Cashew cream is a pantry staple for plant based eating. Use is in place of mayonnaise or as a base for sauces or dressings. A few chopped fresh herbs can add brightness to a sandwich or salad.
I will admit that one of the things I miss eating plant based is some of my favorite dairy. I often used yogurt as a base for a quick dressing, and I love the complimentary tang of cool sour cream to a spicy taco. Cashew cream is a staple in the plant based world and is very versatile and useful. It has a fairly neutral flavor which accepts a lot of different flavors nicely. I am forever working with this as a base, and as new concoctions become worthy, I promise I will share them with you.
I recently worked on a cashew sour cream- which is pretty dang fabulous, so keep an eye out for that in an upcoming post. I am thrilled to have some tangy sour back in the repertoire.
In the meantime use this as you would mayonnaise. It’s great added on a sandwich, or as a base for a salad dressing. Most recipes call for soaking for hours or overnight. I seriously do not have time for that, or more truthfully, I can never remember to do such things. For this recipe I boiled the water and let the nuts soak for 5 minutes. It worked like a charm. Now that’s more my speed. Idea to table in 10 minutes. Boom.
One other side note: Having a good blender really makes the difference here. I have 3 blenders (no, not all in the same place), and I tried this recipe in all three. My cheapo blender does not do the trick. It mostly splashed everything around and didn’t settle down into a cream. If you’re having this problem I suggest doing the bulk of the hard work either in a lesser blender, or even a food processor, and then transferring the cream to a smaller container and using a hand blender to finish it off. After that you might be like me and start researching which super blender to buy and how to finance it. I hate to spend money I don’t need to, but good tools matter.
Store the cream in the fridge. It will keep for up to 2 weeks- that is if it lasts that long.
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1/2 cup plant milk, unsweetened
- 1 tablespoon olive oil*
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon agave
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Bring a few cups of water to the boil in a saucepan and add the cashews. Turn off the heat and let the nuts soak for 5 minutes.
- Remove the nuts from the water and put into a blender along with the oil*, vinegar, agave, garlic powder and salt.
- Blend until very smooth and creamy. This can take a few minutes, like 3-4, so relax and let the magic happen.
- Store the cream in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
*for those limiting oils you may omit the olive oil with no harm to the recipe.