Raw Vegan Cashew Cream Recipe

This recipe for our raw vegan cashew cream was inspired by visits to raw food restaurants like Rasayana Retreat in Bangkok and Alchemy in Bali where we were amazed by the tastiness of the food and clever things they did with raw, plant-based ingredients, especially nuts…We get to eat in so many different places whilst travelling around on our Vegan Food Quest and we can’t help but be inspired by some of the food we eat, people we meet and places we go.

It’s amazing what you can create with cashew nuts

As soon as we were somewhere that we could get into a kitchen and create things (oh how we miss our kitchen when travelling) we set about making our own raw vegan cashew cream which is easy peasy to make and tastes like heaven (if we do say so ourselves).

It’s so versatile too, this recipe is for a savoury cream that can be used as a dressing on salads or as a sour cream replacement, or even as a creamy sauce with vegetables (like spinach) or pasta.

Add it to a salad with some almond parmasan and tempeh and you have your very own vegan Caesar salad

Cool down your spicy chilli with cashew cream

Add to sautéed spinach for a creamy side dish

And did we mention it’s healthy too? Cashews have a lower fat content than most other nuts and they contain heart-healthy (good) mono-unsaturated fat. Plus they contain nutrients like copper (helps us to make use of iron among other things) and magnesium (good for our bones and helps with our nerve and muscle tone).

You will need a blender for this recipe but if you don’t have one then its probably a good excuse to go out and buy one so you can make yourself delicious smoothies too…

Ingredients:

Makes 4 servings for a salad dressing and can be kept in the fridge for a few days (if it lasts that long without being eaten).

Really simple ingredients

• 1/4 cup of cashew nuts (soaked in 1 cup of water for at least 4 hours)
• 1 clove of fresh garlic (use 1/2 if you don’t like too much garlic)
• Zest of 1/4 lemon
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 dessert spoon of nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup of water
• Big pinch of salt and a generous amount of black pepper (adjust to taste).

Method:

Drain cashew nuts.

Put all ingredients in your blender.

Blend until smooth.

Yes that’s it (we did say it was easy-peasy).

Easy to make, tasty to eat… We love raw cashew cream!

Notes:

Add fresh basil for a creamy basil dressing or experiment with other herbs for different flavours. Adjust the lemon to suit your own tastes and adjust the amount of water to make a thicker or thinner dressing depending on what you fancy. If you have forgotten to soak your cashew nuts you can still go ahead and use them, your cashew cream just might not be as smooth as when you use soaked nuts (but sometimes this actually makes a nice change).

Happy vegan eating!