This is a recipe for a quick and easy homemade vegan Cheese Sauce. Give this Nooch Cheese Sauce (made with Nutritional Yeast) a try because it’s perfect for lasagne, pizza, mac & cheese or as a dip for tortilla chips! It’s nut-free!
This is a recipe for a basic Nooch Cheese Sauce. I make this cheese sauce quite often and use it mostly for lasagne, pizza, as a dip for tortilla chips or for mac and cheese. It’s really simple to make and it comes together quite fast – it will only take about 10 to 15 minutes. Then get your tortilla chips ready because it’s dipping time!
I love this cheese sauce because it’s
- vegan (and therefore dairy-free and lactose-free)
- without nuts (my wallet says thanks!)
- super quick to make
- made with only a handful of ingredients I have always have at home
- so versatile! Lasagna, pizza, mac & cheese, or as a dip are my favorite uses for the sauce!
- ooey-gooey and stretchy
But wait… What is Nooch?
Nooch is short for nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is deactivated yeast and can be bought in the form of powder or flakes. It is often used by vegans because of its super cheesy taste. Nutritional yeast is something that should not be missed in a vegan household. It’s one of my secret (but not so secret) ingredients for vegan cooking.
How to make Vegan Nooch Cheese Sauce – Recipe Video (1 min)
When I started following a vegan diet in 2012 supermarkets didn’t offer any vegan cheeses. So making vegan cheese at home was the only way to go. I have been making this cheese sauce countless times! Now there all kinds of vegan cheeses in the stores and I really enjoy trying these new products, however, I still make this cheese sauce a lot because it’s my favorite for pizza and lasagna – I love it!
The Ingredients for the Nooch Cheese Sauce
The ingredients you’ll need are rather basic. You probably have them at home already!
- coconut oil or vegan butter – both will work just fine
- all-purpose flour – makes the cheese stretchy
- spices – I used salt, paprika powder, curry powder, ground pepper, and garlic powder (but feel free to experiment with different spices!)
- nutritional yeast flakes – adds the cheesy flavor!
- water
Most vegan cheese recipes use nuts (oftentimes cashews or almonds). This one doesn’t. So if you’re allergic to nuts (or you don’t want to spend all that $$ on expensive nuts), this sauce is for you!
This is the process of making the cheese sauce! It’s simple, right?! Basically, it’s like you would make a Bechamel Sauce, but in a cheesy way!
This vegan cheese sauce is so ooey-gooey and stretchy! Perfect!
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil or vegan butter e.g. EarthBalance, Alsan,...
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika powder
- ground pepper
- 1 pinch garlic powder
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/2 cup water
Heat the coconut oil or butter in a small pot on low heat.
- Add the salt, pepper, paprika powder, curry powder & garlic powder.
Add in the flour and whisk.
Add nutritional yeast, whisk again until clumpy.
- Add the water and whisk on low heat for a few minutes. If it gets too thick you can add a little bit more water and whisk again.
- Use it as a dip, pour it over some lasagne or pizza or whatever you like. Enjoy!
If you don't use the sauce right away, it will thicken up. Just add a splash of water and whisk again and it's good as new!
Did you make this vegan Nooch Cheese Sauce? Tag @elephantasticvegan on instagram and use the hashtag #elephantasticvegan. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Elephantastic Vegan Newsletter to see Reader Remake Features!
My favorite uses for this vegan Cheese Sauce:
It’s delicious on pizza! e.g. Chanterelle Pizza
Perfect for Mac and Cheese – here’s my Mac and Cheese recipe!
So good on Lasagna! Vegan Lasagna
Just made this; it’s awesome. It’s been a long time since I’ve had real cheese, so I can’t remember what it even tastes like, but this is delicious in its own right. (Great with tortilla chips.)
Hi Ryan, thank you so much for your comment! I’m glad you liked the cheese sauce!
Excited to make this do you know how long it keeps in the fridge? or is it a make for use immediately type thing?
I usually use it immediately. If you let it sit for a while, it thickens up and depending on what you’re using it for, you might have to re-heat it and add a bit of water.
This sauce is SO GOOD. I’ve tried other nooch sauces, but this might be my favorite. I actually licked the whisk! I didn’t have any curry powder on hand, but I’m excited to try it with next time (because I will definitely be making this again)! I can also verify that gluten-free flour works just fine:)
I’m so glad to hear that, Tiffani! Thank you so much for the amazing feedback! :) Which gluten-free flour did you use? Rice flour? Buckwheat?
I used a blend from Bob’s Red Mill:)
ah, good to know, thanks! :)
have been using this sauce for a long time and works every time, is DELICIOUS with everything!
I’m soo happy to hear that, merit! Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback <3
Oh my gosh! I just used this to dip baked cauliflower and broccoli! Whoa! So good!
Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback, Brandi! I’m glad you like the Cheese Sauce! :)
Hello! Great idea to add curry powder, I’ll have to try that! I make mine with coconut oil and cornflour (Cornstarch some people call it, the very fine white flour.) It comes out really well :) Yay nooch sauces!
Hi Lily! Thank you! I add curry powder for the color and taste :) Your version of nooch cheese sounds really good too, I have to give it a try sometime :)
Hi can you send me that recipe too? I already have those on hand!
Thank you thank you thank you, with 2 vegetarians, 2 lactose intolerant and one gluten intolerant in our family of 5 I’m always looking for ways to satisfy everyone. This web site has done that. I’m going to pin your recipe to my foodie board and sign up to your updates and recipe book. Thank you.
Oh thank you so much for your sweet comment, pinning and subscribing, Jaine! I’m glad you like the recipes and I’m always happy to help :)
Yay for this cheese sauce! I transitioned to a vegan lifestyle about 8 months ago and cheese was the thing I missed most. I have tried so many different premade cheeses and also another one homemade. I have not liked any of them! I have a 3 year old son who I transitioned as well and while he has loved all of the cheeses I wanted to be able to enjoy something cheesy together. This sauce definitely gave me what I was missing, we made tacos for dinner and this was a great addition. I can definitely see myself making many meals with this sauce & cannot wait to try it for mac n cheese which is my sons favorite. Thank you so much!!
Thank you, Ashley! Your comment means a lot to me :)
I’ve made the same experience with store-bought cheeses, most of them just taste super artificial and weird. So this cheesy sauce is a good alternative.
It’s my favorite cheese sauce to put on lasagna and I often use it for pizza too – when I’ve got the craving for cheesy pizza. I’ve also had it in mac & cheese and I really liked it, so I hope you do too :)
Hi can I sub coconut oil? Vegan butter is hard to find here
Hi Christy, I haven’t tried it with coconut oil yet, but it could work :) Although the consistency will probably stay thinner. Let me know if you give it a try :)
This was so good and unbelievably easy. I also added a little bit of agave to it and it turned out great!
So glad you liked it, Liz! I love the addition of agave! This is such a good idea! The last time I made the cheese sauce, I added a bit of liquid smoke and it was so good too :)
Could you use almond milk in place of water?
yep, I think that would be a good substitution. Just make sure it’s unsweetened almond milk :)
Do you think that I could make and store this in the fridge? Will it keep for 4-5 days? Or does it need to be used immediately? I’m new to nooch as a part of my diet so any thoughts would be helpful!
It depends on what you want to do with it. After a couple of minutes, in the fridge or not, the sauce will set. After that you will want to re-heat it again and add a bit of water to make it pourable again. I haven’t had it in the fridge for 4-5 days, but I’ve had it 1-2 days and it was fine. Just re-heat and add water until perfectly creamy :)
Love, love, love this!! Really good on a baked potato :)
So glad you like it! :))
Can I make it without Curry powder I don’t have any
yep, you can add in any spices you like or simply omit it. do you have turmeric at home? it would give it a nice yellowy color!
Wow, my vegan daughter and I were just having our eleventeenth discussion on why mommy wasn’t making mac ‘n cheese with vegan cheese but this sauce looks great and it just the ticket since I’m used to making a roux and well, using that hated butter stuff. Thanks so much!
Yeay, I hope you guys like it! :) It’s perfect for mac and cheese!
Hi I was just reading that vegan cheese is not good help me I am getting so confused as a new vegan.
I am super excited to try this also thanks!
Do you mean that most of the store-bought cheeses are not particularly healthy? They are often still loaded with fats. Homemade cheeses are definitely the better option. There are also recipes for vegan cheeses made with cashews.
Would almond flour work ok?
I don’t think it will be stretchy at all, because almond flour is gluten-free and very different to regular flour. I haven’t tried it yet! But I’d love to hear if it works if you give it a try!
I made this with coconut oil and coconut flour. The texture is nothing like the picture. It is grainy and not saucy at all. The flavor is still good, albeit very coconutty! It is tasty on the spaghatti squash I cooked to go with the sauce. I also topped the dish with an array of wild mushrooms. I will try this again using a vegan butter and all-purpose flour.
Thank you for trying it out with coconut flour! I had the feeling that it wouldn’t work, because it needs the gluten to develop the gooey consistency. But now we know! :)
I to used coconut oil and coconut flour.Mainly because that is what I had. I used it on Spaghetti Squash.
Tasted good with a smooth texture.
BTW I used the metric method and 20 grams of NutritionalYeast is way more then a third of a cup.
I’m glad to hear that it worked with coconut flour as well!
I just checked it again and 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast is exactly 16 grams on my scale. It’s not too far off, but I’ve updated the metric measurement to be more exact :) Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Hi! I just made this sauce tonight…OMG!!!!! So delicious. I didn’t have all purpose flour so I used garbanzo bean flour and it is still yummy 😋. Going to try with the all purpose flour next time to compare. Thank you for posting this recipe!
Glad you enjoyed it, Shawna! That’s good to know that it works with garbanzo flour too, I haven’t tried that yet :) Yeay!
I was so keen to try this recipe after i finally got my hands on nutritional yeast. Because of an allergy can’t eat dairy products. The result is very disappointing, it wasn’t only far from delicious…for me(and non allergic husband) it wasn’t even edible.
I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t like the sauce.
Just to make sure, I often hear people mixing up nutritional yeast with baker’s yeast or brewer’s yeast. You could check if you’ve bought the right kind because that’s essential for the recipe. Other than that, some just don’t like the taste of nutritional yeast. That’s okay. Tastes differ. I appreciate your feedback! :)
Hi Bianca,
thanks for your reply.
Maybe i fall into the latr category ;)
Holy shit. I have just found this recipe on your site and now I have made it about 6 times in a couple of days. I started out very civilised; putting it on vegetables and the like, and am now just spooning it out of the bowl directly into my mouth. THIS IS A REVOLUTION. I even halved the amount of flour to make it a lot more like a sauce, and it’s amazing.
omg, you have no idea how happy your comment makes me!! Thank you so much <3
Insanely good! We made this to use on a falafel sub and ended up eating the leftover sauce straight from the pan.
Thank you for the great feedback, Debby!! So glad you like the sauce! :) I’ve never had the cheese sauce with falafel — and I feel like I’ve been missing out :D
Can i use olive oil or soyabean oil instead?
I haven’t tried those yet, but I’d say soyabean oil would be the better option to try, because olive oil has too much flavor to distract from the cheesy taste. Let me know if you give it a try!
Can I use a grain free flour instead of regular all purpose flour ?
Hi Sherley,
I personally haven’t used another flour than ap-flour because I don’t think it will have that ooey-gooey consistency but another reader made it with bob’s red mill gluten-free flour mix and she said it works just fine :)
Another one tried it with coconut flour but it was just grainy and not gooey at all.
Really want to try this! Wondering if arrowroot flour would be a suitable substitution for the AP flour?? 🤔
May give it a try and see what happens. Also have coconut & almond flour on hand but doesn’t sound like either of those would be a good sub…..
Thanks for the recipe!!
Hi Lisa, I haven’t tried the recipe with arrowroot flour yet but I’d love to hear how it turns out if you give it a try.
People tried the recipe with coconut flour and got mixed results. For one reader it turned out grainy and not gooey at all (because of the missing gluten), for another reader, it turned out great with coconut flour.
Great Recipe!!
I added a touch of lemon juice right at the end (it looks like its about to curdle but then returns to smooth) and it really helps to bring out the cheesy flavor!!
Great idea! :)
I never comment on blogs but this cheese was so damn good I had to!
I avoid dairy at all costs, and while I loved cashew cheese for a while, it does not agree with me. This is my new favorite!
Yeayyy! So glad you like it, Nick! :)