This wonderful recipe for vegan caramel sauce was shared with us many years ago by the Vegan Chef, Beverly Lynn Bennett. It’s not only dairy-free, but also tree nut-free, soy-free, coconut-free, and optionally refined sugar-free!
Beverly has authored numerous vegan cookbooks, including her more recent titles: Almond Flour, Spiralize!, The Pure Power of Maca, and Chia. To celebrate Beverly’s cookbook success, Leah made and photographed Beverly’s vegan caramel sauce recipe. Leah tested it with coconut sugar and it was a delicious success, so we’ve added that sweetener option to the recipe.
For the most part, this recipe uses easy-to-find ingredients. But if you have trouble locating arrowroot starch, non-GMO cornstarch can be substituted.
Special Diet Notes: Vegan Caramel Sauce
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, nut-free, peanut-free, optionally soy-free, vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian.
- ¾ cup plain dairy-free milk beverage (soy, rice, etc - your choice)
- ¾ cup evaporated cane juice (Sucanat) or cane sugar (can sub coconut sugar, or organic brown sugar)
- ⅓ cup maple syrup or brown rice syrup
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch
- 2 tablespoons dairy-free margarine or buttery spread
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Place the milk beverage and sweeteners in a small saucepan, and whisk well to combine. Cook over medium heat, while whisking occasionally, for 3 minutes.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the water and arrowroot, and then whisk the mixture into the saucepan.
- Cook the mixture, while whisking constantly, an additional 2 to 3 minutes or until it thickens.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the remaining ingredients.
- Serve warm as a topping for cakes, desserts, non-dairy ice cream or sorbet, or as a dipping sauce for fruit. Store in an airtight container, in the refrigerator, and reheat as needed.

11 Comments
What brand of arrowroot starch did you use? I plan to order some but we’ve never had it before.
I couldn’t tell you for sure – we’ve never been brand specific with starch. Probably the cheapest brand 🙂
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Hi….. I have a problem with dairy and was looking for recipes to try…..I came across a few of yours. Some I have yet to try but I have tried the caramel sauce and wanted to send you a big thank you, it’s so lovely to have caramel back in my diet and useful to have in my fridge.
THANK YOU SO MUCH ??
That’s wonderful! Sorry for my delay Sarah – your feedback is truly appreciated 🙂
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This looks awesome, and I love the pretty little jar label!
Isn’t it cute?! That’s all Leah.
Thank You, Thank You for the dairy and soy free recipes for pumpkin pie and for caramel sauce (Caramel Apples for Halloween). You have helped me so much!! Can’t wait to try them.
Virginia