Cashew Cream Sauce Times Three: The Basic – The Cheese Lover – The Spicy Mexican

When you look at my recipes, you will find many variations of cashew sauces and creams. Well, that’s because cashews are so versatile and don’t have a distinctive or overpowering taste of their own, and you can’t beat their creaminess with any other kind of nut – none that I know of at least. To me, they are like a blank canvas that I enjoy to play with! This is also the reason why I added the basic sauce. Play around with it, use it to cream your favorite sauces, make it savory, or make it sweet, and come up with your own recipe!

You will need:

• a high speed blender

Ingredients:

For the basic:

• 1 cup (135 g) raw unsalted cashews, soaked overnight or for a couple of hours
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup (120 – 180 ml) filtered water

For the cheese lover:

• 1 cup (135 g) raw unsalted cashews, soaked overnight or for a couple of hours
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup (120 -180 ml) filtered water
• 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 small clove garlic, peeled
• 1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 2 tsp miso paste (I used brown rice miso paste/gluten free)

For the spicy Mexican:

• 1 cup (135 g) raw unsalted cashews, soaked overnight or for a couple hours
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup (120 -180 ml) filtered water
• 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 small clove garlic, peeled
• 1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 2 tsp miso paste (I used brown rice miso paste/gluten free)
• 1/2 – 1 tsp crushed red pepper (depending on how spicy you want it)
• 1/2 tsp ground paprika
• 1/2 tsp Mexican seasoning

Preparation:

Drain and rinse the cashews. Put all the ingredients for either one sauce into your high speed blender. Begin with the least amount of water and increase to achieve your preferred consistency. As always, start your blender slow and speed it up to high. Blend for about 3 minutes until steamy and hot! That’s it!

Notes:

• The amount of water highly depends on what you want to do with the sauce. If you need it as a dip, definitely use less water. If you use it in company of veggies and/or pasta you might need more. You’ll see as you go!
• As I already mentioned, the basic sauce is fantastic to create the creamed versions of your favorite sauces, maybe even mellow down the acidity of the store-bought ones (pssst……I never said that!). You can even make it vanilla sauce by adding vanilla extract and maple syrup. You’ve got all the possibilities!
• You can use the Mexican sauce as a wonderful dip or pour it over your quesadillas, enchiladas, anything Mexican!
• The cheese lover sauce is fantastic on pizza, in Mac N’ Cheese, with steamed veggies, and you can use it as a dip as well.
• Make any sauce your own by adding all the herbs and spices you like!
• Have fun with it! I know you get hooked once you get started!