A couple of my friends have requested that I post some recipes for cheese sauce and mayo, respectively. I’m posting a great cheese sauce recipe that I have used often over the years, as well as a soy mayonnaise recipe. I can’t readily obtain Vegenaise here, and the vegan mayo that they do sell is, to put it mildly, in need of help.

My Favorite Cheese Sauce

• 1/2 cup cashew nuts
• 2 tbsp. sesame tahini
• 3 cups water
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/3 cup pimientos (or if you’re like me and can’t get pimientos, I use either frozen red pepper — diced by yours truly, or cooked carrots)
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes
• 2 tbsp. flour or cornstarch

Blend all ingredients until very, very smooth. Pour into a saucepan and stir constantly while bringing it to a boil. When it has thickened (usually right as it has come to a boil), remove from heat.

At this point, you can drizzle this on pizza, mix it in with cooked pasta elbows and bake it for a few minutes for Mac and Cheese (I love, love, love this cheese sauce in Mac and Cheese!), serve over cooked veggies like broccoli and cauliflower, add to tacos, drizzle on your lasagna, etc.

This does NOT make a good sliceable/ shreddable cheese. This is great for a cheese sauce only. I think this makes around 3-4 cups, although I haven’t actually measured.

Mayonnaise

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup soy supreme powder (kind of like soy flour; you can get it from some health food sources)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 tsp. instant clear gel (modified cornstarch)
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice

Blend water, soy supreme, garlic clove, salt, and onion powder together. While blender is still running, drizzle in the 1/2 cup of oil, and then add the 2 tsp. instant clear gel at the very end. Turn off the blender, then stir in the 2  tbsp. lemon juice by hand.

This makes a lot of mayonnaise (like, 3 cups or so — haven’t actually measured it). If you are just making it for one or two people and don’t have plans for making potato salad or other dishes with a large amount of mayonnaise involved, you might consider just making half a recipe of this.