I’ve tried a lot of dairy-free “cheeses,” and have been somewhat disappointed with the recipes. SO, I made my own, and it’s fantastic. It even fooled a friend who tried it and complimented it before I told them it was dairy-free. When you mix in the taco seasoned ground beef and the tomatoes & green chilies, you’ve got yourself a meal. This recipe uses my easy “cheese” sauce. It’s seriously delicious, full of veggies, and can feed a crowd. Try it try it!
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Let’s get cooking!
The steps:
- First, you’re going to put most of the “cheese” ingredients in the Instant Pot. This includes: cauliflower, onion, yellow potato, carrots, cashews, bone broth, and salt.
- Close the lid, set it to the seal position, and pressure cook on high for 8 minutes.
- While the Instant Pot is doing its magic, brown your ground beef by heating a skillet to medium/high, pouring a little oil in the pan, and then the ground beef. Break it up into small pieces.
- Once the ground beef is cooked, season it with taco seasoning. I usually make my own so that I can control the ingredients, but feel free to use your favorite taco seasoning. When I make my own I just sprinkle a bit of each onto the meat: cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.
- When the timer goes off on the Instant Pot, you can release the pressure valve.
- After it’s done releasing pressure, take the lid off, pour all ingredients from the pot into a blender, and blend until smooth.
- Now, mine has usually turned out the right consistency here, but if yours seems really really thick, you can thin it out with a little bit more bone broth until it’s the right consistency for you. Remember that you’re going to add a can of diced tomatoes and green chilies later, so you might just need a little bit more broth.
- Add the nutritional yeast to the blender, and blend just until it’s mixed in.
- Give it a taste! If it tastes a little bland, add in another 1/2 tsp salt, and it should be good to go.
- Pour the cheese sauce into a large bowl, then mix in the ground beef and the can of diced tomatoes and green chilies, and mix until thoroughly combined.
- You can leave it as is or add diced avocado on top. Either way is great.
- Now, you’re ready to dip your favorite chips into this delicious dairy-free “queso.” My favorite grain -free chips are by far the original Siete chips. Feel free to use whichever chips fit into your lifestyle. Yum!
Substitutions:
- You can sub a yellow or white onion for the red onion.
- You can sub normal chicken broth for bone broth. Or you can opt for vegetable broth.
- The nutritional yeast that I use isn’t fortified with vitamins, but the taste will be the same if you use one that is fortified.
- You can always use fresh tomatoes and fresh green chilies in place of canned.
Recommended kitchen items:
- 8qt Instant Pot. I probably don’t need to convince you that Instant Pots are awesome. This one is big, which is great for a lot of recipes.
- Stainless steel measuring utensils. The spoons are my favorite, because they fit in spice jars. I also love using stainless steel, instead of plastic.
- Blendtec blender. This is one of my absolute favorite appliances in my kitchen.
- Silicone oven mitts. I love using silicone oven mitts, because they totally protect your hands, unlike the fabric ones I’ve used in the past. I use this set daily.
I hope you love this recipe, and would love to hear about how making it went for you! Share with me in the comments below, on Pinterest, or @whitsfoodfit on Instagram.
Veggie-Packed Instant Pot “Queso”
(Dairy free, Gluten free, Soy-free)
Ingredients
- ¼ head cauliflower (approx. 2½ cups)
- ¼ red onion cubed (approx. ⅓ cup)
- 1 med-large yellow potato quartered (approx. 1 cup)
- ½ cup carrots
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup chicken bone broth plus extra for blending, if needed
- 1½ tsp sea salt divided
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 Tbsp taco seasoning (or cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper)
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 10 oz can of diced tomatoes & green chilies (Rotel or similar)
- avocado diced, for topping (optional)
- tortilla chips grain free, or regular corn
Instructions
- Put cauliflower, onion, potato, carrots, cashews, bone broth, and 1 tsp of salt in the Instant Pot. Cook on high manual pressure for 8 minutes, with the valve in the sealed position. Quick release when it's done.
- While that's cooking, brown the ground beef and flavor with taco seasoning.
- Blend everything from the IP in a blender until smooth.
- Then add the nutritional yeast in the blender and blend until mixed in. If you're "queso" is too thick, you can thin it with more bone broth, adding a tablespoon or two at a time, until it's a good dipping consistency.
- Taste, and add another 1/2 tsp salt, if needed.
- Pour your sauce into a large bowl, and stir in the can of diced tomatoes & green chilies and ground beef.
- Top with avocado and dip with your favorite chips!
This was so good! I love that it had lots of veggies in it but still had good texture and really nice flavor, and of course love that it is dairy-free. My picky husband even liked it:) I followed the recipe with one small change — we had just made homemade salsa and so I used that instead of the canned tomatoes with chiles. I used my insta-pot which I am getting more proficient at and that really made it convenient to have everything ready at once. I served with cassava/coconut tortilla chips since corn is no bueno for me!
Thanks for sharing! I’m so glad you both enjoyed it and got lots of veggies in 🙂