Recipes XXII: Cashew Cream Sauce

One thing holding me back from fully giving up dairy is cheese. Oh delicious morphine, pus, antibiotic and hormone rich -cheese! Sounds delicious right? That's when I met Cashews. I have hated cashews plain by themselves. But when blended up right with herbs and nooch, they morph into a glorious sauce you want to get inside. These nuts can make a sauce for your pasta you can feel good about indulging in, instead of guilty!

Cashew Sauce (adapted from Vegweb.com)

1/2 cup raw cashews
3 tbsp -1/3 cup of nutritional yeast
1.5 tsp pink salt
Dash of pepper
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 squirt of lemon juice
1 cup of water from boiled pasta (contains starch)

For Alfredo: Less nutritional yeast, garlic
For macaroni and cheese: more nutritional yeast, thyme, parsley
For thin cream sauce (ie: salad dressing): more pasta water
For sweeten condensed milk: less water, add sugar, a bit of corn starch and vanilla extract in place of herbs and salt

Blend the nuts into a fine powder. Add herbs, lemon juice, oil and yeast and blend until uniform. Pour in water and salt. Blend until thickens. Adjust as needed for thickness and desired dish.

Recipes XXI: Tofu Yogurt

Does dairy have your gut in a bunch? Too much mucus muck? I know the feeling. To ease my lenten vegan challenge, I'm introducing vegan foods into my diet. I have been fighting to make non-dairy yogurt. Its freaking tough. I follow recipes and end up with a great big pile of fail. I believe I've found something that works. Sorry in advance if you're not on the soy train; this one is not for you.

Tofu Yogurt

1 high powered blender
1 banana
2 tubs of silken organic tofu (ie: nasoya)
half pint organic strawberries
7 vegetarian probiotic tablets
4 oz of non dairy sweetened milk
1/3 cup raw sugar
vanilla extract
Jam(if desired)

In the blender, add: tofu, fruit, sugar, and extract. Blend well until smooth. Pound the probiotic tablets into a fine dust. Microwave the 4 oz of sweeten non dairy milk until temperature reaches 115 degrees F. Dissolve the probiotic dust to the warmed milk. Then pour it into the blender and blend again. Blam-o! Yogurt with probiotics.