Instant Pot: Vegan Queso with Cauliflower

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Vegan Queso with a Surprise Healthy Ingredient #YesYouCAN

I have the perfect game day appetizer for you today. Your friends and family will be excited to eat their fill of this homemade vegan queso. You will be thrilled because they are actually digging into a big bowl of creamy veggies!

Cauliflower is the surprise main ingredient along with carrots, cashews, and nutritional yeast. The cashews are what make this queso as creamy as the non-vegan version.

If you’re looking for a fancier vegan queso be sure to take a look at my Vegan Torchy’s Queso Copycat Made with Potato and Homemade Rojo Sauce!

Vegan Queso with a Surprise Healthy Ingredient #YesYouCAN

The main ingredients of this queso are cauliflower, carrots, cashews, RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies, and nutritional yeast. Pretty healthy, right?

Vegan Queso with a Surprise Healthy Ingredient #YesYouCAN

I did my cooking in my Instant Pot, but you could also cook the cauliflower, water, carrots and cashews together on the stove. Just cook until the veggies are tender, then pour into a strainer over the sink to drain the extra water. Mostly you are softening the cashews and veggies so they will blend smooth and creamy.

Vegan Queso with a Surprise Healthy Ingredient #YesYouCAN

Put the drained mixture along with the liquid drained from the canned tomatoes, nutritional yeast, and spices into your blender.

Vegan Queso with a Surprise Healthy Ingredient #YesYouCAN

It will blend into a smooth and creamy dip that no one will guess is mostly veggies. From here, stir in the drained RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies plus fresh chopped bell peppers and onions if you want to use them. My favorite mix-in is minced cilantro.

To make clean-up easier and chopping speedier, use your small food processor to do all the work on the fresh peppers and onions. Just pulse until everything is minced up the way you like it. Be sure to pay attention though or you’ll end up with veggie puree!

Vegan Queso with a Surprise Healthy Ingredient #YesYouCAN

4.9 from 12 reviews
Vegan Queso with a Surprise Healthy Ingredient
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Appetizer
Serves: about 8 cups
Ingredients
For cooking:
  • 4 cups cauliflower florets (1 small head of cauliflower)
  • 2 cups water
  • 1½ cups thick cut carrot coins (3 small carrots)
  • ½ cup raw cashews
For Blending:
  • ½ cup nutritional yeast
  • liquid drained from 2 cans (10 ounce/283 g) RO*TEL diced tomatoes and green chilies
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
  • ½ teaspoon chili powder
  • ½ teaspoon jalapeno powder, optional
  • ¼ teaspoon mustard powder
Mix-ins:
  • veggies from 2 cans (10 ounce/283 g) RO*TEL diced tomatoes and green chilies
  • 1 cup chopped bell peppers, optional
  • ¼ cup minced red onions, optional
  • ½ cup minced cilantro
Instructions
  1. Add the cauliflower, water, carrots and cashews to your Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, then carefully do a quick pressure release by moving the valve to release the pressure. Or add to a large saucepan and cook on the stove over medium heat until you can pierce the carrots easily with a fork.
  2. Pour the cooked mixture into a strainer over the sink and drain the extra water.
  3. Put the drained mixture along with the nutritional yeast, liquid drained from the canned tomatoes, smoked paprika, salt, chili powder, jalapeno powder, and mustard powder into your blender.
  4. Scrape out the blender contents into mixing bowl and stir in the tomatoes and green chilis and any other veggies you're adding in.
  5. You can serve it room temperature or keep it warm in a slow cooker

Vegan Queso with a Surprise Healthy Ingredient #YesYouCAN

26 reviews

Vegan Queso with a Surprise Healthy Ingredient

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Serves about 8 cups     adjust servings

Ingredients

    For cooking

    • 4 cups cauliflower florets (1 small head of cauliflower)
    • 2 cups water
    • 1 1/2 cups thick cut carrot coins (3 small carrots)
    • 1/2 cup raw cashews

    For Blending

    • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
    • liquid drained from 2 cans (10 ounce/283 g) RO*TEL diced tomatoes and green chilies
    • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
    • 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
    • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon jalapeno powder, optional
    • 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder

    Mix-ins

    • veggies from 2 cans (10 ounce/283 g) RO*TEL diced tomatoes and green chilies
    • 1 cup chopped bell peppers, optional
    • 1/4 cup minced red onions, optional
    • 1/2 cup minced cilantro

    Instructions

    1. Add the cauliflower, water, carrots and cashews to your Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, then carefully do a quick pressure release by moving the valve to release the pressure. Or add to a large saucepan and cook on the stove over medium heat until you can pierce the carrots easily with a fork.
    2. Pour the cooked mixture into a strainer over the sink and drain the extra water.
    3. Put the drained mixture along with the nutritional yeast, liquid drained from the canned tomatoes, smoked paprika, salt, chili powder, jalapeno powder, and mustard powder into your blender.
    4. Scrape out the blender contents into mixing bowl and stir in the tomatoes and green chilis and any other veggies you're adding in.
    5. You can serve it room temperature or keep it warm in a slow cooker

    by

    Comments

    2. This looks so rich! We try and eat clean/paleo, etc most days and I have always wanted to make a similar dip – i love that you used a staple like Rotel for a little kick. I seriously can’t wait to make this!

      Reply

      • I’m eating it faster than I thought I would. I think it would freeze ok, but I suspect the cauliflower flavor will be stronger if you do. In other words, make a 1/2 batch. 😉

        Reply

    6. Wow, the texture looks perfect! I’ve been wanting to try making a dip or sauce with nutritional yeast, I bought some several weeks ago and still haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve heard it adds an excellent flavor. I may just need to try this recipe! 🙂

      Reply

    8. This recipe looks perfect! Easy, full of vegetables, and lots of flavor! Will be making this for the weekend! Thanks for sharing!!!

      Reply

    9. Totally can’t wait to try this recipe!! My son can’t have any dairy and queso is something that he misses. We’ve tried a couple of versions, but just haven’t found a good one. This look like it might be IT!

      Reply

    13. I have been known to polish off entire bowls of queso on many occasions. I’m completely fascinated that the consistency of this looks just as amazing as the original inspiration! This looks fabulous.

      Reply

    14. This looks so good – I always love the idea of making cheese sauce with fresh ingredients and knowing exactly what is in there!

      Reply

    18. Okay so I have made cashew queso before but cauliflower??? this is awesome!!! what a way to make it lower in calories. I am in love!!!!

      Reply

    19. I made a half batch today and it came out delicious! I used the cooking water in a pot of black bean chili and served the chili with a dollop of queso of top. My taste buds went crazy – thank you!

      Reply

    21. Thank you for sharing such awesome recipes. Can you tell me where you get these two ingredients? Lemon Oil for the cheesecake recipe and jalapeno powder for this recipe. I love using quality ingredients when I can.

      Reply

      • You can get the lemon oil at Sur La Table or on Amazon here . The jalapeño powder can be found at www,myspicesage.com and an Amazon here .

        I use both of those often. Once you add some jalapeño powder to guacamole you’ll be hooked!

        Reply

    22. Does this keep well? I have a queso recipe that I love, but I can only make whatever I plan to use right then because it basically turns to cheesy jello if I put it in the fridge for the next day. This recipe yields 8 cups and I don’t see myself eating 8 cups of queso, no matter how good it is. I don’t mind making a smaller amount if that’s the case, but I don’t want to wind up throwing that much out! 🙂

      Reply

    24. Made this last weekend as a compliment to vegan tacos and it was incredible! It was just for 2 of us, so I cut everything in half other than the spices. Next time I will probably also use the full 2 cans of rotel. We had more than enough to go with dinner, lunch the next day and more to spare. (Came out really great, much better than I expected honestly!) Will definitely be making this again.

      Reply

    25. Just made this tonight! My grocery store was out of raw cashews and I couldn’t wait for them to restock to make this. Not sure if it effected the consistency. I used cashew milk to thin it out a bit and used only one can of rotel. The color wasn’t yellow like a traditional cheese based queso it was more orange in color. For not following the recipe exactly I am still pleased with how it turned out. It tastes really good (not like carrots or cauliflower). I added a bit of red pepper to give it an extra kick.

      Reply

    26. Looks great!
      But my son has a nut allergy.
      Can I subtitute cannelini beans or sunflower seeds or something else for the cashews?
      Or just skip them?
      Thanks!

      Reply

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