— Mel Dorling

So there's quite a number of things you can do to get those creamy sauces, and I'm assuming you're trying to keep it plant-based. Sometimes beans can make it a little bit earthy. I get that. So usually when I am using beans, I'm going to use cannellini beans because they have less earthiness, basically, to them, which is kind of nice. But if you're trying to avoid beans completely and you're trying to avoid the nuts, there are a couple that I would recommend. One of them, if you're keeping on that same kind of theme, hemp hearts are actually one that work really well. You definitely need a high-powered blender to kind of blend them down. And I've done them raw before like that, it was nice. You do want to get them hulled, though, so they have no skin on the outside, just so they process down really well. But mixing those with a little bit of water and then your other ingredients for your creamy sauce, like a nutritional yeast or garlic powder or stuff like that, would totally work for that. The kind of go-to that I would typically recommend, though, is tofu. And I would try a silken tofu, which is great. Still in the bean category, but doesn't have the earthiness flavor to that, especially if you add the other things. A little bit of lemon in there too, kind of add a little nice hint of freshness to it and a little bit of acid to it. But yeah, so I would probably recommend one of those two, either the hemp hearts or going with a silken tofu to be able to blend up, to be able to get a nice creamy sauce. For the tofu, I might want to cook it down a little bit, depending on how much liquid you're getting into it, or go for a very light tofu, like one that's just definitely not firm. But silken probably would work best for it.