If you're new to plant-based eating, you might be looking for alternatives to dairy to use in creamy recipes. While there are many ways to add creaminess to plant-based recipes, the Mother Mix provides an easy shortcut. It's a quick DIY that's all-natural and gluten-free. Made with just four ingredients, it's a dry mix that stores in your pantry. The Mix itself takes less than 5 minutes to make. In another few minutes, you can turn it into a simple cream sauce for drizzling over veggies or pasta. Or use it as the base to jumpstart over 15 recipes from Hot Spinach Dip and Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup to Sauced-Up Roasted Cauliflower and Zucchini Fritters.
Ingredients
The Mother Mix is made from just four ingredients: almond flour, tapioca starch, nutritional yeast, and salt.
Why We Named it the Mother Mix
Making the Mother Mix
Making the Mother Mix is super simple: combine the dry ingredients in a big bowl and you’re done!
Storing the Mother Mix
Once combined, we store ours in a well-sealed container, at room temperature. If you think you’ll only use it occasionally, you can store it in the fridge or even freezer. The Mother Mix is awesome to have on hand if you have guests or family that are vegan, plant-based, gluten-free or dairy-free.
The Mother Mix, your dairy-free, vegan, shortcut to comfort food
Visual Overview: Making A Simple Plant-Based Cream Sauce
Notes:
- You need a blender for this recipe.
- This recipe makes a basic (plain) sauce, without any spices.
- If you want to use the Mother Mix to create your own recipes, consider adding more nutritional yeast to make it taste cheesy, and/or add herbs and spices, such as garlic or chilli powder. If you want it to taste like a Bechamel sauce, add nutmeg. See for example: Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free Scalloped Potatoes. Add dry spices to the blender. You can also add other flavourings such as chopped fresh basil, minced jalapeños, sun-dried tomatoes. Add these during the cooking stage.
- For other recipes on this site that use the Mother Mix, follow the specific recipe's instructions, as each is slightly different in terms of spices and quantities.
Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend on high for 1 minute until smooth.
Blending the Mother Mix
Making the Mother Mix
Pour the sauce into a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat for about 5 minutes (or more if you have made a larger quantity of sauce.) The sauce may go through a brief period where it looks like it is curdling. Keep stirring, this is only temporary.
Making the Mother Mix basic cream sauce
Making the Mother Mix
Note: Depending on your blender, the sauce might taste a bit flour-y on its own. I don't find this noticeable when it's combined with other ingredients.
Related Recipes
All of the recipes below use the Mother Mix:
Making a Mother Mix Recipe Without the Mix
If you want to try a recipe, but don’t want to make the mix, all of the recipes on the website include the equivalent quantities of ingredients needed.
Recipe Card
The Mother Mix
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups almond flour {also called almond meal, or superfine almond flour, or blanched skinless ground almond}
- 1 1/4 cups tapioca starch {also called tapioca flour}
- 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 1/2 tablespoons salt
Instructions
To make the dry mix
- Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and stir well, then transfer to a tightly-sealed container. You can keep this in your pantry, or store it in the fridge if you don't think you will use it up within a few months.
To make the basic Mother Mix simple cream sauce
- To make about 1/2 cup of sauce, combine 1/3rds cup of dry mix and 1/2 cup of water in a blender. Blend on high for about 1 minute. Transfer to a small saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat for about 3 minutes until the sauce is thickened and stretchy. It may go through a brief stage where it looks like it is curdling. Just keep stirring and this will disappear. Larger quantities of sauce will take longer to cook.
Notes
Storing the Mother Mix
Store the Mother Mix in a tightly-sealed container at room temperature. If you think that you will be using it irregularly, you could store the dry mix in your fridge or even freezer.Storing Cooked Sauce
Store any cooked sauce in your fridge in a sealed container. It will keep for 3-4 days. Reheat it over low heat, stirring to remove any lumps, as needed.Add-Ins and Timing
- If you want to use the Mother Mix to make your own recipes, consider adding more nutritional yeast to up the cheesy factor, and/or you add herbs and spices, such as garlic powder, chilli powder, or nutmeg if you want it to taste like a Bechamel sauce. Add these into the blender.
- You can also add other flavourings such as chopped fresh basil, minced jalapeños, sun-dried tomatoes. Add these during the cooking stage.
I’ve had so many dishes with this recipe I don’t even know how many any more.
It’s soooo good I forget that it’s actually plant based.
Dairy free doesn’t have to be dull and tasteless. It’s amazing!!
Thank you!! Dairy-free can be super tasty!
Super good!
Thank you! I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
Can’t wait to try it!
Thanks! I hope you love it! There’s lots of good recipes to try!
Fantastic
Thank you! More recipes with it to come too!
I love this mix! I’ve used it in casseroles, grilled cheez sandwiches, and on pizza. It’s easy to throw together, and it’s super tasty!
Thank you Dana! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it! Sounds like you’ve made lots of yummy things with it!
We have a nut allergy at our place, any way to make this and substitute the almond flour?
Hi Dinah – Unfortunately I don’t have a good suggestion for you right now. I have some ideas for using oat flour instead but I haven’t done any testing at all yet.
Oh my goodness! The Mother Mix is amazing. Since going whole food plant based last year the biggest thing I’ve missed/craved is cheese……….but this hits the spot!.
I made a cheesy pasta bake with the MM tonight and it was so delicious! I was using what I had – one red onion, a few cloves of garlic, 150 grams mushrooms, one yellow pepper, sauteed in veg stock, a small handful of frozen sweetcorn, and I cooked the wholewheat pasta I had left (100 grams).
I combined the veg and pasta into a baking dish, then stirred in the mother mix sauce (I checked your recipe for scalloped potatoes to get a mother mix sauce amount)
Wow! I know i will be making a huge tub of Mother Mix tomorrow. Thank you ?
Hi Tessa! Soooo happy to hear that you’re loving the Mother Mix! Your recipe sounds delicious and really shows how versatile the mix is! Thank you so much for sharing.
P.s. I then popped it in the oven for around 15 to 20 minutes, just until it looked a little browned on top.
Thank you! Sounds great!
Hi! I’m allergic to almonds and you suggested cashew flour might work. Do you think it would work in the same ratio?
Thanks!
Hi – I would try testing a small batch, and yes, I would start with the same ratio. I’d love to hear how it goes if you test it out.
Can this be used substituting arrowroot powder, cornstarch, chia or flax to thicken?
Hi – it sounds like you want to replace the tapioca flour/starch with one of these? I haven’t tried but I think cornstarch would be the closest. You could try making a small amount and test it out. Since I have used the Mother Mix as the basis for numerous recipes, I can’t be sure that it will work equally well with all of them. I’d love to hear back from you if you try it out, even just for a single recipe.
Can I use arrowroot starch in place of the tapioca starch?
Hi – I think it will likely work but I have not tested. You might want to consider halving the recipe to test it. Let me know how it goes!
Awesome! Tastes wonderful! Thanks!!