If you love rich foods as much as I do, you probably know how a cream sauce can really make a dish. Unfortunately, plant-based eaters are often unsure of how to make a vegan cream sauce without dairy milk, cheese, and butter. The good news is that it’s easier than you think!
A simple and versatile vegan white sauce recipe can be made from several different bases, such as tofu, beans, nuts, and plant milk.
Plant-Based Vegan Cream Sauce
How to make a cream sauce, you ask? Well, a classic French-style white cream sauce, called a Bechamel sauce, combines fats, such as butter or pan drippings, with a starch such as flour or cornstarch. This mixture of fat and starch is called a roux. Milk is then added to the roux, heated, and whisked until thickened. This process is known as a reduction.
Cheese and other flavorings can be added depending on the recipe. Of course, we’ll be making a plant-based, vegan bechamel sauce!
Making a plant-based white cream sauce for pasta isn’t all that different. While a vegan sauce can be made with vegetable oils or highly-processed vegan “butter,” we’ll leave out these unhealthy fats and substitute fats from nuts or tofu for our whole food plant-based sauce versions.
Our flour-based version is made right the pan. While those that use soaked nuts or beans require a high-powered blender such as a Blend-Tec or a Vitamix before heating.
A plant-based vegan nut-based white cream sauce recipe often uses raw cashews, adding a nice creaminess and a touch of good-for-you fats. Cashews are softer than almonds and take less soaking. For example, try this easy cashew-based Alfredo Sauce, which can be served over fettuccine or other pasta.
On the other hand, this popular Bitchin’ Sauce recipe is made with almonds. It’s a great dressing and can also be heated and served over vegetables or baked potatoes.
For a completely oil-free sauce, you can make one using cannellini (Great Northern) beans because of their creaminess, mild flavor, and light color. Or alternatively, you can use starch to thicken your plant-based cream.
Keep reading to discover how to make your very own easy plant-based cream sauce from scratch in very little time.
Three Ways to Make Plant-Based Vegan Cream Sauce
How to make white cream sauce plant-based? And how can I use it in my whole food plant-based recipes?
A cream sauce can be used as a base for other recipes or served with pasta, over vegetables, soup, or lasagna to add creaminess.
Once you’ve learned how to make plant-based cream sauce, it opens the door to all kinds of variations. Use your creativity to transform these simple sauces by adding other ingredients such as red peppers, spinach, tahini, lemon, avocados, or cauliflower.
Cashew Cream Sauce
This version uses raw cashews.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup raw cashews, soak in water for 3-4 hours, drain
- 1 ¾ cup vegetable broth
- ½ cup white wine (optional or add an equal amount of vegetable broth)
- Juice of 1/2 lemon or more to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- a pinch of nutmeg
- salt to taste
Instructions:
- Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, about 3 minutes.
- Add to a saucepan over medium heat and whisk slowly until heated through about 3 minutes. Adjust consistency with additional vegetable stock or water, if needed.
Cannellini Bean Cream Sauce:
This version uses cannellini beans.
Ingredients:
- 15 oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or 2 cups cooked from scratch.)
- ¾ cup unsweetened nondairy milk
- Juice of 1/2 lemon or more to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
- salt to taste
Instructions:
- Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, about 3 minutes.
- Add to a saucepan over medium heat and whisk slowly until heated through about 3 minutes. Adjust consistency with additional vegetable stock or water, if needed.
- Toss in your favorite cooked whole-grain pasta or vegetable noodles along with your choice of chopped fresh herbs such as dill or basil.
Flour-Based Cream Sauce:
This version has no nuts or beans.
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons unbleached flour (rice, whole wheat or other gluten-free)
- 2 cups unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- salt to taste
Instructions:
- Place the flour and about three tablespoons of milk in a bowl and whisk to remove lumps, or place in a closed jar and shake.
- Add the nondairy milk to a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour slurry and nutritional yeast to the milk and whisk while heating for about 3 minutes. Adjust consistency with additional vegetable stock or water, if needed.
Beyond the Basics
Beyond the BasicsNow that you know how to make a basic whole-food, plant-based pasta sauce, you can get creative with additions to change it up. Add avocado to make an avocado cream sauce, or try lemon, spinach, or red peppers.
Here are a few examples of plant-based sauces:
I hope you’ll try one of these healthy plant-based cream sauces in your meal plan today. Pasta never tasted so good.
I love to hear from you. Leave a comment below about your experience making a plant-based, vegan cream sauce.
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Thank you for the recipes, I’m fairly new to being vegan, you made these recipes very simple to follow! Gonna try today!
Hey Rhea, Thanks for the feedback and I hope the recipe works for you! Adding extra flavorings, herbs and spices help “spice” up the flavor depending on what you’re making it for. My kids (who aren’t vegan) even loved my Creamed Spinach recipe I made with soy milk this Thanksgiving!
How far ahead of serving can these sauces be made?
Hi Sharon, You can definitely make these a day ahead. They might thicken up as they cool so heat them slowly so as not to burn. They should last up to 3 days, at least. I hope that helps.
Hi, I am so excited to try your sauces. I am determined to change my eating habits after reading Dr. Joel Furhman’s book, Eat to Live. It makes a lot of sense to me. As an aging female, I would like to go in to my retirement years in good health and keep that good health. Yay, my husband is very open minded so he is willing to try new things.
Thank you and I’ll report back to you.
Lisa
I love Dr. Fuhrman and really feel he’s got the right point of view and balance for eating a plant-based diet! I am so with you when it comes to wanting my retirement years to be in good health and I’m happy to hear your husband is on board! I’d love to hear how it’s going, what’s working for you and what’s challenging. It always gives me insight into how I can help everyone. All the best, Diane
For the flour based cream sauce— at what point do you add the nutritional yeast? — I see the “shake the flour with water” — and stir /thicken — thin with vegetable broth etc — but no mention of the nutritional yeast? Do we add at the end or while thickening the milk? Thanks
Hi Jenny, yes, you would add the nutritional yeast along with the flour slurry. Thanks for your question. I’ve update that now on the website.
Hey, thank you so much for the recipes 🙂 They are easy to follow and a great inspiration.
I will definitely give them a try.
Thanks, Rebecca. 💕
What can be substituted for the nutrtional yeast? I love nutritional yeast but my family doesn’t.
You could leave it out, but nutritional yeast does add flavor. You might try a splash of low-sodium tamari, soy sauce, Braggs Liquid Aminos, or coconut aminos. Keep in mind that these may darken a cream sauce. White miso might be a better choice because of this. It’s also salty so use carefully. You could try adding a portion of a vegetable bouillon cube but look for low sodium versions. I haven’t tried dried mushrooms, but I’ve read the may work as a substitute. I hope that helps.
will these recipes taste alright if I leave out the nutritional yeast or is there a substitute for this ingredient? I can’t stand the taste of the yeast unfortified or not.
Hey Pam, I can’t say for sure about the taste without the nutritional yeast but give it a try and see. My husband isn’t a fan of it either. I don’t know of a good substitution but you can experiment with flavorings such as a little white miso paste or low-sodium tamari or soy sauce. A traditional white sauce by itself isn’t that flavorful except for the salt and it’s the rest of a recipe, like mac and cheese, that bumps up the flavor.
How to print recipies?
Oops, you can’t print these, but I made a quickie PDF and I’ll send that to you.
Hi there! VERY curious about the flour sauce. Anyone try it??? THX
Diane,
Thank you so much for the simple way you explained the sauces. I just discovered your site. I love it💕
Not as many things on Pinterest that are WFPB. So many dairy free recipes contain oils or processed foods.
I’ve been plant based for 3 yrs this month. It begin with looking into natural things that would help my hubby’s rheumatoid arthritis and found the Forks Over Knives video. Previously, you could say I was what they’re calling a flexitarian (ate meat occasionally & still had dairy and eggs and oils. Was going to try it for a month and liked it so much never went back. I had been feeling pretty fatigued and it helped quite a bit. Found out I had breast cancer a few months later. My hubby still hasn’t jumped on the all plant based wagon but he is eating less meat and more veggies than he did before.
Hi Lisa, thanks for connecting and sharing your story! It’s great to hear you’re loving this way of eating. There’s always new recipes to discover and such amazing bounty from nature. Good luck with your journey and glad you’re enjoying the vegan cream sauce recipes. ❤️