Vegan & Dairy Free Cheese Sauce

I've been living with a mystery illness for some years now and I've noticed that one thing that significantly helps me is changing my diet. The BIGGEST improvement came when I excluded all dairy from my diet. Actually, when I eat dairy I am instantly stick to my stomach and end up suffering for days. SO despite cheese being my favourite food in the entire world; seriously my ULTIMATE FAVOURITE thing to eat is CHEESE; I really had no choice but to cut it. I'm sad ... I'm happy to have some relief, but it still makes me sad. Then a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine posted a recipe for Vegan Cheese Sauce and I was extremely intrigued. I went out immediately and got all of the necessary ingredients. I got home and made the sauce right away, I was SO excited! It looked super creamy and cheesy, I was pumped! BUT does it taste like cheese? Unfortunately, not quite. It's definitely got a cheese texture and taste sort of cheese-like, but it's not the real thing. That being said, it is DELICIOUS! And since I can't eat the real stuff I'm definitely thrilled to have an alternative. :) 

Now I know what you're thinking, that meal pictured certainly doesn't look vegan! Well, it's not! I wholeheartedly understand why people become vegan and wish I had the will to take that journey myself but I'm not there yet. At this stage of my life, I was more interested in the dairy free aspect of the "cheese". These burgers you see above are homemade using 100% lean ground beef, brown gravy, mashed avocado, bacon, and of course the vegan cheese! We also added green leaf lettuce, red vine tomatoes, and mayo! They were AMAZING!!!! 

Ingredients

2 C. potatoes, diced large

1 C. carrots, diced large

1/2 C. water

1/3 C. olive oil

2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. lemon juice (fresh is best!)

1/2 C. nutritional yeast flakes

(The yeast flakes ARE REQUIRED. 

They are what makes it creamy and slightly cheesy tasting.

You can get them at health food stores.)

1/4 tsp. onion powder (opt.)

1/4 tsp. garlic powder (opt.)

dash of cayenne (opt.)

ANY other spices you think might be tasty!

(This is going to make Vegans cringe but ... 

adding a couple drops of bacon grease makes it EXTRA delicious.)

Instructions

Boil the potatoes and carrots until soft.

Blend potatoes and carrots together along with the rest of the ingredients 

on high in blender until the cheese is extremely smooth. 

I use a food processor.

Store in refrigerator for up to a week.

Notes

This cheese will melt just like real cheese!

Take it out of the fridge, "nuke" it for about 30 secs, stir, and it's back to amazing!

This recipe was adapted from Vegan Yumminess. :)