So I was told recently that you can’t make a dairy free white sauce with almond milk because it splits. That isn’t actually true, it just needs a little more care. We have done a basic dairy free bechamel before, you and I, this one is a cheesy onion white sauce and was enjoyed on Mothers Day with quinoa pancakes and crispy Barossa Fine Foods Bacon.
Ingredients
1/4 onion diced
2 spring onions, sliced
1 teaspoon chopped chives
olive oil
1 cup almond milk (use store bought for this, it is more robust than homemade)
1 tbs tapioca starch
2 heaped tablespoons probiotic cashew “cheese” or 1/2 a cup of grated dairy free cheese of your choice, there are plenty out there these days
scant pinch of salt
Saute the onion in a drizzle of olive oil at a medium heat until you have some nice colour, don’t burn it, but as this is a Cheesy Onion Sauce, we want some good onion flavour, like this -
Stir in the spring onion and chives, tip in the milk. In a small bowl mix the tapioca starch and two teaspoons of olive oil to form a buerre manie, sort of a pasty slurry.
Once your oniony milk is hot, stir this in, bring it to the boil, stirring, stirring, stirring, until it is quite thick, do make sure you simmer it and can see the bubbles for a good minute, not a mad boil, but a wandering simmer, to cook out the starchiness out of the tapioca, tapioca is a bit of a starch hoarder given half a chance, but a bit of extra cooking will get rid of that.
Remove from heat and stir in your chosen cheese substitute.
I used this one, which I find very yummy, a good substitute for a strong cheese like a mature cheddar.
They also do one with gherkin in it which is YUM!
So what did I use it for?
Quinoa pancakes with crispy bacon and cheesy onion sauce. MMMMMMM!