The 10 Best Dairy-Free Queso & Nacho Cheese Sauce Alternatives
In honor of holiday parties, football games, and a general love for Mexican food, we decided to host a taste test for the best dairy-free queso! Okay, we also just thought it would be fun. And like our dairy-free mozzarella and dairy-free cream cheese taste tests, this one was full of surprises. You can use these links to jump ahead in our review:
The Ultimate Taste Test for the Best Dairy-Free Queso
I visited every grocer in town and bought every dairy-free queso brand I could find. This included cheesy sauces and dips labeled as “queso,” “nacho,” or specifically marketed for chips and nachos.
To be as inclusive as possible, I also reached out to all other companies that weren’t here locally, and asked if they wanted to send their product for the taste test. Since I fully disclosed that it would be an unbiased group and we would not guarantee positive results, not everyone opted to participate. But Kite Hill, Wayfare, and Good Foods did send their product. In total, we ended up with SIXTEEN dairy-free queso or nacho-inspired dips and sauces.
We had a total of 15 taste testers! The group included vegan, dairy-free, lactose intolerant, dairy flexitarians, and dairy-loving tasters. We had every group covered, from those who haven’t tasted dairy in 20 years, to those who remember what it tasted like yesterday. Each queso was served on tortillas chips, one at a time, to all tasters.
Summary of Our Findings
I knew there would be some brands that people didn’t love, but I was expecting pretty high marks for this taste test. Of all cheesy substitutes, cheddar-style cheese sauce is one of the easiest to mimic. And some chili powder or green chilis will usually bump it up to the “queso” category. But quite a few companies have gone rogue with creativity, and perhaps focused a little too much on the ingredients rather than the product goal.
None Really Tasted Definitively Like Queso. Some were in the queso ballpark, and definitely passable in place of the…
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