Best Vegan Queso (Quick + Easy Recipe) - The Simple Veganista (2024)

FAQs

Why put evaporated milk in queso? ›

Evaporated milk helps to keep this dip extra creamy as it's thicker than other dairy products thanks to its lower water content. Another incentive to use evaporated milk is that it helps prevent the dip from congealing-- especially when combined with cornstarch.

Rich, tangy, gooey, and spicy vegan nacho cheese made with toasted cashews and puréed potatoes provides the creamy base. Crispy, pan-fried vegan chorizo gives the dip some meaty texture. You can use either a can of Ro*Tel tomatoes or diced tomatoes and a can of chopped chiles.

Add more chicken broth at anytime to dilute it if it becomes too thick. Once queso is smooth, cheese is dissolved, and queso reaches desired consistency, remove from heat. Serve immediately with chips.

But many vegan cheeses are made with coconut oil and other saturated fats that do affect cholesterol — and switching up one saturated fat for another isn't likely to result in a healthier lifestyle.

Evaporated milk — make sure to buy evaporated milk and not sweetened condensed milk. The two cans look similar but are different. Evaporated milk help keeps the dip from separating and turning clumpy as it cools. Chile — I use canned green chiles, but you can also use jalapeno.

Those starch molecules thicken the sauce, while the concentrated milk proteins from the evaporated milk add that signature dairy flavor, without all the water you'd get from cream or regular milk. Translation? Smooth, shiny, perfectly emulsified cheese that doesn't clump, taste floury, or break into greasy pools.

A: Velveeta is a processed cheese which is not vegan. It's made with milk and whey, both come from cows. A great alternative is this vegan nacho cheese.

As vegan blog Wag Free Food notes, coconut oil, coconut milk, and coconut cream are popular ingredients to make vegan cheese. The high-fat content of coconut makes it easier to create a creamy, decadent, cheese-like product.

I've also successfully made this queso with a thick, unsweetened, plain alternative milk (specifically, Forager brand's cashew milk). Cream cheese: Cream cheese makes this dip thick and ultra creamy. It also offers a bit of tang.

For a cheese dip or sauce, the addition of cornstarch serves a similar function: Starch molecules absorb water and expand, not only thickening the liquid phase of the sauce, but also physically preventing the proteins from binding into long, tangled strands and the fats from separating out and pooling.

How do you make homemade queso not gritty? ›

Can You Fix Grainy Queso? In the hopes of achieving a smooth, creamy texture, remove the cheese sauce from the heat and let it cool. Vigorously whisk in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or a little cream to detangle protein molecules and eliminate the clumps.

If you're avoiding regular cheese because of the saturated fat, you may not need to. Recent research shows cheese may actually be good for your health and reduce your risk of diabetes and heart disease. Vegan cheeses are typically lower in fat, protein and calcium than regular cheese and are likely gluten-free.

Taste and Nutrition. Containing oilseed and plant milk, vegan cheeses are rich in minerals (magnesium) and antioxidants, and they possess anti-inflammatory properties, all of which protect against damage caused by free radicals.

Some vegan desserts and cheeses are made with coconut oil, palm oil, or partially hydrogenated oils, which are all known to increase cholesterol.

This old-school pantry staple brings velvety texture to soups, makes decadent desserts, prevents curdling in milk-based sauces, and even tenderizes proteins.

The product was invented in 1885 as a way to enjoy milk without the need for refrigeration. Heating the milk kills lingering bacteria that can cause spoilage and also reduces its weight, making it easier to transport. Evaporated milk is slightly thicker than fresh milk and has a more opaque, slightly yellow color.

Cheese sauce can be kept from congealing by applying enough heat to keep it semi-liquid but not enough to scorch it or dry it out.

Making a slurry with cornstarch and cold milk is how you will thicken your queso. A traditional slurry is a 1:1 liquid to cornstarch ratio, but for our queso purposes I used 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of milk.