Vegan Chipotle Carrot Queso
This dairy-free, vegan queso gets its yellow hue from carrots, its “cheesy” flavor from nutritional yeast and smoky spiciness from chipotle peppers.
Ingreadient
- 3 large carrots (about ½ pound), peeled and chopped
- 1 small white or yellow onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 ½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours if not using a Vitamix or Blendtec blender (see notes for quicker alternatives)
- 1 ¼ cups vegetable broth
- 3 to 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes, to taste
- 1 to 3 tablespoons adobo sauce (from canned chipotle peppers)
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt, more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 small can green chilis, drained
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped pickled jalapeño peppers (optional, for a vinegary kick)
- Big handful cherry tomatoes, chopped
- Handful chopped fresh cilantro
Recommended mix-ins and garnishes
Direction
- Warm the olive oil in a medium-sized pot over medium heat. Add the chopped carrots, onions and garlic and a dash of salt. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent and the carrots are tender, around 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
- In a blender, combine the cashews, vegetable broth and carrot-onion mixture. Add 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast, 1 tablespoon adobo sauce, ½ teaspoon cumin and ½ teaspoon salt. Puree the mixture until it is completely smooth.
- Taste and adjust as necessary—add more nutritional yeast for more cheesy flavor and/or more adobo sauce for more heat. (I find that the heat mellows out with a short rest and that it tastes less intense on a corn chip than by the spoonful.) Season to taste with salt and black pepper and blend again.
- Next, warm the queso, either by using the soup function on your fancy-pants blender until it’s sufficiently heated or by pouring the queso back into the pot and warming it over medium heat, stirring frequently, until warmed through.
- Stir the drained green chilis and optional chopped jalapeños into the mixture. Pour it into a serving bowl and top with chopped cherry tomatoes, cilantro and more jalapeños, if you’d like. Dig in
