Costco's Plant-Based 'Queso' Dip: What You Need To Know Before You Buy
Plant-based foods seem to be on a roll and taking over the food world. Trader Joe's recently launched its Protein Patties, and now it looks like queso is getting a dairy-free spinoff. According to Delish, Costco has recently rolled out its own plant-based queso dip.
Queso isn't a complex dip, but it's certainly easy to mess up. Remember the great Chipolte queso disaster of 2017 (via CNN)? Costco certainly doesn't want to go down that path, and considering how serious Texans are about their cheesy claim to fame, a plant-based version is a risky move. So just what's in this new queso, and is it a worthy dip for your chip?
It's made with natural ingredients
A block of Velveeta melted down is the easiest way to make queso, but the Costco version made by Good Foods is, of course, cheese-free. Good Foods has managed to make their queso with natural ingredients, and in place of dairy-based cheeses, you'll find cauliflower, almonds, almond butter, red onions, bell peppers, lemon juice, garlic, and chia protein. Some simple seasonings such as sea salt, cayenne pepper, turmeric, and cumin provide the Southwest flavoring.
It's pretty simple, really, and according to The Kitchn, it's the queso's added nutritional yeast that helps to give it the ever-so-important cheesy flavor. Considering that a 24-ounce tub of the stuff is only $7.79, it's not a terrible buy either.
It might not be cheese, but it's still delicious
A warm bowl of melted cheese and bag of tortilla chips is hard to beat, but the plant-based version of queso seems to have risen to the occasion. The consensus seems to be that this gluten-free queso isn't just good, but really good. A taste test for Delish concluded that it not only looked and smelled like the real thing, but was very tasty and left the reviewer wanting to slather it on everything from a baked potato to pasta. Reviews for My Recipes and Taste of Home also gushed about how delicious it was.
Because it's plant-based, you'll need to look for it where you'd find hummus instead of in the same aisle that you'd find tortilla chips. If you're not a member of Costco and simply must try this queso, don't fret — you can snag a smaller container of it at Target for $4.99.