Copycat Siete Dairy Free Queso Cheese Seasoning

This sharp and tangy powdered copycat vegan cheese seasoning tastes just like Siete’s incredible Dairy Free Queso potato chips.

Looking for healthier snacks that don’t break the bank when you’re vegan, or on a plant based diet, can be difficult. The health tax on ready to eat foods is real, and in this economy everyone isn’t able. You’d think they could charge less when leaving out unnecessary ingredients like cheese, formulated sugars, and preservatives.

I recently tried the Dairy Free Queso potato chips made by Siete Foods and got instantly addicted. I love everything about the brand and their products are amazing. It’s just that you can make this seasoning at home for a fraction of the price and put it on whatever you like.

Where Does Vegan Cheese Flavor Come From?

Plant based lactic acid is an ingredient that’s amazing for giving flavor to vegan cheeses. It gives sour flavor and an earthy tang, close to what you’d expect from a sharp cheddar. Citric acid also adds some additional brightness to the flavor profile.

When I checked out the ingredient label of the chips, I saw that it included tomato powder even though I didn’t get the sense of a tomato taste. The blend of all of the seasonings together made their chips taste like any other cheese chips that I’ve eaten in the past. I already had all of the other specialty ingredients from making other vegan plant based recipes. Thinking that the tomato powder gave more depth to the body and tang in the dairy free queso flavor, I ordered a bag to try.

Ingredients For The Dairy Free Queso Seasoning

• Nutritional yeast
• Sea salt
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Tomato powder
• Beet powder
• Paprika
• Annatto or turmeric
• Mushroom powder or MSG
• Chili powder
• Plant based lactic acid
• Citric acid

Other than the tomato powder, there’s a few more ingredients that anyone interested in making vegan or plant based cheeses will already have on hand. Most vegans, or those eating a plant based diet, will probably already have nutritional yeast on hand. It’s the traditional substitute for cheese flavor in so many vegan recipes that jokes about it are cliché. Fortified “nooch” has a bit more of a dank flavor, but unfortified will work fine also.

Our Dairy Free Queso also needs a lot of umami to round out the cheese flavor. I used MSG since the strength of umami and flavor in mushroom powders are highly variable. You could certainly use your preferred mushroom seasoning in its place.

I was initially confused by the beet powder listed in the ingredients. Usually it’s used to give color to meat substitutes, like my Impossible Italian Sausage Copycat and upcoming fish recipes. It has a distinctive earthy flavor that blends in and works amazingly well in the overall flavor composition. If you don’t have any on hand, try substituting additional paprika instead.

More links you might be interested in:

• Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies – Vegan Bakery Style
• Tofu Ricotta 2.0 – Elevated Plant-Based Cheese
• Vegan Cheese Sauce With Sodium Citrate
• Lemon Dill Vegan Potato Salad Recipe – Elevated Vegan BBQ Side Dishes
• The Vegan Chewy Chocolate Chip Recipe

Preparation for the Dairy Free Queso Cheese Seasoning

Putting this recipe together is going to be easy. Everything just goes into a bullet or blender to make sure that all of the ingredients are mixed well and fully homogenized. A few short pulses yields a perfect dairy free queso vegan cheese seasoning.

Ideas and Tips for Usage

Siete Foods makes this flavor for their potato chips, but it works equally well on freshly fried tortilla chips. The Dairy Free Queso seasoning can be sprinkled on, but I love to put hot chips in a paper bag so they can be shaken and completely coated. The bit of chili powder in the recipe gives a taste of Doritos made vegan.

Season noodles, veggies, or fries with this vegan plant based cheese flavored awesomeness too.

Storage

There’s no anti-caking agent in the mix so store in an air tight container in small batches to use quickly.

Substitutions and Variations

I’ve used turmeric for color instead of annatto, given that this ingredient is mainly for the yellow color you can substitute as needed. MSG was also included since mushroom powders are highly variable in umami flavor, you can always use your favorite to make the recipe your own.

Make this recipe lower salt by using one or two teaspoons instead of the whole tablespoon. You can also try making it sodium free with a salt alternative, or your favorite no salt seasoning mix.

FAQs

Rich, creamy, and dairy-free, this Siete Copycat Dairy-Free Queso pairs beautifully with flavorful appetizers. Serve it alongside our crunchy Flawless Vegetable Pakora – A Vegan Indian Appetizer To Love or crispy Crunchy Buffalo Cauliflower Wings for the ultimate snack lineup. Need another standout dip for variety? Try our smoky Roasted Jalapeño Black Bean Dip.