Dairy free cheese sauce recipes

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Basics - Dairy free cheese is not cheese :-)
It sounds obvious, but we mean that you can't approach dairy free cheese with the same techniques or expectations as dairy cheese. Most dairy free cheese is created to be eaten cold, whether sliced or grated in sandwiches, on crackers, on baked potatos, etc.

What you will find is that dairy free cheese doesn't do two typically 'cheesy' things. It doesn't go brown and crispy on top or all string (like the pizza adverts) when cooked. These effects are caused by casein, the protein in the milk that calves extract in their stomachs. This means that you may be disappointed trying to get a crispy finish on a sheperds pie or even a Welsh Rarebit!

However - we have seen dairy free cheeses that are not on the UK market yet that are beginning to solve that.

But dairy free cheese is still a useful ingredient in the kitchen. And a basic thing to make is a cheese sauce.

Making a basic dairy free cheese sauce
We can start with an approach that is close to the traditional method for a cheese sauce. Begin by making a 'blonde roux' (pronounced 'Roo' in case you haven't seen this before) which is just a white sauce.

Add a drizzle of oil in a pan and heat so the base is covered, then add several tablespoons of margerine and melt over a medium heat - you don't want to be boiling or burning the fats.

Add several tablespoons of plain flour and stir into the hot oils until smooth - this will prevent lumps later.

As a guide you can use roughly equal measure of oil and flour - but feel free to experiment.

Slowly add the soya milk (ideally not chilled) a bit at a time to the mix and keep stirring. The stirring will bring out the starches and gradually thicken things up.

It is about right when you can dip a spoon in it and it coats the back without all running off.

I suggest you use a non-sweetened soya milk - this is simply because the sweetness (usually apple juice) has to be offset with more salt if you want to mask it.

Now we can get the cheesy flavours in.

You can grate Redwood or Sheese into the roux - the finer the gratings the faster they will blend in. So I grate on the finest size and stir the gratings in until they melt and mix with the roux. Keep going until you are happy you have enough flavour. You might want o use half a block of dairy free cheese - thats fine, whatever tastes right for you.

You can also shake in some 'Parmezano' - a dairy free parmesan cheese alternative. It is quite strong so adds more flavour. For a deeper flavour a little yeast extract like marmite or natex can help.

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