The Best Keto Cheese Sauce
Martina Slajerova- Ready in 10m
- 1.3 g net carbs
- 203 kcal
- Serves 4
This post may contain affiliate links, see our disclaimer.
Game changer guys! This creamy grain-free cheese sauce is the real deal. It's so versatile and delicious with steak or poured over steamed low-carb vegetables.
It's really easy to make low-carb cheese sauce that is thick and creamy. No thickeners and no flour needed! You will only need heavy whipping cream, butter, shredded cheese, cream cheese, salt and pepper. And if the sauce is too thick, I just add a dash of water.
How To Make Keto Cheese Sauce
It will take just five minutes to make this low-carb cheese sauce from scratch. You'll start by heating up the cream with butter and then add shredded cheese and cream cheese. Bring to a boil and cook briefly until it thickens. That's it! Cheese sauce made with these four simple ingredients, without any spices or herbs, is also carnivore approved.
Creamy Cheese Sauce Variations
I kept my cheese sauce plain but you can use any of your favourite herbs and spices. Here are some of the optional seasonings you can use:
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 - 1 tsp mustard powder
- 2-4 tbsp freshly chopped herbs of choice (basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, mint or chives)
Which Cheese is Best to Use for Cheese Sauce?
To make grain-free cheese sauce, you'll need two types of cheese; soft cheese and hard cheese. For the soft cheese you can use full-fat cream cheese for plain flavor, or use fresh goat's cheese or sheep's cheese for a stronger flavor.
For the hard cheese you can use cheddar, hard goat's cheese, Manchego, Gouda, Emmental, Edam, Swiss cheese such as Gruyere, Parmesan or Pecorino Romano.
Strong tasting types of cheese such as Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Brie or Camembert are best combined with plain full-fat cream cheese.
I find that the best way to combine different types cheese is to always use one mild, neutral tasting cheese and one strong tasting cheese. Here are some of my favorite combinations:
- cream cheese + hard goat's cheese
- cream cheese + Swiss cheese
- soft sheep's cheese + Pecorino Romano (plus goat's cream if you can't have cow's milk)
- soft goat's cheese + Parmesan
- cream cheese + blue cheese such as French roquefort, English stilton, Italian gorgonzola, and Spanish cabrales.
How Long Can I Store Cheese Sauce?
This sauce is best eaten immediately or kept at room temperature before serving. Alternatively, you can let it cool down to room temperature, and then store in the fridge in a sealed jar for up to 5 days. Finally, this recipe is easy to scale up or down, so if you can't use the whole recipe, you can always make one serving at a time.
How To Prevent Cheese Sauce from Splitting
Reheating cheese sauce can sometimes cause it to split, but with a few simple tricks, you can keep the cheese sauce smooth and creamy and prevent it from clumping up.
One effective method is to add a small amount of arrowroot powder. Mix a teaspoon of arrowroot powder with a little cold milk to create a slurry, then stir it into your cheese sauce while cooking. This helps stabilize the sauce and prevents splitting when reheated.
Another crucial tip is to reheat the sauce gently over low heat, stirring constantly. This slow approach avoids overheating, which can cause the fats to separate. By warming your cheese sauce gently, you ensure it remains perfectly creamy.
How to Serve Cheese Sauce
This keto cheese sauce is so versatile! It can be drizzled over steamed or roasted vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower or zucchini. Use it to make this Low-Carb Broccoli Cheese Gratin which can be served as a side or vegetarian keto lunch or dinner. You can also serve it with some fish and veggies - try this Crispy Cod with Broccoli & Keto Cheese Sauce.
I used this cheese sauce to make Low-Carb Cauliflower Cheese and The Best Keto Mac And Cheese, both a keto alternative to traditional Mac and Cheese. Finally, this gluten-free cheese sauce is perfect to serve with steak, pork chops, lamb chops, roast chicken and baked salmon. The options are endless!
Step-by-step
Place the cream and butter into a small sauce pan and gently heat up. Add the grated cheddar cheese (or any hard cheese of choice) and cream cheese.
Stir until melted and bring to a simmer. Once you see bubbles, take off the heat.
Mix until smooth and creamy. If you prefer a thicker sauce, cook for 3-5 more minutes while stirring. If too thick, add a splash of water or cream.
Serve immediately with steamed vegetables, fish and meat. The cooled sauce can also be stored in the fridge in a sealed jar for up to 5 days.
Recipe
The Best Keto Cheese Sauce
★★★★★4.9This creamy grain-free cheese sauce is the real deal! It's so versatile and delicious with steak or poured ...
- Hands on
- 10m
- Overall
- 10m
- Servings
- 4
- 1.3 g
- Net carbs
- 4.8 g
- Protein
- 20.7 g
- Fat
- 203
- kcal
Ingredients makes about 1 cup, 4 servings
Instructions
Place the cream and butter into a small sauce pan and gently heat up. Add the grated cheddar cheese (or any hard cheese of choice) and cream cheese.
Stir until melted and bring to a simmer. Once you see bubbles, take off the heat.
Mix until smooth and creamy. If you prefer a thicker sauce, cook for 3-5 more minutes while stirring. If too thick, add a splash of water or cream.
Serve immediately with steamed vegetables, fish and meat. The cooled sauce can also be stored in the fridge in a sealed jar for up to 5 days.
Nutrition per serving, about ¼ cup/ 60 ml
Carbs 3%Protein 9%Fat 88% of calories
- Net carbs
- 1.3 g
- Total carbs
- 1.4 g
- Fiber
- 0 g
- Sugars
- 0.9 g
- Protein
- 4.8 g
- Fat
- 20.7 g
- Saturated fat
- 12.7 g
- Calories
- 203 kcal
- Sodium
- 149 mg · 6.48% RDA
- Magnesium
- 6 mg · 1.55% RDA
- Potassium
- 41 mg · 2.06% EMR
Nutrition by ingredient
| Per about 1/4 cup/ 60 ml | Net carbs | Protein | Fat | kcal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cream, heavy whipping, pouring, full-fat (30-40% fat) | 0.4 g | 0.3 g | 5.7 g | 55 |
| Butter, unsalted, grass-fed | 0 g | 0.1 g | 5.8 g | 51 |
| Cream cheese, soft (full-fat) | 0.5 g | 1.1 g | 4.2 g | 37 |
| Cheddar cheese | 0.5 g | 3.4 g | 5 g | 61 |
| Water, still | 0 g | 0 g | 0 g | 0 |
| Total | 1.3 g | 4.8 g | 20.7 g | 203 |
Serving size about 1/4 cup/ 60 ml
- Gluten free
- Egg free
- Nut free
- Nightshade free
- Pork free
- Avocado free
- Coconut free
- Fish free
- Shellfish free
- Beef free
- Pescatarian
- Vegetarian
You may also like
The Best Keto Gravy
Low-Carb Alfredo Sauce
Low-Carb Curry Simmer Sauce
Keto Blue Cheese Sauce
Easy Hollandaise Sauce
Fluffy Scrambled Eggs with Cottage Cheese
Quick & Easy Pickled Onions
The Best Way To Cook Zucchini Noodles
Gut-Healing Fermented Carrots
Creamy Cauliflower Mash
How to Make Keto Condensed Milk
Silky Smooth Keto Buttercream Frosting 4 Ways
Make-Ahead Cheesy Sausage Liver Meatballs
How To Make Chicken Stock and Bone Broth
Crispy Air Fryer Garlic Chicken
Mackerel Pate with Horseradish
Comments & ratings (185)
My absolute favourite recipe will never use any other cheese sauce recipe again.
Thank you for your kind words! 😊
The butter was totally superfluous and made the whole dish really greasy!
Hi Caroline, sorry it didn’t work as expected. The butter isn’t essential, but it does add flavor and helps create a richer sauce. It shouldn’t make the sauce greasy unless the sauce separates, which can happen if it’s heated too much, cooked too long, or made with a cheese that releases more fat.
You can absolutely reduce the butter or skip it if you prefer, but I’d also recommend keeping the heat low and removing the sauce from the heat as soon as it starts to bubble.
I’m pretty sure I can make this a Meal-in-a-Jar shelf stable mix! This a nice, quick and easy recipe with minimal “special” ingredients. Once again, Martina, you have done a wonderful job and given your readers a great recipe!
Thank you!
Thank you! ❤️ That is a great idea, let me know if you try it!
The Best Keto Cheese Sauce is THE BEST! I made it with the crispy Cod recipe and broccoli, and the star is this sauce, and my wife loved it. I doubled the portion to do the servings for two justice! It was all gone at the end of the meal.
Thank you so much, Mark, glad you liked it! 😊
Hi Martina, Martina here from NZ.
Brand new to keto/carni, we were about to serve up corned beef for dinner and it occurred to me I couldn't use any of the usual condiments or cheese sauce.
Did an urgent Google search and came across this recipe. With less than 5 mins, I had a quick crack at it. LoL
Didn't have cream so used a splash of milk (no time for measuring or thinking) and butter, in a microwave dish (I know you already know what happened), heated that, added dollop of cream cheese and some hastily grated cheddar, back in the microwave LoL
So I ended up with very liquid lumpy split cheesie concoction. Quickly added some flavour-less powdered fibre to thicken.
Looked like shite, but actually tasted great.
I'll be doing this again, but with lessons learnt.
Has anyone else tried it with milk rather than cream?
Oh no, I know exactly what that looked like - happened to me too! 😊 I haven't tried using milk but would let others comment if they did. I'm glad it tasted great though!
We are carnivore and I was looking for something tasty we could do. I used what I had. Heavy whipping cream, goat cheese, shredded parmesean, hard Swiss and a bit of the dri3d parmesean. Oh and butter. Turned out amazing!! I poured over freshly air fried chicken thighs. Hubby Approved!
Thanks. It's so easy and good 👍
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed! 😊
Hi, just found this recipe and it sounds heavenly. I was wondering if this could be use for lasagne as I really miss the white sauce and don't like the version made with ricotta
Thanks
Angela
Yes, you could definitely use this sauce in pasta dishes! I made a low-carb version of Mac & Cheese with this sauce and it was amazing (The Best Keto Mac And Cheese).
This was a great sauce. The best I ever made. I poured it over steamed broccoli. I used cream cheese and cheddar cheese.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed!
Hands down THE BEST cheese sauce imaginable. What a way to spruce up Cauliflower rice!!!
very good cheese sauce. My children usually don't eat cauliflower. I put sauce on it and they said that it tasted like macaroni and cheese. They really enjoyed the sauce. I use cream cheese and gouda.
This sauce really is the bomb. Get creative and mix different cheeses together. I never really liked riced cauliflower until I blended it with this sauce.
Hi, the first time I made this sauce I over-heated it terribly and it became a solid chunk - which was ok, but obviously, not a great result!
Had a second attempt and OMG!! It's absolutely top notch!
I made 4 times the amount because of expediency and lack of time to always make a batch as needed...
How long will this keep in the fridge - ? Quite some time I would imagine... but if you could give me a 'ballpark figure... Bearing in mind I'll probably put it on EVERYTHING - from Abalone to Zander, so it's probably going to be all gone before I know it!!
Glad it worked the second time! I think this should keep fresh in the fridge for about a week but mine never lasts more than 2 days 😊 It's also better fresh as reheated sometimes splits unless heated up gently.
This is the best cheese sauce ever!! I use it for cauliflower cheese for Sunday roast and always get comments on how delicious it is, and never any left over, often get asked to share the recipe too. It is so much nicer then non Keto cheese sauce and you can use it for many other dishes. It is so simple to make. Thank you 😊
Thank you so much! I must have made variations with at least 6 types of cheese so far. Really versatile 😊
I love your recipes. Thank you
This cheese sauce was FANTASTIC!!! Even my picky hubby LOVED IT!! I used a blend of medium cheddar, fancy super sharp white cheddar, a just a little bit of ghost pepper cheese. DAMN!!! This recipe link is now added to my homescreen doni van quickly find it! Thank you for the awesome recipe. Way better than regular cheese sauce.
Thank you so much for your lovely feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed! 😊
I was happily surprised by just how delicious this sauce is and it takes less than ten minutes to put it together! I had it on edamame pasta with green beans and I must say it was soo.. delicious, I didn't miss the regular pasta at all. Thank you, Martina 😊
That sounds delicious Archie, I'm glad you enjoyed! 😊
OMG! I made this sauce & mixed it with leftover roasted cauliflower in a bowl. Then poured it into a casserole dish & baked for 30 minutes on 325. For the hard cheese I used half preshedded mozzarella & half cheddar. Then I put some cheddar on top before baking. Didn’t add any spices because the cauliflower was already seasoned. Absolutely delicious! This will be my go to sauce from now on. THANK YOU!!!
Thank you so much Liz, that sounds absolutely delicious!
This was amazing! Used it on too of my low car pasta from Great Low Carb Bread Co. made the best guilt free Mac and cheese. 🙂
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed!
Absolutely gorgeous.
Thank you for the recipe, I didn't change a thing and it was absolutely perfect, the best cheese sauce we've ever eaten. 😍
5* from me.
Thank you Wayne, I'm glad you enjoyed!!
I love this cheese sauce and so does my family. Thank you, Martina! 😘
Thank you Robyn, glad you enjoyed!