Vegan white sauce, also known as bechamel sauce. Basic 3 ingredient recipe that you can expand on with different flavorings. Creamy and delicious.
So your basic vegan white sauce has a lot of uses. It’s the basic recipe that with a few additions can turn into a vegan cheese sauce.
Also called a bechamel sauce, this is the white sauce you can use in lasagnas and other dishes that require a white sauce.
It’s usually made with butter, flour and dairy milk. Sometimes oil, flour and dairy milk.
Since this is the vegan version, of course the dairy milk is replaced with plant based milk. Too easy really!
In this case I used soy milk but any plant based milk of your choice will do the trick.
I tried a version using vegan butter and the butter flavor was pretty strong.
I wasn’t a huge fan but I liked it more than Jaye who wasn’t a fan. He was all like: ‘aarrgggg butter sauce, I just ate a heap of butter in a sauce!’
Well, needless to say, he didn’t! It was just a little butter in a lot of sauce, but whatevs.
So the next time I made it with olive oil and I thought it tasted heaps better, and Jaye agreed.
In fact this one was so delicious that we’ve made it a lot since then.
And I used it in a lasagna dish that came out beautifully.
It’s a creamy dreamy white sauce that is like a blank canvas. You can add any flavorings to it that you choose, like garlic or herbs or whatever you desire!
The basic recipe is just 3 ingredients, and after that it’s up to you how you flavor it.
We’ve just gone with some sea salt and black pepper, but fresh herbs would be great, dried herbs, garlic spice, chilli, mustard, whatever you’re in the mood for.
More Vegan Sauces
- Vegan Mushroom Sauce
- Cashew Cheese Sauce
- Tahini Sauce
- Vegan Peanut Sauce
- Vegan Peppercorn Sauce
- Vegan Tartar Sauce
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan White Sauce (Bechamel)
Ingredients
Basic White Sauce:
- 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 2 cups (480ml) Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
Spices to taste:
Instructions
- Add the oil to a pot on the stove and heat it at medium to high heat.
- As the oil heats, add the flour and stir or whisk vigorously.
- Add the soy milk all at once and continue to stir and whisk (you can alternate between a wooden spoon and a whisk) and allow the sauce to gradually thicken.
- You will usually get to the right thickness after it has reached boiling point and boiled for a few minutes.
- When you’ve reached the desired thickness (keep in mind that the sauce will continue to thicken as it cools), remove from the heat and add any spices you choose, such as some salt and black pepper or garlic spice or whatever you choose.
Video
Notes
- If you double this recipe, then just a note that the way to double it is that the flour must always be one less than the oil. So doubling this recipe would mean you use 6 Tbsp of olive oil and 5 Tbsp of flour.
This was the first recipe I ever made from your website and I’m consistently coming back to it. It’s a lovely sauce for tofu/spinach lasagnas.
Awesome! Thanks so much for the great review!
Super yummy and easy. I cooked some eggplant and added it to the sauce and ate it with spaghetti.
Sounds delish! Thanks for posting and the great review!
Thank you! This was the quickest and easiest vegan white sauce. I added salt pepper and vegan cheese for Mac n cheese. Was really good!
I made this and it came out wonderful!! The consistency was perfect. I added garlic powder, salt, and pepper and put over chick pea pasta with “meatballs”. It was delicious!! Thank you!!
Wonderful! Thanks so much Dawn!
I only gave this a 4 star because it needs a lot of “spicing up” which might be difficult for someone who is a strict recipe follower. I used almond milk which turned out a bit too sweet. So I added in some s/p, white wine, rosemary, garlic, sautéed mushroom and onions. The consistency was great!!
Hey guys, I really love your inspiring website and often refer to it. Keep up the great work! This béchamel is great too! I live on a sailboat in the middle of nowhere and I don’t have any plant based milk. But the good news is that I had to improvise and I wanted to let you know that my solution worked very well. I just added water instead of milk and four tablespoons of flaked, dry (but I think precooked in factory) oats. Blender. Tadaaaaa, it worked wonders! It’s really creamy, no oats structure and no sliminess at all! For richness and nutritional value I added several tablespoons of nutritional yeast and a bit of sugar (was only needed after the nutritional yeast, beforehand I wouldn’t have done that). Was super nice! Thanks again and ciao ciao, greetings from an atoll in the middle of the Pacific.
That sounds awesome and so glad it worked out!
What a good idea. Lol
What a good idea. Lol
Absolutely fantastic, gluten free, dairy free Mum just got 9.5 out of 10 from my lasagne loving son.
Used Freee gluten free plain flour, Sainsbury’s Free From lasagne sheets, and Delia’s ragu. Happy family all round. Thank you for sharing.
Awesome! Thanks so much for the great review Sally!
I tried twice and I couldn’t get the sauce to thicken. 🙁
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Any ideas?
You might just need to let it boil for longer. It can take a LONG time if you’re on low heat as well. I usually go for medium to high heat.
What grain free flour would you recommend like Almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, or arrowroot flour, to do with this instead of regular flour?
I have only tried this with a gluten-free all purpose blend, though readers have commented that they were able to do it with almond flour.
I would prefer to use avocado or walnut oil for its high smoke point.
It is very easy but flavorless- I added nooch in addition to S&P. It was good.
Was perfect for the lasagne I made!
Awesome! Thanks Joanne!
This is so good! I added fresh dill, lots of lemon juice, and some of my pasta water and cooked it with spaghetti.
Wonderful! Thanks so much for the great review Chantelle!
Added some flair to the base sauce….1.5T of liquid aminos, white pepper, nutritional yeast, approx 1 tsp of cayenne, 1tsp turmeric and cumin. Poured over roasted red potatoes and baked chicken.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing your additions! 🙂