Cashews form the base of this vegan green chile queso. Serve it warm with your favorite chips or alongside tacos!
When I was a kid, I would be distraught if we were eating Tex-Mex and there was not a bowl of steaming hot queso on the table. I mean, it was a moral imperative! It served as both appetizer and condiment. And it made everything in the world seem right. Comfort food at its finest.
Now that I’m older and eat plant based, I needed a worthy stand in for the dairy laden queso of my childhood dreams. When it was still open, Radical Eats in Houston used to have a pretty good vegan version. Much to my dismay they closed and I was left to my fend for myself. Though I’ve wanted to create my own version at home for quite some time, it kept getting pushed aside because I was a little afraid of it to be honest. Well I’m happy to report that this queso satisfied my craving!
Cashews form the base of this vegan green chili queso. Since I’m trying to recreate the flavor of a traditional queso, you’ll notice there’s quite a few different elements included in the recipe. Each of them works together to alchemize into this delicious plant-based queso. I highly recommend making it as written the first time around before changing up any of the ingredients. I hope you enjoy it!
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Vegan Green Chili Queso
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 1/2 cups 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Cashews form the base of this vegan green chili queso. Serve it warm with your favorite chips or alongside tacos!
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1/4 tsp granulated garlic/garlic powder
- 1 tbsp mellow miso (I use chickpea miso)
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- juice of 1/2 a lemon
- scant 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, plus more for garnish
- 1 tsp juice from the canned green chilis
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp plain/white vinegar
- pinch of sea salt
- hot sauce as needed (optional)
- 1/2 cup warm water, plus more as needed to thin
- 3 tbsp canned green chilis (I like using Hatch chiles)
Instructions
Place the cashews in a large bowl and cover them with boiling water. Allow them to soak for about 30 minutes. Drain and rinse the cashews, then add them to a blender along with all of the ingredients except for the green chiles. Blend this mixture until it is smooth. Add the queso mixture to a pan with the green chiles and heat it gently over low heat, stirring constantly. If it thickens too much for your liking, add water as needed. Serve the queso warm with a sprinkle of smoked paprika.
Makes about 1 1/2 cups of queso.
Notes
- You can use hot or mild green chiles depending on what level of spice you like. Or, you can add in heat with a few dashes of hot sauce.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: dip
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