3 ingredient vegan queso

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

DESCRIPTION

This creamy vegan queso is SO LUSCIOUS! It’s made with just three ingredients: cashews, green chiles, and taco spices.

INGREDIENTS

• 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

1. Blend on a high setting until you get a very smooth and creamy texture. Taste and adjust to how you like it.
2. 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.