White Miso Vegan Hollandaise Sauce (Vegan, Gluten-free, Grain-free, Nut-free option)

The classic buttery sauce, veganized, and with a little umami twist. This vegan hollandaise is incredibly easy to make, needs only a few ingredients and is dangerously delicious. Perfect for slathering over grilled asparagus, or drizzling on a tofu and spinach breakfast muffin.

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There are few things more delicious than fresh British asparagus, grilled until just tender, and draped in a velvety hollandaise sauce. Before I turned vegan my attempts at classic hollandaise were largely disastrous, but this vegan version is foolproof, and every bit as delicious.

I’ve made asparagus with white miso dressings before, and the flavours go together beautifully. I wanted to see I could make a sauce with the delicate umami flavour of white miso, but with the creamy, unctuous richness of hollandaise. Turns out I can, and it’s great.

White miso is a slightly sweet soya bean paste, more delicate in flavour than it’s darker cousins due to a shorter fermentation. You can buy it in larger supermarkets, oriental supermarkets, and some health food shops. My favourite is Tideford’s, which you can buy from Ocado, and Clearspring is also very good, but use any you can get your hands on.

How to make white miso hollandaise

The wonderful thing about this recipe is that it’s basically a case of bunging everything in a food processor, then adding a little melted vegan butter at the end. The whole thing takes a matter of minutes. If you don’t have a food processor you could use an electric whisk, or a hand whisk and some elbow grease.

The creaminess of the sauce comes from silken tofu – a wonderfully versatile substance that you can find in little cartons in most supermarkets or oriental stores. Add this to the food processor – you can store anything left in the carton for 5 days or so in the fridge and use to make another recipe (e.g. this tofu scramble recipe or this chocolate tart). Along with the silken tofu, add some nutritional yeast, lemon juice, black pepper, garlic granules, and 1 tbsp of white miso paste. Whizz everything together until it’s completely smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary.

For the vegan butter, I would really recommend using a good quality vegan butter block such as Naturli Vegan Block (I mention this a lot because it’s wonderful). This will give you the best buttery flavour and texture, but vegan spread would also work. Melt in the microwave, or in a small pan on the hob, then with the motor of the food processor running, stream the melted butter through the lid. The result should be a thick, creamy, and silky smooth sauce. Taste and add a little more lemon juice or black pepper if necessary (miso is very salty so you shouldn’t need any more salt).

Now you have some options. The sauce at this stage is likely to be very thick, and you can keep it like this, or add 1–2 tbsp hot water for a pourable consistency. The sauce will be lukewarm, but you’d prefer it warmer, transfer to a small saucepan (you can use the same one as for the butter) and heat it very gently over a low heat until warmed through.

All that is left is to bathe whatever meal you are eating in this luxurious concoction. It’s ideal for brunch, or with grilled vegetables or any sort, and I would happily just sit and dip fresh bread into it for a joyous, if rather less sophisticated, treat.

Please let me know if you give this a try! I would love to hear what you think – you can comment below or use the star rating at the top of the post, or tag me on social media @greedybearbakes.