos yesterday and break it out again later on for my Girl Gang Friday Night! Thank you!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you for commenting! I’m glad you loved it, Marla.
Barb
This looks amazing! Can it be made the day before and taste just as good?
Kate
Hi! I believe others have enjoyed this leftover.