Tangy, spicy and delicious Vegan Buffalo Sauce made with only 5 all natural ingredients! Swap store-bought buffalo sauce for this easy one that takes minutes! Naturally gluten-free and dairy free!
With only five natural ingredients, this is such a clean and delicious dairy free buffalo sauce! It’s a perfect Primal Kitchen Buffalo Sauce copycat, and is also made with cashew butter.
Most vegan buffalo sauce recipes use vegan butter or vegan Worcestershire sauce (where do you even find that?!) or take extra time with soaking cashews. This one uses cashew butter instead to achieve that buttery taste and creamy texture that we all LOVE about buffalo sauce!
I am obsessed with buffalo sauce. While this sauce got popular mostly because of vegan buffalo wings, there’s so many uses for it! From buffalo meatballs to buffalo cauliflower wings or buffalo cauliflower wraps. You can drizzle it on top of proteins or in dip form!
Adding clean, homemade sauces and dressings helps spruce up any at-home meal or side dish. My absolute favorite way to use buffalo sauce is with turkey meatballs (I make them weekly!). Or for a fully vegan lunch, I use this sauce with roasted cauliflower and roll it up in a healthy veggie packed cauliflower wrap!
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Highlights
This recipe is:
- Creamy
- Easy
- Vegan
- 5 Ingredients
What is Buffalo Sauce?
Buffalo sauce is typically made of butter combined with a hot sauce (usually Frank’s RedHot) that’s a blend of cayenne red peppers (YUM!), vinegar, water, salt and garlic powder. The butter normally adds the richness and texture while toning down the heat, while the seasoning and vinegar makes the sauce savory, spicy and tangy!
Buffalo sauce is like a hot sauce but normally has a richer flavor given the extra seasonings. It’s smooth and silky to taste and leaves that heat in the back of your throat after!
Is Buffalo Sauce vegan?
Traditional buffalo sauce is not vegan, as it is a combination of hot sauce and butter. There are many vegan buffalo sauce recipes that use vegan butter. I personally do not like the ingredients used in most vegan butters, so I prefer to make my own vegan buffalo sauce using cashew butter!
Ingredients
- Cayenne Red Pepper Hot Sauce - hot sauce is the absolute must. The main hot sauce used in buffalo sauce is Frank’s RedHot sauce. Use any type of Cayenne Red Pepper hot sauce.
- Cashew Butter - cashew butter is the way to get the buttery flavor and texture! I love using homemade cashew butter because it comes out much less expensive per serving, and you can control the salt/oil level. If using store-bought cashew butter, I recommend using one without additional oils.
- Avocado Oil
- Spices
Making your own creamy cashew butter really takes this sauce to the next level!
Instructions
Making your own buffalo is literally one of the easiest things you will do!
Add all ingredients into the blender.
Blend until smooth.
Pour into an airtight jar or container and store in the fridge. Or use immediately!
How to Store
This vegan buffalo sauce does have to be refrigerated. This keeps it fresh for longer.
Store in an airtight jar or container with a lid. Keep in the fridge for up to fourteen days. Oil may separate from the rest of the sauce. If so, give it a nice stir to re-combine.
Frequently Asked Questions
To make a more mild buffalo sauce, reduce the hot sauce from ½ cup to ⅓ cup (or even ¼ cup for super mild) and make sure to use regular hot sauce, not the extra hot!
First I would make the vegan buffalo sauce recipe as listed, and then mix in a few more tablespoons of hot sauce to increase the heat. If you want extra extra spice, you can always use an extra hot version of the hot sauce.
You can use raw cashew butter as a substitute for raw, soaked cashews. When subbing for the raw cashew butter, use half of the amount needed of whole nuts. So, if the recipe requires 1 cup, use ½ cup of cashew butter.
Traditional buffalo sauce is not vegan because it combines butter (a dairy product produced from animal milk) with cayenne pepper sauce.
How to Use Buffalo Sauce
While this vegan buffalo sauce is so good you can lick it from the spoon, there are so many ways you can use it up!
Make wings - buffalo cauliflower wings or chicken wings
To roast with cauliflower florets in a buffalo cauliflower wrap
As a sauce for buffalo meatballs
Marinate seitan or tofu in it!
Meat-based or vegan buffalo dip
Pour into a grilled cheese sandwich, a buffalo chickpea sandwich or even to spice up a veggie packed sandwich
As a sauce with celery sticks or baby carrots
Make a spicy buffalo mac and cheese!
Drizzle as a hot sauce over fried or scrambled eggs, or even to spice up chorizo and eggs!
To add a tangy flavor to vegan cheese sauce or vegan queso
📖 Recipe
Vegan Buffalo Sauce (with Cashew Butter!)
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- ½ Cup Red Hot Sauce (use ⅓ cup for mild)
- 2 Tablespoons Cashew Butter
- 1 Tablespoon Avocado Oil
- ¼ Teaspoon Garlic Salt
- ¼ Teaspoon Paprika
Instructions
- Add all ingredients into the blender.½ Cup Red Hot Sauce, 2 Tablespoons Cashew Butter, 1 Tablespoon Avocado Oil, ¼ Teaspoon Garlic Salt, ¼ Teaspoon Paprika
- Blend until smooth.
- Pour into an airtight jar or container and store in the fridge for up to two weeks. Or use immediately!
- When storing in the fridge, the oil may separate. To use, stir to re-combine ingredients.