Vegan Chipotle Carrot Queso

This dairy-free, vegan queso gets its yellow hue from carrots, its โ€œcheesyโ€ flavor from nutritional yeast and smoky spiciness from chipotle peppers.

13 Reviews
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Chipotle carrot vegan queso recipe - cookieandkate.com

Yeah, I would be skeptical of this cheese-less queso if I were you. Queso literally means โ€œcheeseโ€ in Spanish. This dip is a dairy-free, cheese-like fraudโ€”a fraud that this dairy-eating queso lover thoroughly enjoys. That counts for something, right?

vegan queso ingredients

I was highly skeptical of vegan queso until Ali convinced me to give Fรผdโ€™s vegan nachos a chance. She said theyโ€™re the best nachos in town, vegan or not, so I agreed to meet her there for lunch. While I would still argue that the worldโ€™s best nachos feature golden, bubbly, baked cheese (and are cooked to order at The Library Bar and Grill in Norman, Oklahoma), Fรผdโ€™s nachos were pretty good.

They were good enough that I happily polished off my half of our heaping plate of nachos and left with a belly full of chips and โ€œcheese,โ€ like I would if presented with real cheese nachos, except this time I didnโ€™t need a nap afterward. Bonus point for dairy-free queso.

carrot queso

Even after sampling those nachos and a couple other vegan โ€œquesosโ€ since, I had no intention of posting a recipe for one. Then I tried Ali Maffucciโ€˜s (sheโ€™s another Ali) recipe for chipotle carrot mac and cheese in her new book, Inspiralized. I was hungry and the recipe sounded interesting and easy enough. It was really tasty, too. I got hooked on the creamy chipotle-carrot mixture and after playing around with it a few more time, realized it would make a great queso. I mean, โ€œqueso.โ€

If youโ€™re going to give cashew-based queso a shot, youโ€™ll need to adjust your expectations first. Beware that it wonโ€™t taste quite like cheese and it wonโ€™t have that cheesy stretch-and-pull effect to it. It will be creamy, however, thanks to the cashews, and cheese-like in flavor, due to nutritional yeast. Mine includes cooked carrots, which lend a golden color and a light sweetness that is balanced out by spicy, smoky chipotle peppers. Try it and let me know what you think!

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Vegan Chipotle Carrot Queso

  • Author: Cookie and Kate
  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 3 cups 1x

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 13 reviews

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This dairy-free, vegan queso recipe gets its authentic yellow hue and slight sweetness from carrots, its โ€œcheesyโ€ flavor from nutritional yeast and smoky spiciness from chipotle peppers. You can serve this queso with chips as a dip or drizzle the mixture over nachos, burritos, enchiladas or any other Mexican dish with complementary flavors! This queso turns out best in a high-powered blender, so if youโ€™re not sure your blender is up for the job, be sure to either soak the cashews or use an alternative method (available in the recipe notes). Recipe yields 3 cups queso.

Ingredients

Scale

Queso

  • 3 large carrots (about ยฝ pound), peeled and chopped
  • 1 small white or yellow onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
  • 1 ยฝ 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 ยผ cups vegetable broth
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes, to taste
  • 1 to 3 tablespoons adobo sauce (from canned chipotle peppers)
  • ยฝ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ยฝ teaspoon salt, more to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Recommended mix-ins and garnishes

  • 1 small can green chilis, drained
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped pickled jalapeรฑo peppers (optional, for a vinegary kick)
  • Big handful cherry tomatoes, chopped
  • Handful chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

  1. 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.
  2. In a blender, combine the cashews, vegetable broth and carrot-onion mixture. Add 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast, 1 tablespoon adobo sauce, ยฝ teaspoon cumin and ยฝ teaspoon salt. Puree the mixture until it is completely smooth.
  3. Taste and adjust as necessaryโ€”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.
  4. Next, warm the queso, either by using the soup function on your fancy-pants blender until itโ€™s sufficiently heated or by pouring the queso back into the pot and warming it over medium heat, stirring frequently, until warmed through.
  5. Stir the drained green chilis and optional chopped jalapeรฑos into the mixture. Pour it into a serving bowl and top with chopped cherry tomatoes, cilantro and more jalapeรฑos, if youโ€™d like. Dig in!

Notes

Recipe roughly inspired by/adapted from Inspiralized: Turn Vegetables into Healthy, Creative, Satisfying Meals by Ali Maffucci.
Where to buy chipotle peppers in adobo sauce: Look for small cans of chipotle peppers in the Mexican aisle of well-stocked grocery stores or specialty Mexican groceries. (You can freeze the leftovers of the can in a small freezer-safe bag for later!) If you canโ€™t find canned chipotles, try seasoning the queso to taste with ground chipotle powder or a smoky/roasted/chipotle-flavored hot sauce.
About those cashews: Soaking the cashews makes them easier to blend and to digest, so thatโ€™s a good option albeit a time-consuming one. My Vitamix had no trouble blending the raw cashews as-is. If you donโ€™t have time to soak the cashews and donโ€™t have a fancy-pants blender, try this instead: Heat the broth on the stove until itโ€™s pretty hot and pulse the dried cashews in the blender until they resemble a fine powder (stop before they turn into cashew butter). Then, pour the broth into the blender and blend until smooth (beware of hot steam escaping from the top of the blender). Proceed by adding the carrot mixture and spices as directed.

Nutrition

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionistโ€™s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.

ย 

Kate and Cookie

HELLO, MY NAME IS

Kathryne Taylor

I'm a vegetable enthusiast, dog lover, mother and bestselling cookbook author. I've been sharing recipes here since 2010, and I'm always cooking something new in my Kansas City kitchen. Cook with me!

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Comments

  1. Abby @ The Frosted Vegan

    Oh myyyy goodness! I had the hardest time finding a queso that I liked, but carrots in queso? LOVE it. I canโ€™t wait to try this Kate.

  2. Alexa [fooduzzi.com]

    Love this! Look at how creamy that queso is! I canโ€™t wait to surprise my mom with this recipe โ€“ Iโ€™m sure sheโ€™ll love this healthier take on one of her favorite treats!

  3. Trisha

    As an ardent cheese lover, my initial reaction to vegan โ€œquesoโ€ is WHY? BUT the more I think about the sweetness of the carrots, the flavor of the nutritional yeast, and the kick from the adobo sauce, the more I think this is something I want to try. And I really like the fact that I can eat a whole plate of nachos with this sauce and not feel gross and bloated afterwards. Anytime nachos are in front of my face, that usually happensโ€ฆ..:)

    1. Kate

      Iโ€™m with you, Trisha, I love me some queso! This is really just a creamy, flavorful dip that I really, truly enjoy. Bet you would, too!

  4. Elaine Miller

    My husband and I have been mostly vegan (I call it โ€œfleganโ€โ€“flexible vegan) for 3 1/2 years now and have experimented with various โ€œcheeseโ€ sauces. The husband has been adding a dash of red miso to our โ€œcheeseโ€ sauce to give it that slight umami kick and it transforms the sauce. You donโ€™t want to add so much that you taste miso. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

    1. Kate

      Flegan, thatโ€™s great! I just mixed in a bit of my white miso, canโ€™t decide which way I like it better! I may have added a bit too much.

    2. Mandy

      I will definitely be working Flegan into my vocab!

  5. Anna

    This looks delicious! I have only ever had vegan queso made with butternut squash. Seeing as I adore carrots, this will have to be made soon.

    1. Kate

      I bet this one will taste similar! Hope you love it!

  6. Cassie

    Me gusta!

  7. jenna @just j.faye

    I love cashew and yeast โ€œcheeseโ€ sauce โ€“ itโ€™s surprisingly tasty! I bet the addition of carrots and chipotle peppers make it even more delicious!

  8. RutsWife

    Wow! This sounds amazing! I am going to try it ASAP. I actually have most of the ingredients already except for the tortilla chips, Grrr!

    1. Kate

      Perfect! Hope you love it!

  9. Alex Caspero MA,RD (@delishknowledge)

    Love this idea! I make a pretty stellar cheese sauce (if I do say so myself) using orange bell peppers for sweetness and I bet carrots work the same way! Canโ€™t wait to try this.

    1. Kate

      I bet so! Great idea, Alex!

  10. Gaby

    This queso makes me want to dip all the things! Yum!

  11. Vikkie

    holymolyโ€ฆ I wish I hadnโ€™t discovered this while I was hungry lol. It looks incredible!! x

  12. Caitlin

    this looks like a creamy non-cheesy cheese dip I could wrap my head around! And it actually looks like the velveeta dip i know and (not so secretly) love but am grossed out by. Canโ€™t wait to try it.

    1. Kate

      Haha, it does, now that I think about it! I canโ€™t resist a big dollop of Velveeta dip when I find it at partiesโ€ฆ

  13. Sarah @ Making Thyme for Health

    Now that is one sexy vegan queso! I actually just cooked with chipotle peppers in adobo for the first time a few weeks ago and couldnโ€™t believe what I had been missing. They are loaded with flavor! I bet they make this queso taste even better than it looks!

    1. Kate

      Right?! So good. Iโ€™ve been on a chipotle kick lately.

  14. Trish

    Making this Friday for our fun dinner night along with your super yummy roasted cauliflower/lentil taco :)

    1. Kate

      Great idea! Hope you all love it!

  15. Lauren

    Yum! What a wonderful recipe; Iโ€™m looking forward to trying it out. Thanks for sharing!

  16. Amy @ Thoroughly Nourished Life

    Thereโ€™s no harm in trying new ways to make old favourites! This sounds like a great different version of nachos. Nachos for the nights when you know you need to eat vegetables instead of cheeseโ€ฆ
    I canโ€™t wait to try this queso, sorry, โ€œquesoโ€ sometime soon. Might have to invite some girlfriends around though because my man is very specific about me not messing with his nachosโ€ฆ.

  17. kristie {birch and wild}

    Whoah, this is blowing my mind! It looks so darn good.

  18. Sander

    Hey, quick question,
    My friend brought me a huge stick of Tamarindo from Mexico. I have no idea what to do with it. Ideas? Thanks.

  19. Erin

    I have never used nutritional yeast flakes before. I went on Amazon to buy some and I was wondering if Braggโ€™s nutritional yeast seasoning was the same thing. It looks more manageable sized to keep in my spice cupboard:)

    1. Kate

      Yep, same thing! That container is bigger than it appears on Amazon (much bigger than a regular spice jar). You can also find it at health food stores, sometimes in the bulk section.

  20. RACHEL

    Yum! Looks delicious!

  21. Jennifer

    I love your food blog! Please check out mine and letโ€™s connect?

    swedishcavegirl.blogspot.com

  22. Trish

    Made this last night along with your cauliflower lentil tacos. My husband, upon having a huge dollop of queso on a chip, says โ€œTrish, you out-did yourself on this one.โ€ My oh my this was fabulous. Never expected it would turn out this flavorful! Kate, I used to first go to vegan sites as my go-to websites, but lately youโ€™re my go-to website. You typically always have a โ€˜make it veganโ€™ option which I love about you. Anyway, I digress :) This queso will not disappoint! Make it and youโ€™ll be in vegan queso heaven! Thanks, Kate for another hit!!

    1. Kate

      Youโ€™re the best, Trish! So glad you two enjoyed my tacos and queso. Hooray! Hope youโ€™re having a great weekend.

  23. Melody

    Made this โ€œquesoโ€ this week. So good! I love the savory โ€œcheeseโ€ indulgence, without hating myself or my digestive system afterwards.

    However, as a Texan, I found it necessary to more than double the amount of chipotle peppers. This dip was approved by vegans and meat-eaters alike. :)

    1. Kate

      Thanks, Melody! Two thumbs up for adding more spice. You are my kind of girl.

  24. Joanne

    I am a self proclaimed cheese addict, but I daresay I could get down with a big bowl of this and a plate of chips!

  25. AC

    Thanks for the recipe. This is now my go-to queso recipe.

    The viscosity and mouth-feel are great, as well as the colour. Thereโ€™s a real difference, as well, when you add the jalapeรฑos, cilantro and tomatoes. Really, really good (great, actually).

    The cashews dial up the richness really nicely.

    One observation: the sauce could almost be served as a rich and creamy carrot soup if its thickness were reduced a bit (another 3 cups of stock?), and it does come across as sweeter than cheese sauce because of the soffritto.

    Thanks again.

    1. Kate

      Thanks, AC! Delighted to hear that you appreciate the queso. Yes, I think you could turn this into a soup. It can also be used as a pasta sauce, although Iโ€™d probably hold off on the jalapeรฑos for that and maybe add a splash of vinegar instead.

      1. AC

        Just made it again and was thinking that it could work as a mac & cheese sauce, with or without jalapeรฑosโ€“as well as working with other pastas (perhaps with parsnips instead of carrots?)

        I made the sauce today with someone who doesnโ€™t have great knife skills and was pressed for time; so we grated the carrots and onion with a box grater before sautรฉing them. I highly recommend this (just be sure not to heat the grated veggies at too high a temperature as theyโ€™ll burn more easily when theyโ€™re grated).

        1. Kate

          So many great ideas! I can confirm that this sauce makes an awesome mac and cheese. Thanks, AC!

  26. Grace

    I made this last weekend for some dairy intolerant friends and it was a big hit! We had a full taco bar with all the fixings and this sauce was everyoneโ€™s favorite โ€“ even the cheese loving people were happy to keep going back for more. I will definitely be making this again! Loved it!

    1. Kate

      Wow, thatโ€™s so great! Thank you for letting me know, Grace. :D

  27. Kelly

    This was really tasty! I donโ€™t (yet) own a high-power blender, and even with soaking the cashews had some trouble getting the queso perfectly smooth in my food processor. I also ended up adding more adobo sauce + a whole chipotle, more nutritional yeast, and some extra cumin. The end result โ€” while not as pretty as yours! โ€” was addictively good. Iโ€™ll definitely be making this again!

    1. Kate

      Thanks, Kelly! Glad it worked out for you!

  28. Emily

    I was a little nervous about this one but I was wrong! I am not a vegan and love my cheese but this was good (not cheese but creamy and flavorful). I served it with nachos (yum!) and then I used it on some roast veggies enchiladas. Delicious! Thanks!

    1. Kate

      Yay, glad we agree on this queso! Your enchiladas sound epic.

  29. Erika

    This looks insanely mouth watering good! Iโ€™m dying to try some of this!

  30. Kelly

    This looks great but one question my sister has to eat gluten free and says she canโ€™t have the yeast flakes is there any substitute you know of?

    1. Kate

      Hey Kelly! Braggโ€™s nutritional yeast is gluten free. I canโ€™t think of a substitute. If you omit it, youโ€™ll still end up with a creamy, spicy dipโ€”it just wonโ€™t be as โ€œcheesy.โ€

  31. Ana

    Oh my god! Iโ€™m drooling with that recipe and Iโ€™m not even a fan of chipotle!

  32. Gem

    Just made this. While it definitely does not taste like cheese it is still a delicious and addictive dip. I added a half tsb of white miso to up he creamy and savory factor.

    1. Kate

      Thanks, Gem!

  33. Laureen

    I followed the recipe exactly and used the larger amount of adobe sauce. Huge hit with my non-vegan husband. He even commented that he doesnโ€™t get tired of the flavour, as with a cheese-based sauce. This will definitely be a standard in our house. Thank you!!!

    1. Kate

      Awesome! Thanks, Laureen!

  34. Mike Broadhurst

    Delicious! We soaked the cashews and used our dinky immersion blender, so it doesnโ€™t look as smooth as yours but itโ€™s nevertheless in-cred-ibly good. Thank you for the guilt free treat.

    1. Kate

      Thank you, Mike!

  35. Leanne

    This looks just delish ! Iโ€™m wondering if you have any ideas on what I could use instead of Nutritional Yeast ? Iโ€™m in France and not sure if I can get it. Iโ€™m not Vegan or Vegetarian so am wondering if any UMAMI adding ingredient would do the trick ? Very creative recipe, thank you :)

  36. Valerie

    Hi Kate, Iโ€™d love to make this as a dip for Superbowl Sunday but my husband is allergic to cashews. Any recommendations for a nut swap?

  37. Suzanne

    Love this โ€œquesoโ€! My husband went crazy for it. I added some black olives for garnish too. I was toying with swirling in some Rotel tomatoes too. Has anyone tried this?

  38. Lindsey

    Oh my goodness! This is amazing! And super easy and quick! Do you think it would freeze well?

  39. Kim

    Kate, super late to the party but made this recipe tonight for a gameโ€ฆ.SO DELICIOUS! Iโ€™ve made other vegan โ€œcheeseโ€ dips before and have been disappointed โ€“ this is great. You never let us down!

  40. Kenzie

    I made this last week and have been eating the leftovers out of the fridge since thenโ€“I canโ€™t get enough of this. This โ€œquesoโ€ is delicious and a perfect (healthy!) vegan dip. The texture isnโ€™t quite like true queso, but after having avoided cheese for so long I donโ€™t even mind. Thank you Kate!

    1. Kate

      Youโ€™re welcome, Kenzie!

  41. Poli

    Hi Kateโ€ฆand cookie!

    Made it for tonightโ€™s game. I canโ€™t stop eating and our friends didnโ€™t even get here yet! Awesome queso.
    All youโ€™re recipes are delicious!

    Cheers!

    1. Kate

      haha!! May want to double it next time ;) Cookie says hi!

  42. Kelly

    Iโ€™ve never felt the need to comment on any internet recipe beforeโ€ฆbut this โ€œquesoโ€ is INSANELY AMAZING. Every time I make it, I fall in love with it againโ€ฆitโ€™s SO SO GOOD. Weโ€™ve made it countless times for different parties and events, and Iโ€™ve yet to meet someone who doesnโ€™t like it.

    1. Kate

      Thank you! Iโ€™m so glad you found it that good.

  43. Sheri

    Iโ€™m not vegan, but was curious about this dish si I made a half batch. I also donโ€™t have a fancy blender but my kitchen aid did just fine. Followed recipe exactly and wish I would have made the full recipe! The creamy cashew and adobo flavor is addicting! Thx again, Kateโ€ฆ

  44. Marla

    Just made this for the first time, and itโ€™s fantastic! Used it to top my veggie tacos yesterday and break it out again later on for my Girl Gang Friday Night! Thank you!

    1. Kate

      Thank you for commenting! Iโ€™m glad you loved it, Marla.

  45. Barb

    This looks amazing! Can it be made the day before and taste just as good?

    1. Kate

      Hi! I believe others have enjoyed this leftover.