Four Ingredient Creamy Cashew Butternut Sauce

This four ingredient creamy cashew butternut sauce recipe is rich, smooth, and versatile! With butternut squash blended in you, you get an extra dose of veggies in your day.

Did you know you can make a ridiculously delicious, indulgent-yet-nourishing sauce by blending cashews?! Yes, I'm for REAL.

This creamy cashew butternut sauce is basically an easy take on plain cashew sauce (cashews blended with water), but with some butternut squash added into the mix. The result is an ultra-creamy, vegan and dairy-free sauce that can be used for pasta, grain bowls, dips, spreads, and drizzles on tacos. Let's make it!

Jump to:

• Ingredients & Variations
• Let's Make This Butternut Cashew Sauce!
• Make It Seasonal
• Pairing Suggestions
• 📖 Recipe

Ingredients & Variations

Just four simple ingredients are needed to make this butternut cashew sauce recipe:

• Raw cashews
• Butternut squash - We need this to be cooked, so it's perfect if you have leftover roasted butternut squash. Otherwise, take a look at that recipe to easily roast some! You could also use canned butternut squash purée or even canned pumpkin if you want to try a different spin without having to cook any veggies.
• Water - You'll need water for soaking the cashews and for blending them. You could also use veggie broth for blending.
• Salt - If you use broth, use a little bit less salt to season, then taste and adjust.

This is the recipe its most basic, but you can easily add more flavor variations. Think roasted garlic, black pepper, nutritional yeast, or smoked paprika.

Time-saving Tip! It only takes 20 minutes to air fry butternut squash cubes, so if you're looking for low effort and minimal clean-up (I'm so with you!), the air fryer is a really great tool to use for cooking your squash.

Let's Make This Butternut Cashew Sauce!

1. Soak cashews. To prepare the cashews for an ultra-smooth sauce, soak them in water for 2-3 hours first. If you're planning to cook butternut squash and still haven't had a chance, this is a good time to do it! The fastest ways are to cube the squash and roast it in the oven or air fryer.
2. Blend. Drain the cashews and transfer them to a high-speed blender or food processor. Add cooked squash, water or broth, and salt. Blend until completely smooth! Taste and adjust with more salt or seasonings if desired, and feel free to add more liquid if you'd prefer a thinner consistency.
3. Serve! If eating immediately and you need the sauce to be warm, you can gently heat it in a saucepan on the stove over medium heat. Once heated through, stir and serve as pasta sauce, grain bowl sauce, or drizzled over roasted veggies or tacos (it'd be delish over these salmon and butternut squash tacos or these black bean and carrot tacos).

Note: I personally preferred a high-speed blender for this due to its bigger size, plus I got the smoothest results that way. But either will work!

Make It Seasonal

Butternut squash is a variety of winter squash, which are harvested in fall and early winter and have a long shelf life throughout the winter months. Enjoy butternut squash during its peak season of September - December, and even into January and February as it stores well.

Pairing Suggestions

Try one of these recipes to serve with your cashew sauce!

Did you try this butternut cashew sauce? Don't forget to leave a star rating 🌟 and comment below, and tag me on Instagram and Pinterest so I can see what you made!

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📖 Recipe