Creamy Mushroom Sauce with Cashews
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This creamy mushroom sauce is pure magic! It’s a lightened-up dairy-free sauce with earthy mushrooms and creamy cashews, perfect for pasta, potatoes, and more. It’s quick and easy to make, and it’s ready in 25 minutes!
While the mushrooms in this sauce won’t make you feel funny, it does taste quite magical. It’s a dairy-free mushroom sauce that tastes like it has whipping cream, but it doesn’t. It’s so rich, creamy, and delicious that you may not even know the difference!
It’s an easy vegan sauce that’s perfect for quick and easy weeknight meals. Toss it with pasta, pour it over mashed potatoes, or add in some chunks of tempeh and serve it over brown rice for a completely vegan meal.
To make it, simply brown some mushrooms in a pan with olive oil then transfer some to your blender along with the soaked cashews, garlic, salt, pepper, and water. Blend it all until smooth and creamy. Add the sauce back to the pan with the remaining mushrooms and warm it over the stove. That’s it!
One thing to keep in mind is that the cashews need to soak either overnight or using our quick-soak method. You’ll also need a good blender for that extra smooth texture.
Magic mushroom sauce ingredients
You only need a few simple ingredients and most of them you’re likely to have on hand. Here’s what you need to make this mushroom sauce:
- Cashews – look for raw un-roasted and unsalted cashews for this recipe. They need to be soaked either overnight, or using our quick-soak method (see below).
- Olive oil – for sautéing the mushrooms. You can also use a vegan butter alternative if you prefer.
- Mushrooms – we use a mix of cremini mushrooms but you can use button mushrooms or a mix of your favorites.
- Garlic – because garlic and mushrooms belong together, and because garlic adds lots of flavor to the earthy mushrooms.
- Sea salt + pepper – for seasoning, to taste.
The cashew quick-soak method
Don’t worry if you didn’t plan ahead and soak your cashews overnight. This easy quick-soak method is here to save the day!
Here’s how to quick-soak cashews in just two simple steps:
- Place cashews in a heat-safe bowl or dish.
- Cover them with boiling water for at least 1 hour. That’s it! Now they will be soft enough to blend into a creamy sauce.
Ideas for serving this mushroom sauce
There are so many delicious ways to enjoy this cashew mushroom sauce. Here are some simple ideas to get you started:
- Use it in a casserole. It’s the sauce we use to make our vegan green bean casserole, and it tastes great in tuna noodle casserole, or baked pasta dishes, too.
- Pair it with potatoes. Serve it with mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, or any other kind of potatoes you can think of.
- Make a grain bowl. Serve it with some tempeh or cooked chicken chunks and spinach over brown rice for a complete meal.
- Toss it with pasta. Fusilli, spaghetti, penne, you name it. Use gluten-free pasta if needed, or veggie noodles for a lighter meal.
- Turn it into soup. In our cashew cream of mushroom soup, we add vegetable or chicken broth to thin it and some thyme and black pepper for flavor. In just 20 minutes, you can wrap your hands around a mug of this not-from-a-can mushroom soup.
Creamy Mushroom Sauce with Cashews
Ingredients
- 1 cup cashews (soaked)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ lb crimini or button mushrooms (sliced)
- 1 large garlic clove (minced)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are brown, about 15 minutes.1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 ½ lb crimini or button mushrooms
- Add the soaked cashews, garlic, sea salt, pepper, 1 ½ cups of water and a scoop of the cooked mushrooms to a food processor or blender and blend on high until smooth.1 cup cashews, 1 large garlic clove, 1 teaspoon sea salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper
- Pour the sauce into the pan with the rest of the mushrooms. Bring the sauce to a boil then remove it from the heat.
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
Kristin, I like to make a few dishes in advance of Thanksgiving (in Canada this weekend.) How long does this keep in the fridge once it’s made? I don’t suppose it freezes well? Thanks!!
Happy almost Thanksgiving! While I’ve never frozen it before, one reader said that she tried it and it turned very watery afterward. But the sauce will last for at least 5 days in the fridge so you can make it well in advance. 🙂
Thank you so much!! I suspected freezing might result in watery sauce or separation. But I’ll make it today or tomorrow if it’ll keep well until Sunday. I’m putting it in a wild rice casserole “stuffing” to go with our turkey. Really looking forward to trying it. I’ve honestly loved every recipe I’ve tried from your site.
I prepared this sauce. I followed the directions carefully but the result was not good.
Wow! it looks so creamy and delicious. Thumbs up for this recipe. I will probably try this at home soon. It looks really good on pasta. Big thanks for sharing this stunning recipes.
This recipe looks amazing and I can’t wait to make this! I was just wondering, could this be used to make an instant mushroom risotto? ( to be mixed with cooked rice) I’m from India so Arborio rice is not something easily available.
I know this is not something purists of Italian cooking would be okay with, but I don’t have much of an option!
I think mixing it with rice would be delicious!
Some of the comments mentioned this recipe being bland and I’m trying to limit my salt intake so I substituted vegetable stock (unsalted) for of water, omitted the salt, and added 2 tbsp nutritional yeast. The results are FANTASTIC. 11/10 highly recommended.
That is so wonderful to hear! Thanks, Breanne!
Is there a reason to use water instead of unsalted veggie stock?
Veggie stock would work too. I don’t usually keep any on hand and the sauce is still very flavorful even when made with water.
I’m in love! Thanks for such a simple yet satisfying recipe. I feel much less guilty making sauce with a cup of cashews over a cup of heavy whipping cream! This will definitely be a made often in my house from now on!
That’s so wonderful to hear! Hooray!!
Very good, I soaked porcini mushrooms in boiling water and used this instead of plain water, I also added the soaked mushrooms to the blender to add flavour. It needs to be seasoned well with salt and black pepper, and I’d add even more porcini mushrooms next time to make it more flavourful… I love the flavour of mushrooms. Serving with a seitan steak, yummy.
Great call on the porcini mushrooms!
The taste was absolutely delicious, I followed the recipe to a T. But mine turned out a grainy paste of a sauce more than a creamy sauce. On the Pinterest page and I see pictures and the sauce looks as creamy as cream of mushroom soup. Just curious if you have any suggestions or answers as to why mine didn’t turn out so creamy?
It sounds like it may be because of your food processor. Some work great and are able to blend the cashews into cream, but others aren’t as powerful and can leave the sauce a little grainy. The best thing to do it to add a little additional water to help the sauce blend a little better. If it’s really grainy, you can try straining it through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any of the grainy bits. I hope that helps!
Can’t wait to try this out. How long do you think it would keep stored airtight in the fridge?
At least 4-5 days. 🙂
I found this to be bland.
Did you salt the sauce?
You’re so welcome! I hope you like the recipe as much as we do. 🙂
This is amazing and so simple. I used mushroom broth instead of water and cut back the salt. I used the sauce to make a gluten and dairy free tuna casserole. Thanks for sharing this recipe!!
You are so welcome!
This sauce is awesome!! Absolutely delicious and so easy to make. We have it with rice and quorn or with pasta and broccoli. Thanks so much Kristen!
I’m so happy to hear you love it as much as I do!
I turned this into a tuna macaroni casserole – 3/4 cup dry macaroni cooked / 1 cup broccoli chopped and steamed / 1 small can tuna (7 oz) flaked. /. Topped with a Panko crumb topping.
Delicious !! Thanks for the recipe – I will use this many times!
That is seriously such a great idea! You might see my own version pop up here on the blog!
We made this amazing sauce to cook pork chops in! Just like that blast from the past pork chops in Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup 🙂 Except this was soooooooooooo much better. Way less sodium. Super mushroomy. Absolutely delicious sauce! I was surprised that it was so creamy and held together perfectly – no separation. I used broken cashews and did soak them for about 3 hours in advance. And used a regular blender on high speed. Just a beautiful, tasty, no additive recipe. You could easily thin this on the stove with a little broth to make a lovely soup too. I have made a few of your recipes, Kristen, but this is my favourite by far.
Your comment totally made my day! This sauce is my absolute favorite. We make it all the time for quick and easy dinners!