Homemade INSTANT white vegan sauce!

Imagine the following situation: you are coming back home and having a quick look at the situation in the fridge and in the kitchen cabinets. A big question mark appears above your head: what to prepare to eat? Which products to use to cook dinner quickly and easily and also let it become tomorrow’s lunch? How to do it without getting tired and making four pots dirty? Do such dilemmas sound familiar to you?

Here I come with the solution: I present a quick, healthy, homemade sauce… powder! A white vegan sunflower seed sauce prepared in advance so that every time you want to prepare a meal, you simply open a jar with the dry sauce and mix it with some liquid.

The idea is as follows: the dry white sauce can be stored in a jar in the fridge, and then combined with a few tablespoons of water, enriched with some salty soy sauce, and balanced with an acidic accent – a little bit of vinegar. Pour this mixture over your favourite pan-fried ingredients: chickpeas, beans, mushrooms, or your favourite vegetables. You can find the recipe and a few serving suggestions below.

Instant white vegan sauce (for a small jar of sauce, about 6 dinner servings)

  • 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp granulated garlic
  • 2 tsp yeast flakes (can be omitted)
  1. Grind the sunflower seeds into a powder. You can use a food processor, a blender, or a good old coffee grinder.
  2. In a jar, combine the sunflower seed powder with the rest of the ingredients.
  3. Store in the refrigerator. Just before preparing a dish, combine it with the wet ingredients in a separate vessel.

Example use of the sauce (2 lunch portions)

  • 5 tbsp instant white sauce
  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp apple or white wine vinegar
  • An almost full glass (200 ml) of tap-water
  1. Combine the instant white sauce with the wet ingredients.
  2. Pour into the pan directly onto your preferred fried ingredients (see the suggestions below) and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. If you want the dish to be thicker, you can add a little more of the instant white sauce or just wait a while for it to thicken up.

Suggestion A: With white beans or chickpeas

  • 1 can of drained white beans or chickpeas
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 2 tsp pickle capers
  • 4 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • a few leaves of fresh basil or parsley
  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the beans or chickpeas and fry for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Add the capers and garlic, cook over medium heat for an additional minute, then add the instant white sauce from the recipe above.
  3. Cook for an additional 3 minutes. Serve with rice, groats, bread or boiled potatoes and fresh herbs.

Suggestion B: With mushrooms

  • 300 g of mushrooms (closed cup mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, or mixed)
  • 1 white onion or half of the white part of a leek
  • 4 tbsp of rapeseed oil
  • A couple of fresh coriander or dill leaves
  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the mushrooms and the chopped onion or leek. Fry for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are golden brown.
  2. Mix the fried mushrooms with a portion of the instant white sauce from the recipe above.
  3. Cook for an additional 3 minutes. Serve with rice, groats, bread or boiled potatoes and fresh herbs.

Other serving suggestions for the instant white sauce: 

  • Cooked brown lentils
  • Vegan meatballs
  • Cooked or baked pumpkin cubes 
  • Stewed white cabbage

For a smoother sauce, blend the sunflower seed powder with the wet ingredients for a minute before pouring it into the pan.

This recipe is just an idea how to use sunflower seeds to prepare a quick plant-based dinner. You can modify it further: for example, add a teaspoon of ground cumin and coriander and a large pinch of chilli to the mixture, then a tablespoon of tomato paste to the sauce in the pan. The result will be a slightly warming red sauce.

Still hungry?