Last Tuesday we went over to Rob's for dinner. I brought sweet potato enchiladas with cashew cheese in them. I had never made the "cheese" before, so I was a little nervous, but it was for naught.
I didn't use an actual recipe and it can definitely be improved upon, but I think it was ridiculously fantastic for something I basically just made up and threw together.
The most important ingredient is raw cashews (sorry it's blurry, I need a real camera). They aren't cheap, but you can buy them in bulk.
Throw them in a blender and add:
- a generous amount of nutritional yeast
- nut milk
-salt
-green chilis
Blend until it's the consistency of thick hummus.
That's it. I'm going to experiment with ingredients like white vinegar, olive oil, silken tofu and other spices. I'm hoping to make a few viable varieties.
Ian, a big fan of dairy cheese, is all over this stuff. I think it would be rad on a grilled sandwich with tomatoes or thinned and put over wheat pasta. Let me know if you try it out.
that sounds delicious. What nut milk did you use? I will have to try it, I have never made it though I do have a recipe I saved, but your version sounds really worth trying. Did you soak the cashews first. I think I will try doing that. You can soak them overnight or just for 15 minutes in hot water. How did the other cheese lovers like it? Good job! I get stuck in a rut with the things I tend to fix, Mexican sort of eludes me. Could you post the recipe for the Enchiladas? I would love to try them
ReplyDeleteMmm, sounds good.
ReplyDeleteIIRC, Costco sells big jars of cashews a lot cheaper than say Trader Joe's, but you do have to get like a few pounds. Also, you can always buy cashew butter at yet another markup. I believe cashews have the highest fat content among nuts, but not the highest omega-3, which I think is either walnuts or pecans.
One thing that I've been meaning to make is sunflower seed torte. I'm motivated in this by the low price of sunflower seeds and their good nutritional value. I don't have a recipe, but I would grind them up in a coffee/spice grinder, add a little flour, sweetener, and something to bind them, then bake. Anyone tried doing something like that?
BTW, a spice/coffee grinder, like $12 at your local crapmart, works well to grind up nuts without having to add liquid as you must in a blender. (But you have to do smaller batches.) I guess a real food processor might be even better -- never tried.
Peter, the Ninja blender/food processor works really well for making nut butters. Not as well as the Vita Mix, but comes damn close considering it is about $70 bucks compared to $500. I did however splurge and buy a vita mix, i love it so!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info about the Ninja -- good to know it will work.
ReplyDeleteI currently have big and small cuisinarts that would probably also work well. I was just thinking of what Casey & Ian might have available. Anyway, for us with currently 2 blenders, 2 food processors, 3 coffeee grinders, 2 hand blenders, and a partridge in a pear tree, I don't think I'm going to go out and get yet another blender/processor. At least not if I want to stay married.