Vegan Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
This melty, gooey sandwich is smothered in a flavorful sauce made of blended veggies, cashews, creamy coconut milk and spices! No actual cheese necessary.
This melty, gooey sandwich is smothered in a flavorful sauce made of blended veggies, cashews, creamy coconut milk and spices! No actual cheese necessary.
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 2/3 cups peeled and finely diced potatoes (i used russets but yellow also work nicely)
- 1/4 cup peeled and diced fresh carrot
- 1/3 cup peeled and diced onion
- 2/3 cup water (preferably from pot of cooked veggies)
- 1/2 cup raw cashews (pre-soaked for a few hours if you're not using a high-speed blender)
- 1/4 cup coconut milk (either lite or full fat variety)
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1 loaf vegan french bread or other vegan bread of your choice
- vegan butter (like earth balance) or coconut oil for pan
- Carbohydrate 1.8550210863049 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.200844552676494 g
- Fiber 0.929484551718928 g
- Protein 1.68929591324041 g
- Saturated Fat 0.0260216178643146 g
- Serving Size 1 1 (7g)
- Sodium 389.796496949418 mg
- Sugar 0.925536534585971 g
- Trans Fat 0.0625595617359599 g
- Calories 14 calories
Step-by-step
- In a medium saucepan, bring several cups of water to boil.
- Place prepared potato, carrot, and onion into the boiling water, and cook until potatoes are fork tender, or about 10 minutes.
- While your potatoes, carrot, and onion are cooking, place ⅓ cup water (preferably water from your pot of cooking/cooked vegetables), cashews, coconut milk, yeast flakes, lemon juice, salt, and garlic powder into your blender. Blend on high until everything is creamy smooth.
- When potatoes are fork-tender, place potatoes, carrot, and onion into your blender--using a slotted spoon to avoid adding excess water to your cheese.
- Blend everything on high until smooth.
- You can use this cheese as is (pretty warm) to make your grilled cheese sandwiches, or you can place it in the fridge for a few hours or days to cool and thicken up slightly--which makes a less messy grilled cheese sandwich. If you're like me, you don't mind ooey gooey all-over-the-place cheese, and the hot stuff works just fine.
- Slather your cheese sauce on 2 thick slices of bread, slap 'em together, and brush the outsides of your sandwich with either coconut oil (or other heat-safe oil of your choice) or vegan butter. (I use Earth Balance, generally.)
- Place your sandwich in a preheated pan or griddle on medium heat. Usually, my sandwiches only need about 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side to be nice and crispy. Check your first sandwiches frequently, as they can burn quickly without warning.
Traditional dairy-based cheese melts cleanly because of specific casein proteins that soften under gentle heat, whereas plant-based substitutes require starchy vegetables and emulsifiers to mimic that rich texture. Creating a plant-based alternative relies on starchy root vegetables like russet potatoes combined with raw cashews to build body and creaminess without animal fats.
Boiling the diced potatoes, carrots, and onions until they reach fork tenderness breaks down their cell walls completely, ensuring the blender can pulverize them into a velvety paste. Soaking the raw cashews in advance softens them sufficiently for standard blenders, though a high-speed machine bypasses this step while still achieving a completely smooth finish. Retaining a portion of the starchy cooking water provides the necessary hydration and thermal energy to help emulsify the fats from the coconut milk.
Preparing this vegetable cheese sauce ahead of time offers distinct advantages for kitchen efficiency. Stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator, the mixture firms up over two to three days as the starches cool and set, which makes assembly much less messy when spreading thick layers onto bread. Chilled sauce also reheats well on the stovetop over low heat if a hot, flowing spread is preferred.
When assembling the sandwiches, brush the exterior of the French bread evenly with vegan butter or coconut oil to promote rapid browning in the pan. Maintain medium heat on the griddle and check the underside frequently, as breads coated in plant fats typically brown within thirty to sixty seconds per side.
