Cheese sauce (vegan)

For my vegan week, I am having a quick cheesy pasta dish. There are many different recipes that came together for this meal (Cajun sausage, cheese sauce, butter and then the cheesy pasta), and this cheese sauce is one of them.

To cheese or not to cheese?? That is the question for so many non-vegan people. Let me answer this dilemma with this recipe.

Ingredients needed:
1 tsp of Agar agar (NOT a whole packet)
1/2 cup of water for the agar agar
1/2 cup of diced pumpkin
1 1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp of salt
1/2 tsp of black pepper
1/2 tsp of cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp of tumeric
1 tbsp of vinegar
2/3 cup of almonds (toasted)
1 tbsp miso paste

Preparation:

The first thing that you need to take care of are the almonds. Soak them overnight. I am using toasted almonds. Toasted almonds are not required; you can just get regular raw almonds. But it’s always good to get extra flavor anywhere you can when cooking.

Add water to a pot and a pinch of salt to boil the pumpkin. I didn’t bother taking the skin off while it’s raw, because it be will less hassle to do that when it’s done cooking. It should take about 10 minutes to cook. While the pumpkin is cooking, start peeling the skin off the almonds. This was a tedious job. You could be smarter, and buy blanched almonds. It’s all up to you.

Once the pumpkin is cooked and the almonds are peeled, add everything to a food processor, except the agar agar, and blend until everything is smooth. The pumpkin, the almonds, the spices, the yeast, the vinegar and the milk, not the agar agar. Blend until there are no clumps. It is that simple.

Now you can leave the sauce in the consistency that it is, or you can add agar agar to thicken it. To thicken it up, use only 1 tsp of the agar agar, not the whole packet.

In a pot, add 1/2 cup of water and 1 tsp of agar agar and let it simmer on low flame. Once it starts to thicken up, take it off the heat and add it to the blender and blend until smooth.

Pour the mixture in a container. It will thicken as it cools down. This sauce is great on pasta. Try it.

If you are wondering about the taste of a vegan “cheese”, the best thing to do is to try it yourself, but I’ll try my best to describe the flavor. To me, it definitely has a cheesy savor; the nutritional yeast is the key for that. And the miso paste, although it is not a required ingredient, it plays a big role in the intensity of this sauce.

The pumpkin can be replace with carrots, red orange or yellow bell pepper, or this whole part can be left out. But don’t try to make too many substitutions in this recipe since every ingredient bring its own jazz.

Enjoy
Thank you for your time.