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Cooking on Caffeine

making family-favorite recipes vegan and allergy-friendly

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      • Cookies
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      • Vegan Quick and Easy Mexican Red Pozole/Menudo (Instant Pot)
      • Easy Creamy Vegan Tomato Basil Sauce
    • Sides
      • Gochujang Spicy Brussels Sprouts (Vegan)
      • Sautéed Basil Cucumbers and Grapes
    • Sauces, Condiments, and Cheeses
      • Easiest Vegan Cheese Sauce Ever *BASE RECIPE* (no blender needed!)
      • Easy Vegan Cheese for Pizza (Nut-Free, No Blender)
      • Vegan Choriqueso (Queso Dip with Chorizo)
      • Vegan Cream Cheese Filling for Danishes
      • Easy Creamy Vegan Tomato Basil Sauce
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Sauces, Condiments, and Cheeses

Easy Creamy Vegan Tomato Basil Sauce

February 10, 2020 //  by Meggan Leal//  1 Comment

Simple ingredients with big time flavors combine to give you a creamy, luscious pasta sauce with the classic Italian taste you love and the creaminess you miss from before your dairy-free days. No nuts, no coconuts, and no funny business, but still easy as can be with amazing results.

One of the things I missed the most when I gave up dairy was a good, luxurious, comforting cream sauce for my pasta. There are plenty of recipes out there that use blended cashews or other nuts, or even coconut cream. I don’t like spending the bajillions of dollars on cashews, and I don’t really like coconut a whole lot, so that’s a no from me, dawg.

There is an amazing recipe by Oh She Glows for Cauli-power Alfredo which I’ve made and is tremendously delicious, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to give it a go. It’s work though, including a food processor/blender and I am lazy – so I’ve only made it once despite how delicious it is.

I made a spaghetti squash lasagna with the cauliflower alfredo back in 2016 and I still dream about it to this day

What I Needed

So what was I looking for, exactly? An easy creamy pasta sauce that doesn’t take a whole lot of time, doesn’t need blenders or food processors, doesn’t use nuts, and did I mention I want it to be creamy?

Easy. Creamy. Quick. Delicious.

Yup. Like that. Exactly like that.

What It Ain’t

This isn’t an alfredo sauce or comparable. I’ve got one of those on the way, but this is a tomato-based cream sauce (my favorite before I gave up dairy). So if you’re looking for a white cream sauce, check out the one I linked above or stay tuned for mine coming out soon.

Let’s Get Down to Business

Ingredients You Need

Tomatoes: For super duper ease I used canned tomatoes. Whole tomatoes are going to be the best quality, but diced tomatoes ain’t too bad themselves. I go for diced because I like them. You definitely can use fresh tomatoes – and big, juicy vine tomatoes are going to be your besties for this recipe. Just measure out about 30oz (850g), chop them up, and give them a few minutes in your hot pan before moving on to the rest of the recipe.

Onions: I like to use sweet onions, but plain white or even yellow onions will work fine here. I buy pre-chopped onions from my store because I have arthritis and laziness.

Garlic: Again, I buy pre-minced. It works fine for me and tastes enough like garlic to make me happy. (See “onions” above for why I go this route). Feel free to use fresh, or substitute with granulated garlic if that’s your jam. Use a half a teaspoon if you use dry, though. Or more. I’m not about to tell anyone to curb their garlic usage! (I actually use way more than I put in the recipe, but I’ve been accused by a lot of people of using too much garlic and I didn’t want to offend any palates out there)

My cheat code for arthritis and laziness

Oil: In the spirit of this being Italian food, I use extra virgin olive oil. This one is my most favorite – it’s actually Tunisian. Yeah, I know, Tunisia isn’t in Italy. But most “Italian” olive oils aren’t even usually olive oil anymore, and this one is and it’s absolutely delicious. Can’t do olive oil? Use whatever neutral oil floats your boat – or just sub with your favorite vegan butter!

Basil: Basil is 1000000% my most favorite herb of all time, and if you can get it fresh it’s amazeballs. Italian basil, of course. Thai basil might be a bit too spicy for this application, but you can give it a shot if you’re feeling adventurous! If you can’t find fresh, feel free to use dried. Just follow the notes in the recipe card below. Can’t do basil? Try it out with oregano and thyme instead. Throw in a little rosemary and sage and your tastebuds will be very happy. 🙂

The Special Ingredient: as I was sitting around thinking about how I could make a creamy vegan tomato basil sauce without cream, as I often do, I scanned through my mental list of things that could possibly make it creamy as I noted above. Nuts, but expensive (and allergenic). Cauliflower, which is delicious but tedious and requires horsepower. Coconut, but blech. I could use my easy cheese sauce, but that wouldn’t give it exactly the creamy, luxurious mouthfeel I was wanting. Then.. it hit me.

Carbonara.

Carbonara is a creamy Italian pasta sauce that has absolutely zero cream in it. Its creaminess is achieved with eggs. They’re stirred in at the end to form a glossy, creamy, divinely delicious sauce with zero dairy. So what can we use instead of eggs to make a vegan version? What else but aquafa–

Just kidding.

For once I’m not using aquafaba!! I’m using something that uses it though! Mayonnaise. It’s a creamy emulsion of oil and vinegar traditionally made with eggs, but vegan mayo gives us the perfect creaminess we are needing in our sauce without the use of eggs, dairy, nuts, coconuts, or magic – well at least not much of it, anyway.

Process Notes

One of the best tips I have included in this recipe is to microwave the garlic and onion with your olive oil. This is a nifty trick I learned from Alton Brown in his book I’m Just Here for the Food 2.0. It softens the onion and mellows the garlic perfectly to cut out a good chunk of time from your stove-top cooking. Just be aware that your microwave will smell like onions and garlic for a while.

You can use your hands to smush up the tomatoes in the traditional rustic Italian manner, but again – arthritis. I use a potato masher for a good, texturous, chunky sauce. If you don’t like your sauce to be chunky, you can totally use a blender or food processor.. Or just use tomato sauce and save yourself some dishes?

Save that pasta water! It’s important because the starches in the water bring the oils and waters together for a creamy emulsion in your sauce. Check out this awesome video for a demonstration.

As far as how much of your vegan mayo to add – it’s up to you! I recommend starting with two tablespoons, and see if you like that level of creaminess. If you want it creamier? Add two more tablespoons. Rinse and repeat.

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Do the Thing

Yield: 4 servings

Easy Creamy Vegan Tomato Basil Sauce

close up of spaghetti and tomato cream sauce, garnished with fresh basil leaves and slices of bread

Simple ingredients with big time flavors combine to give you a creamy, luscious pasta sauce with the classic Italian taste you love and the creaminess you miss from before your dairy-free days. No nuts, no coconuts, and no funny business, but still easy as can be with amazing results.

Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Additional Time 5 minutes
Total Time 22 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 2 tbsp minced onion
  • 2 tbsp olive oil (or other neutral oil)
  • 2 14.5oz cans of diced or whole tomatoes
  • handful of fresh basil, divided 
  • salt, to taste
  • pepper, to taste
  • 12oz pasta, prepared according to package instructions MINUS four minutes
  • 1/4 c reserved pasta water
  • 4-8 tbsp vegan mayonnaise (depending on how creamy you want the sauce to be)

Instructions

  1. Put your water and salt to boil for your pasta
  2. Heat a large saucepan or skillet over medium high heat
  3. Stir together your onion, garlic, and olive oil in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for one minute on high
  4. While your onion mix is in the microwave, empty your tomatoes into your hot pan and stir, letting some of the liquid evaporate off
  5. Add your onion mix into the tomatoes and stir well
  6. Add your uncooked pasta to the boiling water and stir well. Set a timer for the time it takes it to cook MINUS four minutes
  7. Tear half of your basil into small pieces and stir into the tomatoes
  8. Use a potato masher or fork to smash your tomatoes into smaller pieces, and let the mixture cook down until thickened to your liking (I let it go for about four to five minutes at medium-high heat)
  9. Drain your pasta and add to your tomato mixture along with 1/4c of the pasta water
  10. Stir well and lower the heat to medium-low, allowing the mixture to thicken more for five to six minutes until the pasta is al dente
  11. Tear the remaining basil into small pieces and add to the pasta
  12. Remove from heat and stir in the mayonnaise for a magically cream-less creamy tomato basil sauce!
  13. Salt and pepper to taste
  14. Garnish with fresh basil and vegan parmesan, and enjoy immediately with some yummy carbs

Notes

If you don't have fresh basil, you may substitute 4 tsp of dried. Add it all together at the first addition rather than dividing in half

If you're soy-free, try Sir Kensington's vegan mayo! We love Hellman's, but it does contain soy.

We use gluten-free pasta and Barilla's is our favourite!

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

  • Terra Delyssa Extra Virgin Olive Oil
    Terra Delyssa Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • OXO Good Grips Smooth Edge Can Opener
    OXO Good Grips Smooth Edge Can Opener
  • Barilla Gluten Free Pasta, Spaghetti, 12 oz
    Barilla Gluten Free Pasta, Spaghetti, 12 oz
  • Sir Kensington's Classic Fabanaise
    Sir Kensington's Classic Fabanaise
© Meggan Leal
Cuisine: Italian / Category: Main Dishes

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Vegan Choriqueso (Queso Dip with Chorizo)

February 1, 2020 //  by Meggan Leal//  Leave a Comment

The combination of spicy, acidic chorizo and smooth, creamy cheese is one of my favorite appetizers in Mexican cuisine. This warming comfort food has turned dairy-free, vegan, and allergy-friendly here, and I think you’ll love it as much as I do.

This recipe comes on the heels of my Easiest Vegan Cheese Sauce Base recipe, and is the first one I’m publishing using it! But don’t worry, I have lots more on the way. 🙂

So if you haven’t already, take a quick peek over there and acquaint yourself with it because you’re going to need a double batch for this recipe.

What is choriqueso and how do I eat it?

Choriqueso is a fondue made from melting white cheese (usually Oaxaca, which is very similar to mozzarella) and adding fried chorizo. Sometimes onion or tomato can be added, or even bell pepper. One of my favorite varieties in Mexico was served with sautéed mushroom slices!

Overall, the cheese itself is very mild in terms of flavor – but the punch comes when the chorizo is added! It’s spicy, acidic, and bright red. The flavor is addictive and pairs beautifully with all kinds of other foods. I even use it in my Quick and Easy Vegan Pozole recipe to add amazing depths of flavor that would normally take hours to develop.

It’s eaten with chips, fresh tortillas, bread, or whatever else you can get your hands on to dip and scoop it with. You’ll be in heaven if you try it over fries!

Ingredients

The ingredients you’ll need here are

1. a vegan Mexican style chorizo (Cacique soyrizo is my favorite),

2. vegan mayonnaise,

3. vegan butter or oil,

4. chopped white onion,

5. lime juice,

6. miso paste, and

7. salt.

Some fresh cilantro leaves to garnish are also lovely. And of course, you’ll need the double batch of cheese sauce.

This recipe as written contains soy – but if you avoid it, check out this spice mix and add one tablespoon + one tablespoon of vinegar to your ground meat replacement of choice, and Sir Kensington’s Fabanaise is soy-free, as well!

Equipment

Equipment and tools you’ll need are:

A stovetop burner,

a medium sized pan,

a silicone spatula,

an oven-proof bowl big enough to hold at least four cups,

a smaller heatproof bowl that can hold at least a cup,

an ovenproof platter or pan to bake the larger bowl on (in case of overflow), and

an oven to bake it in.

Process

1. Preheat oven to 400°F

2. heat your pan over medium heat, and add your butter/oil

3. add the chorizo and stir well until it starts to appear more dry (about 3-4 minutes)

4. add the onion and miso paste, stirring well to incorporate

5. once the onions are translucent, separate a third of the mixture and set aside for garnish

6. add the cheese sauce

7. stir well until completely incorporated

8. add lime juice and stir well

9. add mayonnaise and stir well

10. taste test and add more salt if desired

11. pour cheese mix into oven safe bowl (unless your pan can go straight into the oven, then do that – fewer dishes to wash!)

12. add remaining chorizo to top

Ready to bake!

13. set bowl on baking tray in oven and bake for 20 minutes

14. remove from oven, squeeze fresh lime juice and sprinkle fresh cilantro over the top, and serve the choriqueso immediately

Video Tutorial

(Currently uploading)

Pin it for later

Yield: 3 cups

Vegan Choriqueso

Vegan Choriqueso

The combination of spicy, acidic chorizo and smooth, creamy cheese is one of my favorite appetizers in Mexican cuisine. This warming comfort food has turned dairy-free, vegan, and allergy-friendly here, and I think you’ll love it as much as I do.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 batches Easiest Vegan Cheese Sauce
  • 2 tbsp vegan butter or oil
  • 4 oz vegan Mexican-style chorizo (see notes in post for soy-avoidance)
  • 1/2 c diced white onion
  • 2 tsp miso paste (use chickpea miso if avoiding soy, or omit entirely)
  • 4 tsp fresh lime juice
  • 2 tbsp vegan mayonnaise (see notes in post if avoiding soy)
  • Salt, to taste

Garnish

  • Juice of half a lime
  • 1/8 c chopped cilantro leaves

Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 400°F

    2. heat your pan over medium heat, and add your butter/oil

    3. add the chorizo and stir well until it starts to appear more dry (about 3-4 minutes)

    4. add the onion and miso paste, stirring well to incorporate

    5. once the onions are translucent, separate a third of the mixture and set aside for garnish

    6. add the cheese sauce

    7. stir well until completely incorporated

    8. add lime juice and stir well

    9. add mayonnaise and stir well

    10. taste test and add more salt if desired

    11. pour cheese mix into oven safe bowl (unless your pan can go straight into the oven, then do that – fewer dishes to wash!)

    12. add remaining chorizo to top

    13. set bowl on baking tray in oven and bake for 20 minutes

    14. remove from oven, squeeze fresh lime juice and sprinkle fresh cilantro over the top, and serve the choriqueso immediately

Notes

If you want to turn up the heat, try adding your favorite hot sauce!

If you’re pressed for time, this can be made without baking - just pour into a bowl and serve!

© Meggan Leal
Cuisine: Mexican / Category: Sauces, Condiments, and Cheeses

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Easiest Vegan Cheese Sauce Ever *BASE RECIPE* (no blender needed!)

January 31, 2020 //  by Meggan Leal//  2 Comments

Say welcome back to pizzas, pastas, grilled cheese sandwiches (toasties for you Brits!), fondue, and more – because this basic vegan cheese sauce recipe will open the door for all of them to come back into your post-dairy life! No nuts, no soaking, no blenders, no weird ingredients, and virtually fool-proof.

Give it a try on some pizza!

This is the absolute bare minimum, base level, most allergy-friendly, but still absolutely luscious and wonderful vegan cheese sauce recipe that will change the way you eat forever.

Seriously. The day you make this cheese sauce will be the first day of a new era in your kitchen.

I swore I didn’t do stories in my recipes but here I go..

I don’t usually go into ancient histories and long babbling stories here on my blog, but this post deserves a little backstory:

So in my formative years while growing up, we had a small dairy goat farm. I milked goats twice a day with my two little hands, strained, stored, and turned the milk into all kinds of amazing things. Butter, yogurt, ice cream, and.. CHEESE. So I’ve got a little bit of knowhow when it comes to cheesemaking.

A pink piece of printer paper with three goats drawn on it, and "GOATS ROCK!" in all caps. Top is captioned with 'Hoof Hearted Farm"
Lololol. A piece of original artwork by yours truly from 20 years ago. Yes, our farm was officially registered under that name.

And do you know what I realised? Guess what we made cheese out of? MILK. Not solid milk. Not milk powder. LIQUID MILK. Cheese in the simplest sense is milk + something to thicken it (rennet, bacteria, time, and/or acid). This is a way oversimplified explanation of cheesemaking which can actually get super duper complicated, but just hang with me for a minute..

Now, I know that plant-based milks don’t exactly perform in the same ways as dairy milk. Trust me, I’m not that dense. But most plant-based milks on the market today come pretty darn close to the taste and texture of dairy milk. The sweetness is just about the same (cow’s milk has around 13g of sugar per 8oz), and the viscosity is matched thanks to gums, proteins, or gelling agents that are either added or are naturally in the plant that’s being used to make the milk.

So I decided to give plant milk a shot to see if it could deliver. And boy did it.

What kind of milk do I use?

Rice milk, soy milk, almond milk, cashew milk, pea milk, and oat milk have all yielded pretty similar results with this recipe. I’m convinced that any decent tasting dairy-free milk will be able to give you a nice cheese sauce.

I use oat milk because it’s my favorite in coffee 🤷🏼‍♀️

So basically, choose your favorite plain, unflavored milk here that you love to drink on its own to make your vegan cheese sauce. Allergic to nuts? Choose one without them. Don’t like soy? Don’t use it. Hate additives and can’t find any without them? Use homemade. The world is your [vegan alternative] oyster!

What other ingredients are there?

For our bare-minimum basic vegan cheese sauce, there is only one more ingredient: tapioca starch. (This is the one I use. Don’t laugh at the name, it works great.)

Tapioca starch is a super fine powder that will. get. everywhere.

When tapioca starch is heated in liquid, not only does it thicken it but it also makes it stretchy and very.. well, cheese-like. And not only that, but the ‘cheese’ will thicken even more when it cools, and remelt when it’s heated. It’s freakin’ magic.

Can’t find tapioca starch, and can only get your hands on tapioca flour? No worries, they’re the same thing.

Allergic to tapioca? Give arrowroot powder/flour/starch a try. It performs nearly identically to tapioca.

Are both tapioca and arrowroot out for you? Potato starch (NOT flour) is a great sub and still gives you some good stretch!

What this cheese sauce ISN’T

This sauce is NOT firm cheese product which can be sliced and grated.. at least not in its natural form. I’ve got a variation that can be sliced and grated, and I’m working on getting that recipe put together for you so stay tuned!

It’s perfect for pouring and dripping, not for slicing and grating.

This sauce does NOT look appetizing while cold! Seriously. It’s gross and gloopy. But don’t judge it, heat it up, and watch the magic happen!

Refrigerated cheese sauce is goopy and semi-solid, kinda like soft jello. It melts beautifully when heated, though.

This sauce is NOT flavored! This is the BASE RECIPE – so if you want to give it a smoky mozzarella or cheddar flavor, or if you want to go a bit funky and go bleu cheese direction, you’re going to have to add some flavor to it. This recipe will taste like the milk you made it with and no more.

If you want some flavoring ideas, I highly recommend giving my friend Kat a visit at 86eats.com and browsing through her plethora of vegan cheese recipes. She’s the queen of vegan cheese and your flavor will most likely be found there! Check out what she uses for flavors and pop ’em in this sauce and you’ll be golden. I’m also adding my own recipes here as I get them put together, so stay tuned for that. (Eek I already put together the first one – my vegan chorizo queso recipe!)

I swear though, if you come at me with one star saying this sauce is bland and tasteless I’m gonna give you the angry Samuel L. Jackson stare.

How do I use it?

First of all, flavor it. Lol. Even if it’s just a little salt and garlic powder to get your feet wet. Then? The sky is the limit! Toss it with some pasta, drizzle over an open-faced sandwich before toasting, use it on pizza, in lasagna, as a dip, in soup.. Whatever your heart desires!

What equipment do I need?

Super simple here, y’all.

A saucepot. A tablespoon. A measuring cup. A silicone spatula. A stovetop.

That’s it. Really.

Sometimes I use a fine mesh sieve if I want to get some chunky ingredients mixed in for flavoring, or if I walk away and it thickens while I’m gone and gets tapioca pearls in it. But otherwise, it’s not needed.

You absolutely do not need a blender!

The Process:

The first thing you’re going to do is measure out one heaping tablespoon of tapioca starch into a measuring cup and add just enough of your plant milk to cover the starch (add in any desired flavorings now).

Mix it well until there are no lumps and the milk is smooth.

Next, add milk until you have one cup total.

Pour the mixture into a small saucepot over medium heat, and stir continuously with a silicone spatula.

As the mixture heats up, you’ll soon feel the bottom of your pan become slippery and friction fade away – keep stirring.

Once you start to see froth/foam start to appear at the top of the milk, turn your heat to low, and stir quickly. It will begin to thicken within just a few seconds.

When your mixture thickens it will look very lumpy at first, keep stirring vigorously for another minute or two until it all smooths out. This whole process should take less than ten minutes.

Once it’s smooth, turn off the heat and remove your pot from the stove so that your cheese sauce doesn’t burn.

You can use your sauce now or store it in the refrigerator for future use. It will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 5-7 days.

Other cheesy things I have to offer:

Other than my sense of humor, that is..

I’ve got my vegan chorizo queso recipe here!

And if you’re wanting other dairy-free, vegan cheese options that aren’t necessarily of the savory variety, you should check out my revolutionary cream cheese frosting and my crave-worthy cream cheese danish filling!

Video Tutorial:

Watch me make it, from beginning to end:

Pin it for later:

Pinterest image showing stretchy cheese sauce over an open faced sandwich

Printable Recipe:

Yield: 1 cup

Easiest Vegan Cheese Sauce Ever BASE RECIPE

Easiest Vegan Cheese Sauce Ever BASE RECIPE

Say welcome back to pizzas, pastas, grilled cheese sandwiches (toasties for you Brits!), fondue, and more – because this basic vegan cheese sauce recipe will open the door for all of them to come back into your post-dairy life! No nuts, no soaking, no blenders, no weird ingredients, and virtually fool-proof.

This is the un-flavored base recipe for all kinds of cheesy creations to come.

Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 9 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup plant milk (your choice, unflavored)
  • 1 heaping tbsp tapioca starch (use arrowroot or potato starch if allergic)

Instructions

  1. mix tapioca starch with enough milk to cover until smooth
  2. add milk until one cup total
  3. heat in a small saucepot over medium heat, stirring continuously
  4. once froth rises to top, turn heat down to low, continue stirring
  5. sauce will thicken very quickly, stir until smooth
  6. remove from heat

Notes

Check out 86eats.com for flavoring ideas, or check back later for new recipes from me!

Use while hot, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

  • 6 PCS 11 inch Big Silicone Spatula 
    6 PCS 11 inch Big Silicone Spatula 
  • Tapioca Starch
    Tapioca Starch
  • Arrowroot Flour
    Arrowroot Flour
  • Potato Starch
    Potato Starch
© Meggan Leal
Cuisine: American / Category: Sauces, Condiments, and Cheeses

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