This is a recipe for creamy vegan honey mustard, which is sweetened with medjool dates and blended with cashews. The cashews provide a creamy texture, while a pinch of turmeric imparts a bright yellow color. The honey mustard is equal parts sweet and tangy, and it can be spread onto sandwiches or burgers or used as a dipping sauce.

If you’re looking for a honey mustard recipe that’s not only vegan, but also made with whole food ingredients and incredibly delicious, this is it.

For me, this isn’t a new recipe. I created it some years back when I’d just developed another recipe for pumpkin seed crusted tofu triangles.

I’ve baked a few batches of those triangles in these past few months. In so doing, I’ve revisited the brightly-colored, creamy vegan honey mustard that was sort of an afterthought at first—a side sauce for another recipe.

But really, I think that this tangy and sweet concoction deserves some attention of its own.

It’s easy enough to purchase honey mustard, but the store-bought version is rarely vegan. Plus, as I’ve learned myself time and again, it’s so satisfying to make one’s own kitchen staples, including dressings and sauces, from scratch.

So here’s a quick walkthrough on making a homemade vegan “honey” mustard that’s really special—maybe even an upgrade from the traditional version!

Why isn’t honey mustard vegan?

First, I should say quickly why it is that a vegan version of honey mustard would even be necessary.

Many folks don’t think of honey as being an animal product. And there are plant-based eaters who choose to keep honey in their diets.

I’ve always regarded my veganism as an ethos, more than a diet. This ethos guides me in avoiding the consumption of animals and animal products.

It also invites me to minimize my participation in the commodification of other living beings.

This is where honey comes in. It’s something created by other living creatures, and so I avoid purchasing it or consuming it when possible.

I’ve read smart arguments as to why beekeeping and honey production can be of benefit to bee populations, and I don’t pretend that these questions are clear-cut. The effort to be a responsible food consumer is nuanced and complicated for all of us.

I inhabit veganism as a way of being that is a line of best fit for my own effort to tread kindly and compassionately on this earth.

Avoiding honey is part of that. I suspect that honey is the non-vegan food that I accidentally consume most often, but I live happily without it.

I’m also happy to champion alternatives whenever I can, and this vegan honey mustard is one of those.

A creamier condiment

One vegan alternative to honey mustard could simply take the form of whisking together Dijon mustard and a non-honey sweetener, such as agave or maple syrup.

I’ve made vegan honey mustard like this before, but I think that the recipe I’m sharing today is more compelling.

For one thing, I love its subtly creamy texture. That’s thanks to the addition of cashew nuts.

Cashews help create rich and authentic vegan cream sauces without any cream at all. They play a starring role in my versatile, all-purpose cashew cream, creamy vegan tzatziki, 4-ingredient vegan sour cream, and homemade vegan mayo.

This vegan honey mustard isn’t meant to be a cream sauce, per se—rather, it has subtle creaminess and a little richness. I use a small amount of cashews (a quarter cup) to achieve this effect.

My favorite, nutrient-dense source of sweetness

I make plenty of space for non-nutritive sweeteners in my diet: balance is important, I love vegan desserts, and not everything I eat needs to be nutritious! I create plenty of cakes, cookies, and pies with some form of sugar or syrup.

That said, when I have a natural opportunity to sweeten something with dates, I do.

Medjool dates are often described as “nature’s candy,” and I can’t think of a better way to put it. There are other types of dates, like deglet noor dates, that I enjoy for their sweetness.

But medjool dates are uniquely creamy in texture, and they have a magical flavor that’s a lot like caramel.

I love snacking on them (especially if peanut butter and chocolate are involved), stuffing them, and adding chopped dates to salads for both texture and sweet/savory notes.

When it comes to dessert, medjool dates help to create the best vegan version of sticky toffee pudding that I’ve ever tried.

Additionally, the tender texture of medjool dates is also perfect for soaking and blending. I blend dates into a versatile paste that can be used in place of syrup-like sweeteners.

I also use them to make a homemade BBQ sauce and a delightful vegan and whole foods “caramel” sauce.

In all of these cases, medjool dates add their nutritional offerings to recipes. They’re especially high in dietary fiber, which may help to mildly offset how quickly their naturally occurring sugars get absorbed when we eat them.

Dates are also rich in minerals, including potassium, magnesium, and even small amounts of calcium and iron.

Medjool dates are the source of sweetness in this vegan honey mustard recipe. I think it’s all the more delicious—not to mention a little more wholesome—as a result.

How to make creamy vegan honey mustard with dates

Making this tangy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet vegan honey mustard is really as simple as one, two, three. Here are the steps.

Step 1: Soak

Cashews will blend more easily if you pre-soak them, so that’s the first step in making the honey mustard.

I recommend soaking cashews in cool or room temperature water for at least two hours before blending. Alternatively, you can do a thirty-minute quick soak in hot water.

Be sure to drain the soak water before you proceed.

If you have a high-speed blender, such as a Vitamix, Blendtec, Beast, or Breville SuperQ, then you don’t need to pre-soak the dates.

If your blender is less strong, however, then I’d recommend soaking and then draining the dates along with the cashews.

Step 2: Blend

Next, you’ll add your vegan honey mustard ingredients to a blender.

Those ingredients are:

• cashews
• Dijon mustard
• medjool dates
• salt
• turmeric
• apple cider vinegar
• water
• cayenne pepper (optional)

The salt, turmeric, and vinegar are key for your honey mustard’s success. Without them, the mixture will be too sweet.

With these ingredients, it’s just the right balance of sweet, salty, and tangy. The turmeric adds a fun, bright yellow shade of color, too.

A tiny pinch of cayenne pepper is optional in the recipe. I often omit this, as mustard alone adds some zippy flavor here. But when I want a spicier version of the vegan honey mustard, I’ll include it.

You’ll need a couple minutes of blending, so that the vegan honey mustard is nice and smooth.

Step 3: Serve

At this point, you have a sweet and savory, creamy, all-around-delicious new condiment to serve however you like.

I love adding this sauce to my pickled vegetable and smoky tofu sandwich. It really adds a kick to my miso tahini vegetable sandwich, too.

The vegan honey mustard is great with burgers or sliders.

Most of all, I love to serve it as a dipping sauce. Try it with my pumpkin-seed crusted tofu triangles, sheet pan smashed broccoli florets, or oven-baked vegan zucchini chips. It’s a delicious accompaniment to all three!

The honey mustard is great with a traditional vegan soft pretzel, too.

Meal prep & storage

Like most of my creamy sauce recipes, this one is great for make-ahead cooking and freezing. It can be stored for up to five days in an airtight container in the fridge and frozen for up to eight weeks.

Whenever you’re freezing liquids, be sure to leave some head space at the top of your jar or container, as liquids do expand as they freeze.

You can defrost the honey mustard overnight in the fridge before enjoying it.

As my fall schedule picks up a little, I’m looking forward to many sandwich lunches for something simple and filling during the work day.

I’m so glad that I rediscovered this vegan honey mustard in time to give those meals some zest. I hope that you’ll love it, too!

xo

The post Creamy Vegan “Honey” Mustard (Date-Sweetened) appeared first on The Full Helping.