Perfect for pasta, gnocchi, vegetables, jacket potatoes or anything else where you're looking for a yummy-tasting, cheese-style sauce, this one fits the bill. It's got the tanginess of Hollandaise (and is quite similar, I think), and my guest last Friday night said she thought it tasted just like it had cheese in it. Result!
It hasn't even got vegan cheese in it, actually - I've used other ingredients to create the flavours (inspired by Ann Gentry's cashew cheese, which I make for my vegan cheese boards). So I was chuffed my guest enjoyed it so much. And in experimenting with this sauce, my goal was to make a roux (which traditionally is made with flour and butter) that didn't involve vegan margarine as a substitute for butter.
One of the reasons for wanting to avoid vegan margarine is that most brands contain nasty palm oil - the production of it is killing wildlife and displacing people on a massive and devastating scale. In Borneo, they estimate orang-utans will be extinct in 10-15 years because of the palm oil industry, and rainforests are being utterly destroyed because of it.
So, in this sauce I actually just used olive oil and flour (and a gluten-free flour blend works fine, too) to make the roux, and it was easy-peasy and worked really well! I don't know why I haven't done it before. And it can't be denied that it is a healthier 'cheese' sauce, as well.
With just 1 tablespoon of oil - so a quarter tablespoon per serving, if dishing out between four people - makes the sauce relatively low-fat, for a cheese-type sauce! The fat content of soya milk and the other ingredients is negligible, so I assume this sauce will have around 4 grams of fat per serving (there are are almost 14g of fat in 1 tablespoon of oil). Keep in mind a traditional cheese version will have the fat from the butter (which is saturated, also), as well as the fat from all the cheese - plus it will be loaded with cholesterol.
Now - I would say the miso paste is an essential ingredient. It's not difficult to find in Asian Oriental supermarkets, I buy it from one of the Chinese supermarkets in Manchester. You can also order from Amazon, and other places. It REALLY adds the cheesiness, along with nutritional yeast, and once you have bought it, you will find that it becomes invaluable for making anything with a cheesy flavour. So do buy it if you want to make this sauce.
And as always, please please let me know what you think in the comments section if you make this recipe. The best part of food blogging is getting feedback and hearing what you think, and it's what makes me want to keep putting the time in for creating and posting my recipes!
Versatile Vegan Cheezy Dijon Sauce
Makes 1¼ cups (about 4 servings)
310ml / 1¼ cup unsweetened soya milk (more for a thinner sauce)
3 tablespoons white flour (use a gluten-free blend for gluten-free option)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
1½ tablespoons white miso paste
1½ tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (check ingredients for gluten-free)
¼ teaspoon garlic salt
¼ teaspoon onion granules
⅛ teaspoon sea salt
Pinch white pepper
1. In a small saucepan, whisk together the olive oil with with flour. Place the pan over a medium heat, and cook for about 2 minutes until a slightly toasty smell emerges. As you whisk, the flour and oil mixture will break into smaller pieces.
2. VERY gradually add the soya milk, a couple of glugs at a time, while the saucepan is over the heat. You need to whisk each amount of milk into the roux so it combines well and lumps don't form. When about two thirds of the milk has been added, whisk in the miso paste and mustard.
3. Lower the heat slightly and continue stirring and thickening. Add the other ingredients - lemon juice, salt, onion granules, garlic salt, nutritional yeast flakes, and white pepper. Stir in the remaining milk and cook a couple of minutes until the sauce is at the consistency you desire (add more soya milk if you want a thinner one).
4. Serve hot over pasta, veggies, jacket potatoes, gnocchi or even as a lasagne sauce.
I'm Andrea, and am obsessed with creating fabulous food. After I managed to ditch dieting, the reason Chocolate and Beyond was born, it seemed natural to evolve my site into a foodie blog. More so since I also ditched animal produce to be vegan. Now, I love showing how inventive cruelty-free cooking can be. And sometimes I like to rant, too. I wouldn't be myself otherwise :) x 
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