I’ve made no secret of the fact that I am cauliflower-obsessed. This ivory crucifer is without a doubt my favorite veggie, and I eat it every chance I get, especially when it’s cold out. Normally, I’m completely satisfied by the simple preparation of roasting it with my favorite spice blend, but occasionally, I get the urge to jazz it up a little. Enter: the mother of all raw vegan cheese sauces.
Come. To. Mama.
Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Oil-Free, Sugar-Free
Nut-Free Variation, Soy-Free Variation, Low-Calorie
Ingredients
- 1 batch roasted cauliflower (prepared with or without the curry powder)
- ¼ cup water or unsweetened nondairy milk
- 1 yellow (or orange, or red) bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
- 1/3 cup macadamia nuts (or cashews), soaked for 2 to 4 hours and drained
- 4 teaspoons Bragg liquid aminos (or soy sauce, tamari, or coconut aminos)
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 small clove garlic, peeled
- 1¼ cups nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Prepare the cauliflower as directed in this recipe. While it roasts, prepare the cheese sauce.
- Combine the water or milk, chopped bell pepper, soaked and drained nuts, Braggs/soy sauce/tamari, lemon juice, mustard, cumin, and garlic in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
- Add the nutritional yeast and blend again until completely smooth.
- When the cauliflower is done roasting, remove it from the oven and divide it into 3 servings. Pour or drizzle a scant 1/3 cup of the cheese sauce over each serving of hot cauliflower and serve immediately.
- Transfer the remaining cheese sauce to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days. You can use it for a second batch of cauliflower later on, or for any other purpose you dream up!
Notes
Variations:
Nut-Free Variation: Replace the macadamia nuts with sunflower seeds, soaked for the same amount of time.
Soy-Free Variation: Replace the Braggs/soy sauce/tamari with coconut aminos.
This stuff is so flippin’ delicious, you will hardly believe it’s real, let alone dairy-free. And just look at all that protein!
Since you’ll only use half the batch of sauce on one head of roasted cauliflower, it’s up to you how you use up the remaining sauce. I’ve tossed it with cooked whole-grain noodles, dipped crusty bread in it, dolloped it over steamed broccoli, and perhaps even secretly eaten a little spoonful all by itself here and there. I won’t blame you if you find yourself doing the same.
P.S. Just one month until the release of Practically Raw Desserts! Have you preordered yet? It’s very possible Amazon will ship out preordered copies before the official release date of April 15th!
I too have an obsession with roasted veggies and cauliflower is on the top of that list! This cheese sauce looks like THE perfect addition. I’ve been obsessed with topping my obsession with a Tahini dressing. No clue why, but it goes together perfectly. Now I’m hungry lol
Mmm, tahini dressing on roasted veggies is great too! Yum!
The combination of Cashews and nutritional yeast with a tiny bit of lemon is so “cheesy”, it’s almost scary! Love that this is so simple, too!
It IS kinda scary, haha! I’ve found I like it even better with macnuts, though!
Really? Never tried that, cause unroasted Macadamia nuts are hard to find here… and quite expensive, too. Maybe I’ll treat me to macadamias some time…
It’d work with roasted macnuts too, as long as they’re unsalted!
They are not… =/ But sometimes, if I really don’t have anything else and really want to use macadamias, I just wash the salt of… not the very best option but it works.
Actually, you know what? I bet they’d still work – since you have to soak the nuts anyway to soften them, the salt should rinse right off! Maybe just reduce the Braggs/soy sauce/tamari a little to compensate, since the nuts might retain a little saltiness.
Keepin’ it cheezy
Looks good. Love trying different versions of cheeze sauce. Wonder how this would work with a raw pepper to keep the sauce raw…probably pretty well
Thanks for sharing!
Actually the recipe does call for a raw bell pepper – so the sauce IS raw!
Haha I read stemmed as steamed! Oops
Wait… so it’s the mother of all sauces, but it also has to come to mama? This is messing with my understanding of how procreation works.
Oh yes. It is the mother, but I am ITS mama. Chew on that.
Amber, Hell Yes. But I am seriously NOT going to eat just 1/3 of a head of cauliflower. We are talking about cauliflower here. I will have to eat the entire thing. Just have to. On another note, I had a reaction to the yeast that was used in the cleanse–my fault, not yours. I knew I was taking a risk with consuming that much and went in head-first anyway. (I was hoping I wouldn’t react as it’s deactivated, but my body didn’t seem to care about that…that estrogen dominance, she’s a bitch sometimes. The sauces and recipes were still fantastic though and will be used in rotation for sure!) So I’ve been off the yeast since but have been craving your nacho cheese sauce from Practically Raw for days now. I think I’ll have to grant myself permission for this one tonight.
Haha, I know, right? As I say in the Curry-Roasted Cauliflower recipe, 3 “regular” servings of any cauli dish = barely 1 Amber-sized serving!
Aww, sorry to hear about the yeast
Cauliflower is like the Pringles commercial: You can’t stop at just one. On another note, this sauce was DEEEE-licious! I just cut about half a cup of the yeast out (it still tasted ‘cheesy’) to lessen the blow. I am going to make nachos with the remaining sauce today for my Friday night dinnah! I have sensitivities to many beloved foods…the yeast (or anything that is fermented and would increase my own body’s yeast levels, wine being one of them…grrr…), bananas, avocados (yep, I cannot digest and assimilate the fat in them very well outside a few spoons of guac), coconut in butter/oil form. All the ‘good’ fats are exactly the ones my body cannot break down. Although they are loaded with so much nutritional goodness, my body can’t handle the high amount of saturated fat. I thrive with olive oil, and that’s about it. Nuts are okay if I don’t eat too many. (I gain weight literally overnight if I eat one too many…it effing sucks.) When I looked up my blood type in the ‘Eat Right’ book, sure enough all those things are on my ‘avoid’ list for AB blood types. And then getting further into the hormone/auto-immune issues, we discovered 5 years back that my liver couldn’t break down those types of fat very well. I’m constantly on some kind of ‘back-door’ Chinese supplement for my liver. Same with pancreatic enzymes, stomach acid, etc. My body is like a sick lab experiment. I’m sure you know the feeling.
Anyway, aside from all the boo-hooing, I still lurve this sauce.
That suuuucks, because those are some of my favorite foods! And coconut especially is SO good for hormones and metabolism. But that’s ok – you make do, and you do just fine! I’m sure you’ve already investigated gallbladder issues too, right? Have you done an olive-oil-and-lemon-juice gallbladder/liver cleanse before? I’ve heard people say those work wonders, though who knows…
So glad you loved the sauce! Nachos with this would be amazing!
This is so good with the roasted cauliflower! When I went to the store to get some yellow peppers for the cheese sauce I had to buy another head of cauliflower :p I love it ! Thanks for the recipe. You rock <3!
I took a picture. http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4039/dscn0570rf.jpg
Thanks Jackie! Mmm, looks PERFECT. I don’t blame you for buying another head of cauli
I see several more batches in my near future, too!
Cauliflower is one of my all time favorite veggies too
The cheesy sauce sounds like a perfect way to top it off! Yum!!
It’s SO good! Hope you try it and love it too, Sarah!
Amber,
I LOVE this recipe. And we both share an affinity for cauliflower. It’s one of my favorites as well!! And I remember my Gramie serving it with a cheese sauce sometimes…on broccoli too. I can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks lovely lady and have a fabulous weekend.
Hugs,
–Amber
Thanks Amber! I LOVE this on broccoli as well.
Have a great weekend!
Looks delish!! Could roasted bell peppers be used, as it would be easier to blend?
Maria, that’s exactly what I did! Yes, it blended beautifully and tasted VERY good.
Sure! I bet it’d be great with a roasted pepper!
Cool idea to use yellow peppers.
I figured it’d keep the sauce yellower (“cheesier”-looking), and it seemed to do the trick!
This looks so good! Anything with roasted cauliflower, I’m all over!
DITTO!
Mmmm, this sounds absolutely scrumptious, Amber! Thank you; I look forward to trying this recipe soon. And how exciting?! Practically Raw Desserts is almost here! Yay!
Thanks, Carol!
Gotta say, as a cauliflower lover myself, I’d be happy enough to eat that cauliflower plain, but I can think of a hundred different thinks I’d like to pour that cheesy sauce on!
Super excited for your book release too!
Ditto! Cauliflower doesn’t need sauce to be awesome, but this cheese sauce really does take it over the top.
GIMMIE GIMMIE GIMMIE!!!
I can’t wait to try out the cheese sauce recipe! I’ll probably do a review of it, if you don’t mind.
You’re the absolute most – and cheers to being Cauli-lovin ladies.
xoxo
Thanks dahling! I think you’ll LOVE this sauce, especially atop your dehydrator-marinated cauli!
[...] 3. Most Inspiring Nutritarian-Friendly Dish – Easy “Cheesy” Cauliflower from Chef Amber Shea [...]
Wow you weren’t kidding! This recipe is dee-lish! I will be using this for my go-to “comfort food” sub after a stressful day at work!
Woohoo! Thanks Mandi, glad you love it!
Sounds good but I gotta skip the mustard can’t do that part!!!
Oh man, it’s so funny you say that – I have been mustard-phobic my entire life. Like, the very WORD sort of makes me feel icky. I don’t know what has changed with me in the past couple months, but something possessed me to try an alfredo sauce that had a tiny dab of mustard in it, and I LIKED IT. I was mystified enough to purchase some mustard (for the first time ever!) and try putting it in this cheese sauce – and I love the results! I certainly won’t be slathering it on bread anytime soon, but somehow, in creamy/cheesy sauces, it just works.
All that said, I’m 100% certain that you can leave it out, and the cheese sauce will still be absolutely delicious!