Veganer Käseersatz zum Überbacken (vegan melting cheese substitute)
A vegan sauce built on potato and carrot cooked until fully soft then blended smooth, since it's the natural starch in the potato that thickens the sauce into something that browns and bubbles under heat the way melted cheese does. Blending in nutritional yeast is what gives it the savoury, cheese-like flavour that a plain vegetable purée would otherwise lack entirely.
Prep10 min
Cook20 min
Servings4
Christoph's vegan melting cheese substitute, the potato's natural starch giving it a sauce that browns and bubbles under heat.
Ingredients
Written for a 2 L pot
Units
Temperature
Servings
Sauce
- 200 g potato, peeled, diced rounded
- 100 g carrot, peeled, diced rounded
- 60 g onion, diced rounded
- 350 ml vegetable broth rounded
- 40 g nutritional yeast rounded
- 30 ml neutral oil rounded
- 15 ml lemon juice rounded
- 3 g onion powder rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Combine the potato, carrot, onion and broth in a pot. Simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until fully tender.
- Blend the cooked vegetables with their liquid, nutritional yeast, oil, lemon juice and onion powder until completely smooth.
- Season with salt. Use immediately, spread or poured over whatever you’re baking, or chill and reheat gently later.
Notes
- Cook the potato and carrot until genuinely soft, not just tender-crisp. Fully softened vegetables blend to a smooth, glossy sauce; undercooked ones leave a grainy texture no amount of blending fixes.
- The potato’s natural starch is what makes this behave like melted cheese under heat. It’s what lets the sauce brown and bubble at the edges in the oven or under a broiler, rather than just sitting there as a flat purée.
- Don’t skip the nutritional yeast. It’s the single ingredient doing the most work to give this a savoury, cheese-like flavour rather than tasting like plain blended vegetables.
- It keeps for 4 days in the fridge, though it thickens as it chills; loosen with a splash of broth if needed before using.
Ingredient substitutions
- A pinch of smoked paprika blended in gives a smokier, more cheddar-like flavour.
- A splash of plant milk instead of some of the broth gives a slightly richer result.
- Spread over vegetables, pasta bakes, or toast before baking or broiling.
From Christoph Mayer