Sauces to Put on Everything

Enjoy the indulgence of mascarpone cheese without dairy! This plant-based, oil-free version achieves its rich, silky texture from cashews, which are blended until they are completely dissolved. The maple syrup lends sweetness, and the lemon juice and zest provide the tang. Small amounts of nutritional yeast and miso give it just a hint of cheesiness. Suggestions for ways to use this vegan mascarpone are included.

Try this recipe for the ultimate plant-based, oil-free sour cream. I use a combination of silken tofu and cashews as the base: not too thick, but with a little richness and silkiness. The lemon juice and vinegar provide the acidic tang, and the garlic powder and dill weed add the sour notes. Suggestions for ways to use this vegan sour cream are included.

This versatile sauce has a healthy edge over most recipes for mango chutney: it contains no refined sugar. It gets its sweetness from orange juice, raisins, dates, and a little maple syrup. A bit of balsamic vinegar gives it a hint of smokiness, too. Delicious on Indian appetizers, curries, breads, rice, and vegetables.

This delicious plant-based sauce is a core ingredient for healthy vegan tacos, tostadas, nachos, and burritos at our house. No one misses grated cheddar cheese any more. The cashews and carrot give this sauce creaminess and heartiness. Goodbye, gummy vegan cheese sauces — hello, heavenly, creamy, drizzly Nacho Cheese Sauce.

This plant-based mac ‘n’ cheese sauce uses cashews and carrots, which prevents the sauce from getting gummy and provides a richness and heartiness that many vegan cheese sauces lack. Very low in cholesterol and saturated fat, and free of processed ingredients, this sauce is a double feel-good comfort food. See suggestions for how to use this sauce beyond cooked macaroni.

Most Indian restaurants serve tamarind sauce as a dipping sauce with appetizers. It has a delicious sweet and sour tang and makes any appetizer more interesting to eat. It goes very well on samosas, pakoras, flatbreads and, in my opinion, as a drizzle on curries as well. This oil- and sugar-free version helps keep the sauce light and healthy.

This plant-based BBQ sauce goes with everything and makes a lovely gift for friends and family. It’s smooth, thick, and doesn’t have a dominant tomato flavor. With no added oil or sugar, it’s also healthy and can be slathered onto so many foods guilt-free. You can also stir it together with mayonnaise or hummus for fusion sauces and spreads for vegetables, sandwiches, bowls, and more. There’s just so many ways to use it.

This vegan universal stir-fry sauce, made without oil, goes with so many different vegetable and tofu/tempeh combinations. You can play with flavors using this as a base — you can add sesame flavors, peanuts, chilis, more garlic, etc. Have a jar of this in your fridge, and you’ll be able to whip up a stir-fry in no time!

It’s hard to imagine cilantro, peanut butter, and flaked coconut coming together into such a tasty sauce, but they do. With no oil, this sauce is also super healthy. It goes with everything, including rice, noodles, proteins, baked potatoes, and other vegetables.

This super-fast alternative to marinara sauce has a fresh taste and a skinny profile. No oil or butter here—just clean flavors that stand up to a mound of pasta or vegetables.

Most homemade tahini recipes call for several tablespoons of added oil. They aren’t necessary—you just need patience, not extra oil.

This cousin of tahini is crucial for favorite Chinese-inspired dishes and is a great whole-food substitute for sesame oil, which I try to avoid because it’s processed.

There are many copycat recipes out there, but they contain a lot of oil. I use aquafaba instead of oil and it works marvelously.

Without oil and coconut milk, this sauce is healthy and very tasty. It goes with many things: roasted vegetables and rice, baked potatoes, pasta, any kind of grain, you name it!

This is “New York-style” pizza sauce because of its seasoning and the fact that it’s cooked, not raw. It’s a classic sauce that holds its own against any and all toppings.

A good peanut sauce is quite versatile. You can use it over vegetables, pasta, grains, seitan satay, or as the finishing touch for bowls. Peanut sauce makes everything taste better.

This sauce works on everything: falafel, baked potatoes (sweet or white), all sorts of vegetables, and cooked grains as well. It’s fast to make and lasts about a week in the refrigerator.

This is the familiar and comforting sauce many of us know from our childhoods. It doesn't have the sugar, oil, and preservatives you might find in canned sauces. You can control the heat level.

Zucchini “noodles” cook quickly, making for a fast dinner. Pair it with a no-oil pesto and you’ve got a delicious, satisfying, healthy dish that’s light on calories.

Tzatziki is a delicious side dish from Greece. Traditionally made from yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, salt, and dill, tzatziki can also be made with cashew cream, and it comes out divine.

This chutney is super-flavorful. Packed with cilantro and mint, it makes a big impact on breads, appetizers, roasted vegetables, or just spooned out of the container into your mouth!

This marinara and rich and thick, even though it has no oil or meat. Starting with a can of good whole tomatoes is key—they really create the texture of this sauce.

This non-dairy crema made with cashews is the perfect substitute for both sour cream and cheese in many Mexican dishes like tacos, tostadas, nachos, and dips.

This versatile and healthy sauce is easy to make and can be used in pot pies, casseroles, and as the basis for garlic pizza sauce as well.

Without oil or butter, this plant-based gravy is healthy, whole-food, robust, and creamy. It goes with so many dishes. (It also freezes well.) You can play with the spices and herbs as you like.

This nutty, caper-y, lemony plant-based pesto slathered on toast, hot pasta, boiled potatoes, broiled eggplant just works. And you don’t need oil to get this creamy pesto.