Whitney Werner, Certified Holistic Health Coach, featured on Keloland Living, May 19, 2020
One of the most versatile skills to master in your plant-based cooking is incorporating cashews to your dairy-free sauces. Including cashews in your diet is a great way to get some extra protein, calcium, iron, magnesium, and phosphorous. Cashews are also one of the only food sources high in copper – which is great for supporting elastin and collagen in your muscles and bones.
Cashews have a beautiful silky consistency when blended – mimicking the creamy texture we all know and love from dairy creams and cheeses.
The key in a quick cashew sauce is soaking your cashews! Buy raw cashews (pieces are fine), and place in a bowl of water for a few hours, or overnight. Alternatively: you can quick-boil the cashews for 10 minutes, although this method may destroy some of the nutritional benefit to the raw cashews. Soaking your cashews makes them soft and easier to blend into a silky smooth sauce. They are also more easily digested! Important: Do not try to make cashew sauces with roasted cashews – the flavor does not turn out right! It will have a distinctive roasted-nut taste (trust me, I’ve made this mistake! Ha!).
FUN TIP: If a nut-allergy is a concern, RAW SUNFLOWER SEEDS can be used in many if not all of the same ways! Soak in advance, and use in place of cashews. The flavor is still very similar – but the seeds take a little longer to blend.
In this recipe, feel free to play around with spices to your particular liking and preference. I rarely measure exactly when I throw together a sauce or queso. Use it as a springboard to get creative!
¾ cup raw cashews, soaked several hours or overnight
1 ½ cups broth (or unsweetened plant-milk would work)
4 T. nutritional yeast
2 cloves of garlic
1 T. tomato paste
½ tsp red pepper flakes (to taste, add more for spicier!)
½-1 tsp pink salt (to taste, I prefer 1 tsp)
1 T. tapioca flour or cornstarch (add more to yield a thicker, stickier gooey cheese, or omit for thinner consistency)
Hot sauce, optional – to taste
2 T. to ½ cup of salsa (to your taste preference)
Blend all ingredients except the salsa in a high speed blender until smooth and no grit remains. (It may take a few minutes if using a food processor or not a high speed blender.) It will be watery/thin. Transfer to a small spot and heat on medium, stirring constantly. As the mixture thickens, add salsa to taste (I use about ¼ cup). Cheese will thicken very quickly, so do not leave unattended. Adjust spices to your preference, and remove from heat. Serve with tacos, nachos, quesadillas, or just as a dip for veggies or tortilla chips!
Interested in learning more about cooking with cashews? Check out my coaching offerings and individual cooking lessons, where I have a three-part series on making several varieties of cashew sauces and cheeses!
Did you try this recipe? Let me know what you think by dropping a comment below. Happy healthy eating and living, my friends!