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This vegan Yumm Sauce is my take on the popular Café Yumm Sauce. It’s ultra-creamy, full of flavor, and packed with protein (we’re talking 10 grams in just 2 tablespoons!). With dozens of 5-star reviews, it’s guaranteed to become your new go-to for bowls, sandwiches, and everything in between.
save this recipe!If you’ve ever been to Café Yumm! in Portland, you know their original Yumm Sauce is next-level delicious. If not, prepare to have your taste buds blown away with this vegan Yumm Sauce recipe (trust me, it’s every bit as mouthwatering and addicting as the real deal!).
With a surprisingly simple mix of ingredients—chickpeas, tofu, nutritional yeast, and the like—the result is the creamiest, richest sauce that pairs perfectly with roasted veggie glow bowls, sandwiches, wraps, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
Reader rating
“Oh my goodness! I moved from Oregon over 2 years ago and I missed my Yumm bowl so much! I am NOT a cook by any means and this sauce was really easy to make… and so delicious! 100% recommend!!” —Kelsey
Save The Chickpea Juice: It’s a good idea to reserve a little extra chickpea juice/brine. This way, you can adjust the thickness if needed, especially if the sauce thickens after chilling in the fridge.
Experiment With Flavors: To give your sauce even more oomph, add extra seasonings like paprika, cayenne, curry powder, onion powder, or even Sriracha.
Get Toasty: For a richer, nuttier flavor, you can try lightly toasting the slivered almonds in a dry skillet for a few minutes before blending.
Pairing Ideas
When a sauce is this good, the rest of the meal simply becomes the vehicle. Here are some delicious “vehicles” that pair well with vegan Yumm Sauce!
- Buddha Bowl: Your favorite Buddha bowl isn’t complete without the creamiest, dreamiest sauce around!
- Veggie Loaded Wraps: Swap the hummus in the wrap recipe for this yumm sauce!
Homemade Yumm Sauce (Copycat Cafe Yumm Recipe)
Ingredients
- ½ cup canned chickpeas, 100 g, keep juice from the can
- ½ cup nutritional yeast, 50 g
- ½ cup silken tofu, 100 g
- ¼ cup slivered almonds, 40 g
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 30 mL
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp curry powder
- 2 cloves garlic
- ¼ cup chickpea juice, 60 mL
Instructions
- Add all ingredients except chickpea juice to a blender.
- Blitz until smooth, slowly adding chickpea juice until you reach a thick, pourable consistency.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!
Hi can this be frozen?
I haven’t tried freezing this, but my gut says no. I think the texture would be impacted by it.
Thank you for this recipe. Im on WW and altered the recipe to make it only 1 point vs the 4pts for the jarred version. I did this by eliminating the nuts.
I agree with others that the curry powder is a bit too much, much, but other than that its a very close approximation of the original.
What would you substitute for the chick peas?
You could replace them with a similar amount of tofu 😀 Then just use water instead of chickpea juice.
White beans worked for me!
Does eating raw tofu causes digestive problem?
In most people it shouldn’t, but if you have a sensitive gut it might.
How long will this last in the refrigerator?
About 1 week in the fridge 🙂
Hi! Is there a good replacement for the nutritional yeast? TIA!
Hi Cassie! Most of the flavor is coming from the nutritional yeast, so that would be a bit hard to replace in this one!
Can i use any tofu, i have some regular tofu that i froze, do i have to sliver the almonds, is there an expiration date for this after its made?
Yep regular tofu would work, but may need to be blended for longer. Same goes for almonds! And should last about 5 days in the fridge 😀
turned out just like the YUMM sauce. perferct.
I want to make this for a friend who is allergic to nuts. What should I use to replace the almonds?
Sunflower seeds might work well! 😀
I omitted almonds and had no substitution available. Still worked great!
Just reduce bean water to compensate for lack of that thickener. I’m sure almonds would be nice but it worked fine. (Wonder if some crustless bread or breadcrumbs blended in would replace the thickening of the almonds?)
Really solid recipe, delighted! It survived my substitutions and omissions and STILL tasted like yumm sauce! (I’m in PNW so I can compare to original)
Clean out of garbanzo beans, so soaked and cooked great norther white beans instead. They have much less flavor than garbanzo but still yumm!
Didn’t have almonds or any good replacement thickener, so just omitted without substitution. Should have compensated by omitting bean water, but it just ended up runnier. still yummy! Liked it runny too (original yumm is quite thick though pourable)
Only had garlic powder. Oh well. The cur powder was just right; flavor stayed way in the background without “currying” it.
FYI tripling the recipe uses 1 full box (12oz) silken tofu, and I’m so pleased with having this in the fridge to pour on EVERYTHING, that I’ll triple it again next time when I’ll have actual (dry) garbanzo beans, fresh garlic, and maybe even some almond flour!!