Delicious 5-minute low-fat vegan cheese sauce made with protein-packed beans! This easy recipe is perfect for casseroles, pasta and more.
Everyone loves a good cheese sauce, right? You can use it for a plethora of dishes and make healthy food like veggies taste delicious.
Our super easy low-fat vegan cheese sauce will bring your meals to the next level and add 18 grams of protein per serving!
free 7-day vegan meal plan
Your next week of eating is planned out with these quick and delicious vegan bowls, meal prepping steps & full grocery list.
It’s made with an unexpected ingredient which you won’t taste at all (yes, it’s beans!) and it’s super weight loss-friendly.
Get your family to try new foods with this quick vegan sauce and pair it with our homemade vegan ricotta to make the healthiest vegan lasagna!
For more vegan cheesy goodness, try our vegan cheese ball, vegan tofu feta and grilled cheese sandwich.
Recipe overview
- Made from 6 cheap staple foods
- Heart-healthy & weight loss-friendly
- Protein-packed & low-fat
- Ready in under 5 minutes
- Kid-friendly & approved by non-vegans
- Good source of fiber
- Meal-prep friendly and freezable
This might just be the dairy-free cheese sauce you’ve been waiting for to finally quit cheese or go fully vegan!
Ingredients needed
- White beans – for the creamy texture and heaps of protein.
- Soy milk – to mix all ingredients, addding more creaminess and essential amino acids!
- Nutritional yeast – that’s what vegan cheese sauces depend on for their cheesy flavor.
- Lemon juice – to give it some zing!
- Salt & pepper – can be adjusted to taste.
You can find the exact amount and tips for substitutions or add-ins below. In terms of kitchen equipment, a regular blender is everything you need!
How to make vegan cheese sauce
Open a can of cannellini beans, drain and rinse them well.u003cbru003eu003cbru003ePlace the beans, soy milk, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and spices into a blender jar.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eBlend until smooth, then adjust to taste preferences.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eFor more cheesiness, increase the amount of nutritional yeast – and perhaps even add some garlic powder or freshly minced garlic, which takes this low-fat vegan cheese sauce to a whole new level.
Additional flavor options
- Herbs such as thyme or Italian herb mixes
- Ground paprika or smoked paprika
- Chili flakes or hot sauce
- Mustard
- Miso
- Turmeric
- White wine or apple cider vinegar
- Soy sauce or liquid aminos
Storage & serving suggestions
You can use your homemade high-protein cheese sauce right away for mac and cheese, vegan broccoli casserole, as a dip for vegetable croquettes, tortilla chips, potato wedges or steamed veggies.
Add little dollops of this sauce on top of your vegan pizza, pizza rolls or cauliflower tacos if you like!
Any leftovers can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
This low-fat vegan cheese sauce can also be frozen in bags or air-tight containers for many months and reheated on the stove with some additional plant-based milk to thin out if needed.
Tips & FAQs
Ingredient swaps
Any plant-based milk can be used for this recipe. We usually go for soy milk because of its nutritional profile but almond milk or coconut milk (which is higher in fat and creamier) also work!
Instead of cannellini beans, you can use navy beans or any other white beans.
Swap some beans for silken tofu or add veggies like steamed cauliflower, potatoes or carrot — the latter of which gives your sauce a lovely color.
Make it heartier
Many people love creamier and higher fat vegan cheese sauces. Simply add a handful of cashews, almond butter or a splash of olive oil when blending your condiment to achieve this!
Especially if you cook for kids, add some vegan cheese shreds (find the best brands here) on top of your pasta or casserole dishes to make them extra cheesy.
More vegan condiments
If you enjoyed this low-fat vegan cheese sauce, be sure to try this goodness next!
- Low-Fat Nacho Cheese Sauce
- Healthy Peanut Sauce
- Quick Vegan Brown Gravy
- Yogurt Tahini Sauce
- Healthy Stir-Fry Sauce
Did you make this low-fat cheese sauce and like it? Share with us in the comments below and feel free to rate our recipe. You can also Pin it here for later!
Ingredients
- 14 oz cannellini beans cooked (400 g)
- ½ cup soy milk 120 ml
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ cup nutritional yeast 30 g
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
Instructions
- If you use canned white beans, drain and wash them. Then, place the beans with the rest of the ingredients into a blender jar.
- Blend everything until smooth.
- Taste, adjust with more salt, pepper, lemon juice or nutritional yeast if needed, then pour over your vegetables, pasta or whatever else you want to make it with.
- Keep the rest of the cheese sauce in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Notes
- Recommended uses include pasta and steamed veggie dishes, vegan lasagna and dip for chips, potato wedges or raw vegetables.
- For more flavor, experiment with adding garlic powder, smoked paprika, Italian herbs, mustard or soy sauce (find more ideas in the article).
- Make it soy-free by using any plant-based milk of choice – vegetable broth also works.
- This vegan cheese sauce can be frozen in bags or air-tight containers for many months and reheated on the stove with some additional plant-based milk to thin out if needed.
Alena Schowalter is a Certified Vegan Nutritionist who has been a vegetarian since childhood and vegan since 2012. Together with her husband, she founded nutriciously in 2015 and has been guiding thousands of people through different transition stages towards a healthy plant-based diet. She’s received training in the fields of nutrition, music therapy and social work. Alena enjoys discussions around vegan ethics, walks through nature and creating new recipes.
Add water to the mix as I soaked my beans and it has broken my vitamix….
Hey Michael,
wow, how did that happen? We’ve made this sauce with a simple immersion blender and other non-high-speed blenders before and there has never been a problem! Sorry to hear about your Vitamix! You surely used cooked beans?
Texture is very nice. Most vegan cheese sauce recipes are high in fat so I am thankful I stumbled upon this recipe!
This is absolutely AMAZING!
Thank you so much for creating and sharing it!
I just made this sauce, using canned white beans. I added a bit of tahine (1tbsp) and a small garlic clove, and it tastes delicious.
The consistency is just perfect, and I love that this is quite an inexpensive recipe.
One thing I would like to comment, is that people quite often make these kind of vegan sauces, vegan cream cheese and plant cheese, from cashews. I am from Brazil, my home region is one of the biggest producers of cashew nuts in the world. I remember trying to get cashew nuts out of the shells (after eating the delicious cashew fruits) when I was a kid, and it was a lot of work, quite polluting, (emitting a dense, black smoke) and super hazardous.
I haven’t seen this mentioned quite often, but I have seen it myself. The production of cashew nuts, in Brazil, is very much linked to modern slavery and child labor. I live in The Netherlands, and it is quite easy to find cashews here, but almost impossible to know where they come from. Thus, I never purchase it.
This recipe is the perfect, inexpensive, delicious, healthy, creamy, easy and much more ethical alternative to using cashews, and I am quite thankful to you. Might also be worth mentioning that, unlike cashews, which oxidate, loses nutrients and become mildly toxic when heated, beans can endure heat and still keep a lot of minerals, fiber, all the great stuff.
Again, thank you so much :)
thanks so much for your feedback and insight! It’s something I haven’t come in touch with yet, so I definitely appreciate you sharing this. We really live in a very exploitative world, it’s unfortunately not too surprising that even plant-based foods aren’t necessarily “cruelty-free”.
Glad you like our recipe, Aline!
Keep well
Creamy, inexpensive, healthy, easy, delicious. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
Love the bean based cheese sauce recipe. Also just signed up for your email course. (Am a New transitioning vegan! )
Quick question: How and where does one become a CPD (certified vegan nutritionist)??
thanks for the feedback, happy to have you in our community :)
there are several online courses you can take to become a certified vegan nutritionist, just depends on where you are located and how much in-depth you want to go, how much coaching you need it!
AFPA has a good holistic nutrition program.
I really want to try this. I have to be on a special diet. I’m diabetic(love this recipe) and have stage 4 kidney failure. I’m suppose to avoid high potassium veggies. A challenge for you. Any recipe suggestions?
I made the sauce and love the taste .. confused how your pictures show this beautiful white sauce both on the spoon and jar. Mine very yellow, due to the nutritional yeast. How do I make your version? I will still use for your lasagna recipe
Wow! This is the closest thing to a cheese sauce I have come across. My family always complained about the sauces made with potatoes and carrots as just tasting like vegetables. Low fat and you get the added protein is a win-win! I added some hot sauce so I would reduce the salt next time and minced garlic. Delicious! So excited to try some of your other recipes, thanks.
This recipe is amazing! I love the flavor! The only thing I adjusted was I added xhanthan gum to thicken it up a little more.
This is delicious! I used it with your healthy vegan lasagna, but I can also imagine putting it on top of veggies – YUM. Thank you!
I feel silly even asking, but does the soy milk need to be unsweetened? I have the Silk “original” on hand which has a bit of sweetness to it and that can sometimes come through in a recipe, but not always.
great question, actually! I always use unsweetened soy milk for my savory recipes but if you like a hint of sweetness in sauces or dressings, you can use a slightly sweet variety :) let us know what you end up doing and how you like it!
This turned out fantastic! I edited slightly: I used only 1/4 cup almond milk (what I had) to make it thicker. I also added 1/4 cup diced pimentos for color. I used it today on my vegan tempeh nachos! Thank you for providing a low fat healthy flavorful cheese sauce. It will be on permanent rotation!