Finding a suitable vegan cream sauce that you can buy is near impossible. I have found many substitutes to either be very bland, way too sweet to be cooked in savoury food, or just jam packed full of unnecessary ingredients.
What I do like about the vegan creams you can buy in the supermarket is that they are really convenient to use when cooking up a quick and easy vegan recipe.
So, when I was attempting my own vegan cream alternative to be used in sauces, I knew it also had to be just as convenient. If anything, I wanted it to be more convenient.
I stumbled across the idea to use silken tofu when blending it up to go inside my vegan quiche recipe. I noticed how creamy it went and how easy it was to add flavour to. And so continued my adventures with silken tofu!
I would buy multiple packets to keep in the cupboard (super convenient!) and would blend up some into a creamy vegan white sauce just before cooking a dish. It was really simple to do, allowed me to add in any specific flavours that would suit the dish I was cooking, and I always had some silken tofu to hand thanks to it being a long-life product.
I now make this creamy vegan silken tofu sauce base on the regular. And I hope it makes your life much easier too!
What is silken tofu?
Silken tofu is the softest variation of tofu and has the highest content of water. This means it is much more fragile to hold, but also allows it to be blending into smooth sauces or dunked into soups.
Like all other forms of tofu it is made by coagulating soy milk, put it isn’t curdled or pressed. This is what helps give it its smooth soft texture.
What is a silken tofu sauce base?
A silken tofu sauce base is a cream alternative that can be used to make white sauces in cooking. For instance, it can be used to replace single cream, double cream, or a bechamel.
It helps to thicken sauces and adds a creamy element to them that is vegan-friendly and really high in protein!
How do you make a silken tofu sauce base?
Creating a creamy sauce base using silken tofu is incredibly simple and quick to do. Just follow the following steps to get yours on the go!
Alternatively, jump straight to the recipe here to get more thorough instructions.
1. Put all ingredients into a blender
Measure out all of your ingredients and place them into your blender.
2. Blend until it forms a smooth creamy sauce
Start blending the ingredients together to form a creamy thick sauce. If your blender isn’t very powerful you may need to add in a few splashes of vegan milk to get it to blend into a smooth sauce.
If you are attempting a double cream alternative then you will want to avoid using too much liquid to blend it. For a single cream or bechamel alternative you can add some vegan milk to thin it out.
3. Cook with the creamy vegan silken tofu sauce
Now that you have created a creamy silken tofu sauce you either store it away in the fridge for a few days to use throughout the week or you can cook with it straight away.
Take a look below to see some recipe suggestions for cooking your creamy vegan silken tofu sauce base.
What can you cook with a creamy vegan silken tofu sauce base?
I recommend using this sauce with pasta. Simply cook up some onion, garlic, vegan chicken, and then add in this vegan white sauce and heat through for a few minutes.
This creamy vegan silken tofu sauce base is what I use to create this creamy vegan mushroom pasta recipe – make sure to give it a go!
You can also use this in place of a bechamel in a vegan lasagna. Or you can add extra nutritional yeast with some spices to create a cheesy sauce to bake on top of nachos.
The possibilities are endless!
I’d love to find out what you do with your creamy vegan silken tofu sauce base. Make sure to let me know in the comments box at the bottom.
Creamy vegan silken tofu sauce base
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 packet Silken tofu - about 300g
- 4 tbsp Nutritional yeast
- ½ Lemon - juice of
- ½ tsp Garlic powder - or use 1 fresh garlic clove
- ½ tsp Onion powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Black pepper - ground
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients into a blender, including the water from inside the packet of tofu
- Blend until smooth. If you find the mix hasn't blended fully and is quite stiff, then add in some vegan milk until it is smooth and has the consistency of double cream
- Taste and add seasoning if it needs more
- Set aside and use in any dish that takes your fancy. You can also keep it in the fridge for about 3 days
