So, my original plan was to post waffles today because, if you have been keeping up with me on Instagram, you will see I’ve been making a ton of waffles. I have both a Chai Waffle recipe and a Chocolate Waffle recipe. However, I realized that several of my posts lately have all been sweet…um, oops….and due to the excitement over this recipe I shared on this Facebook post, I knew I needed to publish this one first. But don’t you worry, those Chai waffles are next. I’ve received countless waffle recipe requests since so many prefer them over pancakes. So, hold tight. 😉
This Vegan Cheesy Mexican Tortilla Bake was another spur-of-the-moment dinner idea that turned out incredible. Incredible. It’s truly hard to believe that this whole dish, with as delicious as it is, is only 8 ingredients (+salt and water). My daughter absolutely looovvved it. In fact, I’ve made it 3 times since I shared the teaser pic on Facebook. So many of you have been messaging asking when it is getting posted and yay, today is the day! Let me just say, it takes awhile to film a video with all the layers and prepare everything for the post, so that is why it took me several days to get it together.
We polished off this Cheesy Mexican Tortilla Bake in no time. Also, it’s SO easy to make. Another exciting thing? The Mexican Vegan Cheesy Sauce is made with no nutritional yeast! So many people hate nutritional yeast or are allergic, as well as many months ago I discovered it was a trigger for gout pain in my husband. Ever since then, I’ve been remaking recipes subbing out the nutritional yeast. For this recipe, I went to my #1 cheese sauce on the blog that soooo many of you say it has changed your life, the Mexican Cheese Sauce. BUT, that recipe uses a good amount of nutritional yeast. So, I had to think how to mimic that cheesy flavor without it.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I did it, lol. The shocking part is that I love this one better. It tastes even cheesier.
VEGAN CHEESE SAUCE IN 10 MINUTES
You don’t need to cook any veggies or do a million steps to make a homemade cheese sauce. This is SO easy to make and I swear, has the most real cheesy taste that I’ve tried yet to date and I’ve tried a lot of recipes. It’s simple, fast and delicious.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I don’t like long recipes with a lot of ingredients. It just flat out stresses me out and this recipe is so incredibly delicious and the fact it’s ready in under an hour and just 8 basic ingredients is kind of crazy.
To remake my original cheese sauce without the nutritional yeast, I used a good amount of dairy-free soy (or coconut) yogurt. It provided an amazing tang, wonderful body and texture and honestly, tasted better to me than with the nutritional yeast. That combined with all the natural vinegar in the salsa, makes for one delicious cheesy bite.
I don’t give two hoots if it is “real cheese” or not…when something tastes good, it tastes good. Period. No matter what. And unlike dairy cheese, this one isn’t full of cholesterol.
It will be going on nachos next! Mmmmmmm.
All you need to make this recipe is 8 simple ingredients (+the usual salt and water):
- Cashews or White beans
- Salsa
- Dairy-free Yogurt
- Cumin
- Smoked Paprika
- Black Beans
- Corn
- Corn Tortillas
I hope you all love this Vegan Cheesy Mexican Tortilla Bake as much as I do. Please watch the video tutorial below, as it really makes the process easier to understand when seeing the visual.
MORE VEGAN DINNER RECIPES
- Vegan Stuffed Ricotta Shells
- Barbecue Lentil Loaf
- Oil-free Zucchini Fritters
- Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
- Vegan 20 Minute Alfredo
- Vegan Chickpea Tomato Ragu
If you make this recipe, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
Vegan Cheesy Mexican Tortilla Bake
Ingredients
FOR THE CHEESE (Makes 2 1/2 cups)
- 1 cup (150g) raw unsalted cashews (See NOTES below for subs and lower-fat option)
- 1 cup (240g) mild heat runny/not too chunky salsa (I love Trader Joe's or Sprouts Mild, you can use a medium heat if you don't mind the dish being on the spicy side, not recommended with kids)
- 3/4 cup (180g) PLAIN dairy-free yogurt (I used Silk Soy yogurt found at Kroger OR SO Delicious "Unsweetened" Plain coconut yogurt)
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon (75g) water
- 1 1/4 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
- 3/4-1 teaspoon fine salt (this will vary depending on the salsa used. Start with 3/4 and keep in mind the final taste after baked you want to stand out)
FOR THE CASSEROLE
- 9 small corn tortillas, cut into fourths
- Two 15 oz cans low-sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup (240g) salsa for middle layer
- 2 cups (293g) sweet corn (I used frozen)
- Optional: Green onions for garnish
NOTE
- The yogurt CANNOT be subbed here for milk, that will RUIN the recipe. The yogurt is thick, creamy and tangy and using a milk will not only make it bland, it will make the rest of the dish watery and soggy. Follow the recipe for the correct results.
Instructions
- First, prepare your cheese sauce by adding all of the ingredients listed under "cheese sauce" to a high-powered blender. I did not soak my cashews since I have a Vitamix, but if you do not have a strong blender, you will need to soak your cashews overnight, drain and rinse. Otherwise, your sauce will be gritty. Taste it and tell me how darn cheesy that tastes! The cheese sauce tastes insanely delicious and cheesy straight out of the blender, but gets even cheesier after it's baked! If you are just wanting to use the cheese sauce for nachos or another recipe, I would add it to the stove and heat it just to thicken it up slightly. It is delicious on nachos!
- Preheat your oven to 375°F and lightly spray a 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 square casserole dish like ceramic or stone with nonstick spray. Layer about a 1/3 of the cheese sauce on the bottom and spread out with a spoon. REFER TO VIDEO for easy visual tutorial. Lay on top of the cheese sauce 6 of the cut tortillas per each row for 3 rows.
- Add 1 can of the beans on top of the tortillas and spread out. Add the other 1 cup of salsa and spread out over the beans. Layer 1 cup of the corn. Layer another 1/3 of the cheese sauce on top of the corn and spread out. You will notice there is only 1 layer of salsa in the middle. This is just to add another layer of flavor and moisture, it definitely didn't need 2 layers of salsa.
- Repeat the steps by adding the remaining tortillas, then the beans, corn and remaining cheese sauce. Cover everything well and top with a piece of foil gently covering the dish. This is so the cheese sauce doesn't bake up and harden too quickly.
- Bake with the foil on for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and bake another 5-10 minutes until the cheese is getting a nice firm orange-brown look on the edges. I baked it for about 8 minutes without the foil but if you prefer the cheese to be more firm, just bake it a bit longer. Just keep in mind that the longer you bake it, the drier the top cheese layer becomes after it is removed from the oven.
- Garnish with fresh green onions. I loved the crunchy, fresh element of the green onions to the warm cheesy flavor.
- This dish reheats very well also. I just reheat leftovers in the microwave and mmmmmm, delicious.
Notes
If you make this recipe, please do not repost it in full on your site, please link to me instead giving proper credit. I work very hard to create my recipes and share them for free, so please be respectful and link properly. If you are inspired by this recipe, again, please give proper credit and do not simply post it on your site and ask before reprinting any of my recipes.
I wasn’t paying attention when buying the yogurt and bought key lime pie flavor. Oops! But, I thought, we put limes in our cervasa and it turned out fine. I don’t like corn tortillas and used white flour ones and they were just fine. I thought I could have sprinkled some black olives on the top but decided for my first try to leave well enough alone. Thank you. This was yummy.
I’m searching for plain unsweetened non-dairy yogurt, and although I live in a very large city, I can only find Vanilla unsweetened non-dairy yogurt. Will this throw off the taste in the recipe? Hope you see this soon, as I hope to make this for a Thanksgiving potluck where I’ll be the only non-vegan! Great to get a start on vegan cooking!
Hi Rhonda! Yeah, you don’t want to use vanilla-that won’t taste good, haha. Do you have a Kroger or whole foods?? They both sell plain unsweetened.
Thwnk you did much for your quick reply! Neither store had non-flavored yogurt, but I did find that Sprouts Market at least showed that they normally stock an unsweetened, non-flavored brand called “Forager unsweetened non-dairy yogurt.” Fingers crossed that I can find it in stock! Thanks again. I’ll report back on how it goes at the potluck! My first vegan meal!
Thank you so much for your quick reply! Neither store had non-flavored yogurt, but I did find that Sprouts Market at least showed that they normally stock an unsweetened, non-flavored brand called “Forager unsweetened non-dairy yogurt.” Fingers crossed that I can find it in stock! Thanks again. I’ll report back on how it goes at the potluck! My first vegan meal!
It was. hit! Only one other person brought a heated dish so people gobbled up my offering. Everyone was so supportive, and I learned a lot about vegan eating. I doubled the recipe, so I did have enough to bring some home. I also told them about your website! Thanks so much for making my first vegan recipe such a winner!
This was very good! For anyone who can’t have corn, I substituted chopped red and green peppers for the corn. And I also used Siete almond flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas. I did buy the Trader Joe’s salsa you recommended. Next time I would probably use 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I really liked this recipe and it came out great even with the substitutions that I had to make. Thank you!
This was easy and delicious thank you!
I used a bit more smoked paprika and cumin than the recipe called for.
So glad you enjoyed it Catriona!
Very nice recipe chef 👍👌👏.I like to wish you and your family a very healthy happy New Year 2023⛄🎄🦌🎁🎁🎁🥂🎆🎇🌹🌹🌹🌞😎
thank you so much Jasson!
YUM! I am new to vegan cooking (and eating). I absolutely love the few recipes of yours that I have tried so far. I appreciate that you don’t really use oil, as it messes with my stomach.
So on to this recipe. My son, who rarely likes Mexican casseroles, really liked this. He was super surprised that he enjoyed it. I love the cheese sauce. I had leftovers of the sauce and cooked it in a saucepan. I added some nutritional yeast and thickened it up on the stove. YUM! I munched on tortilla chips and that sauce while I was making a vegan milkshake while waiting for dinner to finish baking.
My husband and son said it is a repeatable recipe. You are 3 for 3 so far! Thank you for sharing your delicious recipes and for making them pretty darn easy. It’s not daunting to look at your recipes.
I wanted to use the leftovers from this in a different way. I took the leftovers and put them into a pot with vegetable stock and made a creamy enchilada soup/stew. I served with tortilla chips and a little vegan sour cream. It was really good and the family even liked it.
And we just ordered your new cookbook on Amazon. I am thrilled and cannot wait to get it!
Delicious!! Made it exactly as written but forgot the green onions – oops! The cheeze sauce is so creamy, we couldn’t believe it! Definitely favoriting. Thank you!
How can I make this over the stove?
Hi this is a casserole so it does need to be baked! If you don’t have an oven, then I guess you can just try mixing the ingredients like a taco or buddha bowl.
SO GOOD!
Made this a few nights ago, as I was craving Mexican.I made a few. I or changes (just to add more veggies), it was AMAZING! Even BETTER the second night!!!
The only changes I made were to add diced peppers, onions, jalapeños. Also added some I olive on top second night, made it even more decadent!
Thank YOU for a keeper recipe!
Sounds SO AMAZING!! So glad you loved it!
Easy and full of flavor. I could have drank the cheese sauce!
I’ve made this a few times & love it. When I reheated some leftovers today, I tossed in some leftover taco meat with it & that just took it up a notch! I’m going to have to start adding taco meat to these layers in the future! (For reference, I used Light Life ground with my own taco seasoning.)
Sounds delicious!
I’m wondering if the corn tortillas can be substituted with flour tortillas?
I’ve never tries it so I don’t know if they’d be soggy or taste as good.
I’ve recently switched to a plant-based diet and have been trying so many new recipes that have turned out to be less than they were hyped up to be. This was such a great surprise!! It’s so good!! I live in a house of omnivores and just served it without saying it was vegan (I added extra salsa on top and lots of green onions and olives so they couldn’t examine the “cheese” too closely). Everyone loved it! Thank you so much for this!
Yay I love that!
Thoughts about throwing some other veggies in there as well? Like maybe peppers or zucchini or broccoli?
Bell peppers would be nice but I wouldn’t do zucchini or broccoli. Zucchini will add too much moisture and broccoli I just think would taste odd in a Mexican casserole dish.
Question: could this be made ahead and frozen? It looks delicious – definitely planning on making it either way.
I have never tried it, so I’m not sure if it would be soggy or not. Please let me know if you try it!
Could I sub vegan sour cream for the yogurt? I have it on hand I was hoping to make tonight without a trip to the store. 😉
This looks amazing! Do you think it would freeze well?
I’ve not tried freezing it, so I’m not sure!
Can you substitute the cashews with hempseeds and would I use 1 cup or more?
I have never tried subbing it with hemp seeds. Sunflower seeds would be a better option.
I use hemp-hearts in place of cashews all the time. Use the same amount. So if the recipe calls for 1 cup of cashews I would use one cup of hemp-hearts.
This is soooo good I’ve made it several times and agree the all cashew version is best.
Thank you!!
This recipe was a huge hit last Christmas ( 2022) and my son just reminded me to please make it for this years Thanksgiving! My niece wanted to take home all the leftovers for herself. I had made 2 dishes worth. No one else was plant based, but they sure dug into this dish!
I am so grateful for Brandees creativity and deliciousness in her recipes. I’ve used several and love them all!
I love all of the things I have made for my family from this site! You are awesome and just wanted to say thank you or all that you have done to create really good food for non meat and dairy people like us. Please keep up the work and never stop1 Stay safe! Have a Great year. Thanks again
Awww Lacy you made my day with this feedback!!