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This vegan hollandaise sauce recipe walks into brunch like it owns the place, because m'dear honey, it kinda does, OK? Made pretty darned effortlessly with just 8 ingredients, your brunch has never looked so sexy.
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Think silky, golden drizzle-worthy perfection that gives tofu Benedict, your vegan omelette, or slices of vegan frittata the red-carpet treatment and turns simple roasted veg into something legit. That lush buttery-slighty-cheesy vibe strikes again like it trained at Le Cordon Bleu but wasn't yelled at too much by Gordon Ramsey that it grew up to be mean to animals.
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🥰Why you'll adore this vegan hollandaise sauce recipe
🚗 Fast Lane to Fancy: Takes under 10 minutes, and NOT. EVEN. A. BLENDER!
🥗 Double Boiler Optional: Warm it gently if you want, but it's deliciously dreamy at room temp too.
✊ Vegan AF and GF: Like all my vegan breakfast recipes, this one's got no animal products or cholesterol. It also fits perfectly into your Rolodex of gluten-free vegan recipes that you keep on speed dial.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all of my vegan sauces, this one has been fine-tuned by a massive team of recipe testers for maximum drizzle and minimal drama.
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What is Hollandaise sauce?
One of the classic French "mother sauces", regular, non-vegan hollandaise is essentially a warm emulsion of fat and acid, stabilized with egg yolk. Traditionally, it's made by whisking melted butter into egg yolks and lemon juice over gentle, controlled heat. The lecithin in the yolks helps keep everything suspended in a smooth, pourable sauce, without turning it into scrambled eggs.
Normally, getting hollandaise right means super-precisely managing temperature, which is kinda a PITA. Too hot and it'll split, too cool and it won't emulsify. Bit of a nightmare? Sure. Most people use a double boiler, but you can also make it with a high-speed blender if needed. Either way, the process is annoyingly sensitive and easy to mess up.
The end result is a thick, velvety sauce with a balance of richness and acidity. Most people season it simply with salt, white pepper, and a pinch of cayenne, but obviously, in this recipe, we are gonna make it a little more extra.
Hollandaise is best known as the sauce on eggs Benedict, but since we aren't barbarians over here who eat the oval shaped babies that birds fart out, let it be known that the sauce works just as well on asparagus, garlicky sautéed greens, or scrambled tofu. It's also the base for a bunch of classic derivative sauces like Béarnaise (with tarragon and shallot reduction), Choron (with tomato purée), and Mousseline (which you can make by folding in vegan whipped cream right before serving).
🫙Vegan hollandaise sauce ingredients
Vegan Mayo
Use my vegan kewpie mayo for the extra umami that it gets from a little miso, but any plain, neutral vegan mayo will lay a solid foundation. I particularly like the original Vegenaise and also the vegan mayo by Hellmann's.
The Plant Milk
Choose oat or soy milk, unsweetened and unflavored, for consistency that thins the sauce without muting its character. Soy milk works especially well here, thanks to its natural lecithin, which helps with emulsifying the sauce.
Vegan Butter
Earth Balance is my go-to when it comes to vegan butter, but if you're on a budget, Trader Joe's makes a solid version that gets the job done for a fraction of the cost. Learn to make your own in my vegan dairy crash course.
Rice Vinegar
Rice vinegar for its crisp, clean acidity brightens the butter, and when it integrates with the nooch, really helps to evoke a kinda dairy-like dimension of flavor. You can also use pickle juice here, but back off the black salt a little since pickle brine brings its own salinity. That brine's the secret trick I use in my vegan cotija recipe, too.
Nooch
Nutritional yeast is the key to funk without eggs or dairy. I use this same trick in tons of vegan egg recipes, like my tofu scramble, vegan quiche, and homemade Just Egg-style recipe, because it gives that unmistakable eggy backbone without any actual eggs.
Black Salt (Kala Namak)
Sprinkle in black salt for that elusive "eggy" flavor-this is your secret handshake to classic hollandaise. Start small; kala namak can take over if you're heavy-handed. I also use it to bring an eggy flavor to my vegan shakshuka and vegan matzo brei.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
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📖 How to make vegan hollandaise sauce
If your brain's chanting "sauce now, photos later." If patience isn't on the menu, scroll to the recipe card for the goods, but if you've got 3 more minutes of willpower, let's cook this thing together.
Step One
We Whisk You A Merry Christmas:
Combine the vegan mayo, plant milk, rice vinegar, nutritional yeast, paprika, and black salt in a medium bowl. Whisk thoroughly until the mixture is smooth and fully incorporated.
Step Two
Butter Call Saul:
Melt the vegan butter in a small saucepan over low heat until completely liquid.
✅ Allow the butter to cool for a few minutes so you aren't mixing it into the mayo while it is still super hot.
Step Three
28 Hollandaise Later:
Slowly drizzle the liquid butter into the bowl while whisking vigorously with a small whisk or the tines of a fork.
Step Four
*Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble:
Use immediately at room temperature or warm gently over a double boiler. Stir regularly for 2-3 minutes until just heated through without separating, and then drizle it all the heck over your bacon cheddar vegan breakfast hash!
*Don't worry. I know the real quote from Shakespeare is "double double" but cut my sweet dad jokes some slack here.
50+ of my own family's fave recipes. Carefully concocted to win over even your most anti-vegan friends.
💡 Serving Suggestions
This sauce is the logical upgrade for you vegan breakfast sandwich, or to drizzle onto slices of shredded potato-crusted vegan breakfast casserole.
A little ramekin giant friggin' bathtub full of it on the side of your vegan breakfast bowl or chipotle-grilled seitan breakfast burrito? What's a matter, do you prefer your food less juicy and glorious or something? Of course the answer is yesssss you want sauce!
👉Top tips
- Use Room-Temp Ingredients: Cold plant milk or mayo can cause the butter to seize up (fats in vegan butter will solidify when they cool). Give your ingredients 10-15 minutes on the counter before starting to make sure everything blends like it should.
- Whisk Continuously While Adding Butter: That's how you get the creamy emulsion without separating. If you stop whisking, the mixture can break, and no one wants a split sauce.
- Don't Overheat: Warming the sauce is optional, but if you do, gentle heat only. High temps will cause the liquids and fats to separate, make the sauce all sucky, and ruin your brunch reputation.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
You can skip it, but you'll miss the eggy flavor. A touch of mustard powder or a tiny bit of asafetida helps add depth if you're in a pinch.
❄️ Refrigerating:
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
🌡️ Thawing:
If it gets too thick in the fridge, whisk in a splash of warm plant milk.
🔥 Stovetop Reheating:
Use a double boiler or warm over very low heat, stirring constantly.
⚡️ Microwave Reheating:
Microwave in short bursts (10-15 seconds), whisking between each until just warm.
Nope. Absolutely not! Freezing will break the emulsion. No matter what you do, even if you sacrifice 1,000 blocks of tofu to a thousand hollandaise gods, you won't be able to save this mess. DON'T. DO. IT.
✌️You'll love these vegan breakfast recipes too:
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Vegan Hollandaise Sauce
Equipment
- Double boiler optional
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan kewpie or other vegan mayonnaise of your preference
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened plant based milk
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon black salt kala namak
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter
Instructions
- Add the vegan mayonnaise, plant-based milk, rice vinegar, nutritional yeast, paprika, and black salt to a bowl and whisk together using a small whisk or the tines of a fork.
- Melt the vegan butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Once the butter is just fully melted, slowly drizzle it into the bowl while whisking continuously to emulsify the mixture.
- Use at room temperature, or place it in a double boiler over low heat for 3-4 minutes until warm.
Notes
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Heather says
This is THE sauce that's been missing from my vegan life!
Tee Hansen says
This isn't your fancy French culinary school hollandaise, and that's exactly why it works! It's accessible, reliable, and tastes like the real deal! Perfect for when you want to feel bougie at brunch but don't want to stress-sweat over sauce consistency! Ahhh-mazing!