Easy Vegan Fondue Recipe | Dairy-Free Fondue
Seems like a contradiction of terms doesn’t it? Vegan fondue…? Well, it wouldn’t be another typical day in The Edgy Veg if I wasn’t trying to solve the rubik’s cube that is vegan comfort food, would it? Well, finally, after many years of trial and error, the vegan fondue recipe has finally been given the Carnivore Approved stamp of approval by multiple omni-friends and family.
I’ve always found it was hard to find a recipe for vegan fondue that was worth even trying. For 8 years I’ve been looking up recipes for this dish and nothing has ever looked appealing to me. Fondue has always been an apres-ski or warm comforting winter meal for me. As a former european (I used to live in Germany), categorizing cheese as it’s own food group was 100% acceptable; but slowly became the hardest thing for me to give up as a new vegan. I still struggle with it, and I think I always will. Cheese is just one of those things I have had to come to terms with the fact that I will now forever have to live without. Well, that was the case until I took it apon myself to find worthy solutions for myself and others so that no one would ever be able to use “…but cheese” as an excuse to not go vegan ever again. But enough of the borderline-preachy stuff… let’s talk fondue…
This creamy, cheesy fondue is worth dipping all of the things into. Throw a vegan fondue party for your friends, a date night with a loved one, serve on game day, or just for yourself— we all need a self-love date with ourselves after all. Few things can top fondue as a fun and engaging (an impressive) meal for entertaining guests. I mean, who doesn’t love melted cheese right?
To make the texture of my vegan fondue worthy, I use a combination of potato (for starch), rice and cashews (for creaminess), and tapioca starch (for stretchiness). You will need a powerful blender to make this recipe, or simply a normal blender with patience and time. To get that cheesy fermented flavour, I use miso, white wine vinegar, and the juice from a jar of white sauerkraut. This adds a nice tang similar to emmental or gruyere.
You have to make sure that you an arsenal of delicious dippers for your cheese fondue. Bread is great, and i’m all about that #CarbLife , but variety is the spice of life. My favourite dippers are crusty french baguette, sourdough or walnut bread, plenty of fresh vegetables such as lightly blanched cauliflower or broccoli florets, vinegary gherkins, or pickled onions. Roasted potatoes are also delicious along with your favourite vegan sausages.
Fondue party rules
Fondue party rules-
- Start with the bread: Traditionally, you start with pieces of bread in your cheese fondue, and then move on to dipping in vegetables, faux meats and whatever else you want.
- The proper method for dipping: Scrape the bread, or potato on the bottom of the pot in a zig zag. This helps stir the pot and prevents it from burning on the bottom of the pot. Let the excess “cheese” drip back into the pot, to prevent wastage and allow it to cool for a moment. No one needs burnt mouth that you can’t taste with.
- Don’t eat directly off your fondue fork: …or double dip. Instead of double dipping or eating off your fondue fork, remove the dipped food, and place on your plate. Then pick it up with your regular fork to eat it.
- “Shot in the Middle” : The “coupe d’midi”, or “shot in the middle”, is when you take a shot of Kirsch schnapps, in the middle of the meal to create more room for food. Somehow this magically produces more room if you’re feeling too full.
- Don’t Drink Water With Cheese Fondue: It will cause the bread to swell. Dry white wine or tea are the best accompaniments to fondue.
- If anyone loses their bread in the cheese, they have to run around the kitchen naked. Seriously.
…And on that note, just trust me, you won’t find a better vegan fondue recipe out there. I hope you decide to invite cheese fondue back into your life by sharing this dairy free, cholesterol free, lactose free, casein free, animal free vegan fondue with a party of your closest friends! Happy New Year! And happy FUN-do-ing!
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ small yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 vegetable bouillon cubes
- 6 cups water
- 1 large yellow potato
- 1 cup short white rice (arborio rice is best)
- 1 cup raw cashews
- ½ cup white sauerkraut water
- ½ cup nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp tapioca starch
- 2 Tbsp brown miso
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- ½ cup dry riesling white wine
- 3 tbsp kirsch schnapps
- In a large saucepan, heat up olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic and sweat until translucent, about 3 minutes.
- Add bouillon cubes, water, potato, rice, and cashews and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer, and cover.
- Cook until rice and potatoes are soft, 25-30 mins. Stir occasionally.
- Once the rice and potatoes are soft, remove from heat and transfer mixture to a blender. If you have a smaller blender, and it doesn't all fit, do this in batches.
- Blend with the feeding hole open to release steam, until very very smooth. If you do not have a high speed blender, this will take longer. Give the motor a break every minute or so, and blend until smooth.
- Once your potato mixture is smooth, add sauerkraut water, nutritional yeast, vinegar, tapioca starch, miso, salt and mustard powder. Blend again until well incorporated 30-60 seconds.
- Now you can store this in the fridge until you are ready to serve your party guests, or serve right away.
- Pour the cheese mixture into the top of a double boiler or a fondue pot set, heat.
- Once heated and soft, using a whisk, mix in white wine and kirsh schnapps.
- Heat and whisk the mixture until it’s very hot.
- Serve with warm chunks of French bread, roasted potatoes or veggies, green apples, and gherkins or pickled onions.
- Bon apetit!
Emily says:
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It is delicious. I made it pretty much as written. We couldn’t find brown miso, so we used red. Also, I skipped the Kirsch. The only difficult part was blending. It really did a number on our vitamix but I was able to pour some into a bowl and mix in batches. Leftovers are great, too! Next time, I’ll make it ahead.