There’s something about grilled cheese sandwiches that brings back memories of child-like wonder and care-free kiddishness. What kid doesn’t love grilled cheese?
I’m all about eating those crazy healthy vegan super-power-bowl meals filled with strange ingredients that aren’t exactly kid-friendly…or even non-vegan friendly. And, I’m all for introducing kids to a variety of exotic fruits and vegetables early on, but let’s face it: Sometimes you just need a break from fighting with picky toddler eaters. Sometimes YOU might be the one needing to run from all the healthy vegan-y weirdness.
Here’s your break: Ooey-gooey, crispy, crunchy, super delicious VEGAN grilled cheese sandwiches. The best news is that you’ve even hidden a few vegetables into this innocuous looking sandwich (carrots, onions, and potatoes, anyone?).
And then, there’s creamy tomato soup–because who can resist dunking grilled cheese deliciousness into tomato soup?
Speaking of kids and comfort food, some of you may or may not know that I’m about to pop. My beautiful friend Melissa from Lovely Life Lately generously snapped some maternity pictures for us a few weeks ago.
Yep, it’s a big big belly. I’m 38 weeks along now, and waiting/wishing/prepping for bebe’s arrival has commenced in earnest.
Oh, and eating. Yes, I’ve been eating like an elephant lately, but haven’t had the energy to write posts about all the amazing food. If you don’t hear from me for awhile, just know that I’m probably blissfully rocking my newborn baby girl and playing with my toddler…or sleeping…or wishing I was sleeping. ;)
Vegan Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups peeled and finely diced potatoes I used Russets, but yellow also work nicely
- 1/4 cup peeled and diced fresh carrot
- 1/3 cup peeled and diced onion
- 2/3 cup water preferably from pot of cooked veggies above
- 1/2 cup raw cashews pre-soaked for a few hours, if you're not using a high-speed blender
- 1/4 cup coconut milk either lite or full fat variety
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 loaf vegan French bread or other vegan bread of your choice
- Vegan butter like Earth Balance or coconut oil for grilling sandwiches
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, bring several cups of water to boil.
- Place prepared potato, carrot, and onion into the boiling water, and cook until potatoes are fork tender, or about 10 minutes.
- While your potatoes, carrot, and onion are cooking, place 2/3 cup water (preferably water from your pot of cooking/cooked vegetables), cashews, coconut milk, yeast flakes, lemon juice, salt, and garlic powder into your blender. Blend on high until everything is creamy smooth.
- When potatoes are fork-tender, place potatoes, carrot, and onion into your blender--using a slotted spoon to avoid adding excess water to your cheese.
- Blend everything on high until smooth.
- You can use this cheese as is (pretty warm) to make your grilled cheese sandwiches, or you can place it in the fridge for a few hours or days to cool and thicken up slightly--which makes a less messy grilled cheese sandwich. If you're like me, you don't mind ooey gooey all-over-the-place cheese, and the hot stuff works just fine.
- Slather your cheese sauce on 2 thick slices of bread, slap 'em together, and brush the outsides of your sandwich with either coconut oil (or other heat-safe oil of your choice) or vegan butter. (I use Earth Balance, generally.)
- Place your sandwich in a preheated pan or griddle on medium heat. Usually, my sandwiches only need about 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side to be nice and crispy. Check your first sandwiches frequently, as they can burn quickly without warning.
Notes
Cheese recipe inspired by the folks at VegNews: https://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=40&catId=10
Nutrition
So go ahead and release the inner kid in you (even if you’re not pregnant) and guiltlessly chow on vegan grilled cheese sandwiches. :)
P.S. You maybe noticed that this cheese recipe looks similar to my favorite creamy vegan mac ‘n cheese recipe. It is very similar. Feel free to check out that recipe too, if you haven’t already. :)
http://philosophyandcake.blogspot.com
Wow that looks delicious! I love making homemade vegan cheese, I’ll have to try this variation too. Those pics are making me hungry! :)
http://www.marystestkitchen.com
http://unexpectedlymagnificent.com/
Love grilled cheese sandwiches! I have got to try your recipe. Maybe even this weekend :-D
http://mysavoryspoon.blogspot.com
Ermahgerd! Vegan grilled cheese without store-bought vegan cheese?! Sign me up!
Love what you did here, love grilled cheese! Your pregnancy pictures are beautiful, sounds like you have just a few weeks left, congratulations!
Thanks, Cheri! I’m due in about 9 days…hoping the baby comes sooner rather than later. :)
Oh my word this looks delicious!
Best of luck with the birth!
Lindsay, as a preggie woman, what did you mostly eat to give your baby enough calcium? Did you have to take many supplements?
As a doctor I can understand the physical, mental, hormonal and emotional changes you are going through at this time. Wishing you a very safe and happy delivery and a wonderful future for your loved ones. This is a crucial time in life and as a young Dad of two wonderful kids, I can say from personal experience that kids are the best gift of God.
Coming back to your cooking, we have been vegetarians since birth and your vegan grilled sandwich look yummmmm.
My wife and I will make this today. Can’t wait. Will let you know how it went :-)
just made it, didnt have/couldnt find everything you had so had to substitute the nutritional yeast for marmite and i didnt really want to open a whole tin of coconut milk so used soy milk, mine doesnt look as appetising as yours but does taste distinctly cheesy, will be using this again and will possibly be using it on nachos too :D
OMG! I was having a grilled cheeze sandwich craving and almost went out to buy Daiya. Never ever will I buy Daiya for a grilled cheeze sandwich again. This was amazing. Thank you!
Does this recipe freeze? I’m about to make and thinking of aging some white beans
Oh no, no coconut milk
This recipe was so amazingly good! We can’t wait to try it with macaroni. I’m also going to try adding salsa to it and making it into a queso dip some day, or modifying the spices a little for a layer as a cheesier vegan lasagna. Thanks so much! This is one of those times when being a vegan is so thrilling and joyful, when we find delicious, healthy foods that we like even more than the non-vegan variety.
http://anitasbest.com
Hello Lindsay!
Your Vegan Grilled Cheese Sandwiches looks delicious and interesting ingredients. Great idea!
Oh my goodness!! This is “cheese” is wonderful!! I can see myself using it for other things as well. Perhaps drizzled over cauliflower! YUMMY!!
http://instagram.com/kayla_m_boland/
This recipe was outstanding! So good! I made a baked potato and stuffed it with broccoli and this cheese sauce. I made a gluten-free mac and cheese with this cheese sauce for my hubby. He is new to plant-based eating and he loved the recipe. Thank you for sharing! I think our next adventure will be making nachos or tacos with the leftovers.
P.s. the pics of using your cheese sauce recipe are on my Instagram account ;)
Living at a Buddhist Monastery we are mostly vegan and since it’s raining I wanted to make this with some tomato soup for the brothers tomorrow. Going to multiply the reciepe by five for a little over 20 people, excited to see how it comes out! (Alas I won’t be able to taste since I’m in the middle of a ten day master cleanse regiment)
http://www.tamarknochel.com
I’m on the blood type diet, which is basically vegan with a few variations. One of the things on my “avoid” List is cashews. But I WANT this cheese! Could you recommend a different ingredient to substitute? One of our all time favorites is mac n cheese and if I can still manage to put that on the table I’ll have one happy family!
http://www.realfood.life
Oh man this stuff is GOOD! I made it yesterday and I still have some cheese leftover. I have to hold myself back from face planting right in the bowl and gobbling up the leftovers.
I am going to make some vegan nachos tomorrow night with the leftover….if it lasts that long :)
Thanks for a great recipe!
I never imagined this to come out so delicious! Those “basic” and affordable ingredients make up something great and I am sure one can use the cheese for many other things.
Thank you so much.
I wish you all the best
Am starting to explore dairy free options and this was delicious. Mine turned out more like a fondue so we gathered round the pot and dunked our pieces of toast into it for supper. I didn’t have garlic powder so I felt it was lacking a little something, some chopped parsley though.
Thank you for sharing!
http://allisonsgourmet.com
Hi Lindsay! I love that my recipe inspired you and that you made adjustments to your preferences! Happy cooking and joyful eating. =)
I wonder how long this could last be for going bad in the fridge? Or would it be better to freeze in portions? I like preparing enough to have some ready at any time.
http://www.animalideology.com
Omg that looks YUMMY.
Going grocery today, buying the ingredients for this :)
This looks great! I can’t wait to try it, is it better if you store the left over cheese in the refrigerator?
This recipe is terrific I’ve actually never eaten vegan and this will be my first attempt I’m trying to join the club, question: Is the photograph you’ve posted of the actually recipe? I’m getting a white cheese and not a yellow, is there something I could do to get a more yellow colored cheese?
Hi Isaac! Yes, the photos in this post are of the actual recipe. If you’re wanting a more yellow colored cheese, you may need to add a little bit more carrot to your mix. Carrots can be difficult to measure, per se, so I’m guessing you may have used a few less carrot pieces than I did, which may be why your cheese is lighter in color. The yeast flakes also contribute to the color some. Hope that helps. :)
You could also use a very tiny pinch of turmeric, just make sure you don’t use too much and cook the strong taste out. The coloring is light orange/ deep yellow.
Hi, mine didn’t turn out very smooth or gooey, and wasn’t as yellow/orange as the picture… what do you think I did wrong? How can I make it smoother and gooier? Thanks :)
This cheese recipe has changed my life. It was cold out and I was craving grilled cheese and soup for the first time since becoming vegan. I can’t believe this delicious goo is made of vegetables! I didn’t think the sandwiches would stay together (I used the hot cheese to make them), but they were perfect! Took me back to my childhood! :) I can’t wait to make macaroni and cheese and nachos with the leftover cheese.
Great success at our cooking school using your website. We gave them a tour of the site, did a demo of a few (you should’ve heard the “Ewww” from the crowd when I lifted my dripping spoon from the dish of cheese!) We served the roasted veg lasagna, grilled cheese, edamame salad, curried quinoa salad, crazy good salad dressing w/ salad, and the maple pecan bars. Today I got an email from a participant saying she served the lasagna to 11 people and they loved it. I hope this will bring more visitors to your website!
can I swap the coconut milk with a soya or rice cream?
Hi Louise! You probably could, but your flavor will be slightly affected. Having not tried it myself, I couldn’t tell you for certain. But, if you do happen to give it a try, let us know how it turns out if you can. :)
This is my current go-to recipe for macaroni and cheese (I add it to 1# medium shells along with a little tomato sauce, and it’s just like my Grama’s recipe with velveeta), yum!!
Do you know if you can freeze this cheese? My grandson loves it and I would like to make him some to take back to college.
Thanks! I felt it needed a slight kick, added a tsp mustard, more nooch, tbsp miso, tsp sun dried tomato pesto. Yum.
Yes! Fantastic! I just made my first batch exactly as written. Very tasty. I’m going to use it on “grilled cheese” sandwiches tomorrow but I would absolutely use this for nachos, enchiladas, lasagna and pizza. So much better than the ready made vegan cheese I’ve tried so far.