I’ve tried making bechamel with soy milk and oat milk, and not a fan of either right now. I think I should try a nut milk. Any recommendations? Also I think I might want to try soy milk again because the last one I used had added sugar and also I slightly burned the roux. Any other tips for vegan bechamel?
Hey comrade,
I’m not much of a chef myself, but I happen to know one! I asked him what kind of milk he’d use for a creamy milky sauce (I didn’t know how to pronounce bechamel) and he said “they usually call for just any non-dairy milk” but when I pushed for a recommendation he said soy, and added to make sure it’s not the vanilla kind. If you want, he has legit dozens of recipe books, and I can look up a bechamel recipe if you’d like!
I don’t need a recipe, thanks though! I’ll try again with soy milk, but making sure there’s no added sugar or vanilla. Also I should get a recipe book… Finding recipes online is easy enough, but a recipe book is nice because I don’t have to already know what recipe I’m looking for, I could just open the book and find something.
Cashew milk, 100%
You can actually just make a thick cashew “milk” with less water than usual (say about half) and use that in the place of bechamel. Check out a recipe for cashew cream and follow those steps, thinning it if/as necessary.
Just keep in mind that it doesn’t have a thickener/emulsifier in it so it may split under certain circumstances, but you can make a basic roux out of flour or, preferably, cornflour and then incorporate that into the cream at any stage of the cooking process.
Edit: I just read your whole post (whoops!) and I have some more advice…
Make your bechamel sauce in the microwave. You should be making virtually any flour-based sauce in the microwave because it’s quicker and way easier; the chances of burning them while cooking in the microwave are virtually non-existent.
The only thing that you have to be aware of is that you need a bowl that is at least 2x the volume of the bechamel sauce or it will boil over and you will absolutely regret it. That’s the only catch but it’s a small one and you still have a chance of boiling over when doing it on the stove.
Check out some tutorial videos on YouTube if you need but it’s the same process as the stove method except minus most of the stirring and fretting.
