3 Ingredient Vegan Queso – SO delicious and creamy with no frills, no fuss, no hard-to-find ingredients! Just cashews, taco spices, and green chiles.
3 Ingredient Vegan Queso
Featured comment
Genuinely couldn’t believe this came together so easily and was so good. I was a little in shock and a lot of in love! Thank you
Amy
We are just on a ROLL here with the easy, no-cook recipes, right? I love it. A true sign of the end of August.
This vegan queso came into my life last year sometime when our shoot assistant Krista was like: “Hey, you know what’s really good? Adding a can of green chiles to your basic cashew sauce.”
And we were all like, “WOW THAT IS SERIOUSLY REALLY GOOD.”
None of us are vegans. All of us love regular cheesy queso. But this combo was so life-changing that our entire team would willingly opt in to a nacho sesh involving this 3-ingredient vegan queso anytime it made an appearance in the studio kitchen.
How To Make Vegan Queso:
It is much easier than one might think, and contrary to popular opinion, I believe that you don’t need special ingredients (looking at you, nutritional yeast).
Basically, you’re going to blend:
- cashews (unsoaked! I’m breaking all kinds of rules here)
- some taco seasoning (I usually buy a salt-free spices-only blend to control the saltiness)
- a can of green chiles
- and some water.
And that’s all.
You’re done.
You’re a miracle worker.
You could have gone for the fancy vegan queso (is there such a thing?), but you have better ways to use your time such as EATING A LOT OF CHIPS AND QUESO. Yep. I am right there with you.
Ways I like to use this vegan queso are WIDE and VARIED, but here is a small sampling:
- Vegan Walnut Chorizo Tacos
- Vegan Chipotle Burrito Bowls
- Vegan Nachos
- Just a standard chip dip!
- Crunchwraps (including the vegan crunchwrap!)
Vegan Cashew Queso, we love you!
Watch How To Make Our Vegan Queso:
3 Ingredient Vegan Queso
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 1/2 cups vegan queso 1x
Description
This creamy vegan queso is SO LUSCIOUS! It’s made with just three ingredients: cashews, green chiles, and taco spices.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 cup cashews
- 1/2 cup water
- 4 ounce can diced green chiles (or less, to taste)
- 1 teaspoon taco seasoning (add a pinch of salt if it’s unsalted)
Instructions
- Blend on a high setting until you get a very smooth and creamy texture. Taste and adjust to how you like it.
- Use it as chip dip, a sauce for roasted vegetables, or just smother it on your tacos, burritos, and crunchwraps.
Notes
Some recipes I saw recommended soaking the cashews, but I found that I was able to get a really smooth and creamy result with NO soaking! And I’m all about the easy. If you have a good blender, in my experience, you don’t really need to soak them.
A high-speed blender (Blentec, Vitamix, Ninja, or similar) would be best here! If you don’t have one, I think it could still work, but A) you might get some nutty texture to your queso (not necessarily a bad thing, it still tastes great) or B) you might find a benefit to soaking the cashews.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Snacks
- Method: Blend
- Cuisine: Vegan
Keywords: vegan queso, vegan queso dip, vegan cheese
We have a Blendtec AND a Vitamix and love them. We’ve used both for this and they’re game-changers for getting this queso super creamy smooth!
Note: links are affiliate links.
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of best healthy snacks. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Healthy Quick and Easy Sauces Snacks Sugar-Free Summer Vegan
August 23, 2018
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
Honestly, this looks life-changing. I’m also a non-vegan, but this doesn’t look unapproachable or scary at all the way normal vegan cooking does! Thank you for the great idea 🙂
Hope you enjoy it, Ally!
Hi! Made this recipe for Superbowl party and turned out great!! Thank you, as a dairy free dip fan haha I wanted to ask if there’s an expiration for this? I just wanted to be sure it’ll still be as awesome as the first day I made it since I made extra for sometime the next week? Lemme know! Thanks again 🙂
Hi! Yes, it should last for a few days in the refrigerator!
I’m dense. : ) What kind of cashews? Raw, roasted, dry roasted, salted, unsalted? … Thanks. This recipe sounds seriously delicious.
Usually for these types of recipes, it is raw unroasted. It is beneficial as stated in recipe to let them soak prior to blending them as it makes them softer. Soak in the fridge atleast 4 hours to overnight if able to.
*Raw, unroasted, & unsalted cashews
I have got to try this out! I’m adding it to my next weekend links post. Thanks for inspiring a new dip – and just in time for football season!
What brand of unsalted taco seasoning do you recommend or do you just add the requisite spices?
I can’t wait to try this recipe! What brand of blender do you use?
Blendtec and Vitamix!
So you eat it room temp? Is it more queso-like if you heat it or is that gross?
I’ve reheated this before in the microwave for just a bit and it worked great!
Seriously love how versatile cashews are!!
Right?? The best!
mmm yum!!! Love how you managed to make it so creamy (:
I think this is really good to have as a dedicated Vegan or Vegan in transition soon to be a retired beef & pork eater because it’s not only easy on the metabolism and a good source of nutrients and an indirect version of “Adult baby food.” I mentioned [Adult baby food} because the contents of the Queso is soft and easily digestible. 🙂
I love cashews! They are so versatile for vegan meals. But I’m just wonder, can I make this with another nut? Waltnuts perhaps? That’s what I have on hand right now.
I make this too – it’s a dream!!
Rebecca | http://www.peppermintdolly.com
I imagine if you have a Vitamix or even a Ninja they will blend just fine without the soaking. I tried something similar as a cheese substitute and mac and cheese. It was good. Not really close to the real thing, but I would definitely eat it again. Adding all those Mexican flavors probably adds oodles of flavor.
What brand of blender do you use
We used Blendtec and Vitamix and love them both!
I used a magic bullet without soaking and it worked great! Thank you!
So good! I bought a bag of raw cashews a while ago to try some kind of sauce with but I never got around to it – clearly this is the best use! Just smothered a burrito bowl with this and made me so happy.
meant to rate it!
Glad to hear it! 🙂
Thoughtful comment… People are having success burning fat fast with this…. https://ssl.clickbank.net/order/restricted.html?errCode=accntstate&cbhopvendor=cookclub1
Cashews are my creamy go-to for so many recipes. I make a few variations on this type of recipe, but will give this one a go.
I may add some nutritional yeast and a small amount of miso to give it a little cheesy, savory kick, which is something I’ve learned from trying to make a million different vegan cheesy recipes.
Kari,
Cashews are also good for making your stomach be quiet. It’s a great source of natural oil and healthy fat, and I love them became it makes me less hungry.
I’m newly vegan, and I was a lover of all things cheese related so, I was missing queso something fierce until this! It’s soooooo yummy and super easy to make! My 3 y/o daughter loved it too! I can’t wait to try it on a crunchwrap. I do have one possibly silly question.. can it be heated up?
yummy..!! <3 <3 the texture is superb and the amount of efforts you made to make it creamy like this is incredible..!! After seeing this, now I am super hungry <3
I made this tonight and it was ah-mazing! Even my kids who are cheese lovers enjoyed the dip! I couldn’t find unsalted cashews so I took a chance and got cashews that were lighted salted. My ninja blender is broken so I blended in my nutribullet and it came out smooth and creamy. I did not soak cashews at all and it there isn’t any nutty texture. Next time I will try with a more spicy chili to add some heat.
Yum!! Couldnt be easier. Blended right up in the ninja. Love these easy vegan recipes!!
As a nonvegan, I liked the flavor of this dip. It’s not ooey gooey like authentic queso, but the texture was smooth & creamy. I did cut back on the chiles since I’m not a big fan of spicy foods. To make it even more like queso, I heated up the dip & served with tortilla chips. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it, Alison!
First of all…this looks amazing and I’m definitely going to try ASAP. You mentioned not soaking the cashews for convenience–I love the idea of that. However, I just want to provide a little background on why cashews (and other nuts) typically do get soaked. Nuts contain phytic acid which is not so great for digestion. When you soak nuts, it helps break down the phytic acid making it much easier to digest. So, while it’s still perfectly fine to eat unsoaked nuts, soaking definitely helps your gut and body process all of that deliciousness!!! <3
They get soaked because it’s easier to blend, producing more creamier results. Has nothing to do with phytic acid.
This is definitely true. You can also add a little lemon juice to break down phytic acid to the soaking water if you want to use the soaking water vs fresh water.
My colitis doctor told me to always soak nuts as it breaks down the phytic acid, so nutrients can be properly absorbed by the large intestine.
I’m late to the queso party but just made tonight and WOW so easy and tasty! It’s veggie night in my house so I put it inside your turkey burrito recipe but swapped the turkey for your walnut cauliflower taco “meat”…pinch of yum themed Tuesday dins don’t mind if I do (and did haha)
Did you drain the chiles?
Nope!
Can you sub the chiles if you’re allergic?
Sure! You can use one chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (if that works with your allergies) or even a smidge of hot sauce.
How long will this stay good for? Eat right away? Refrigerate a few days??