VMM 11 – Time to go All In?

As I mentioned yesterday due to health reasons I’ve decided to try and eat vegan and unprocessed for the remainder of July.

My go to meal this last week has been simple – throw a cup of rice, 2 cups water, and a bag of southwest frozen vegetables in the rice cooker, wrap some in a small tortilla with a little salsa, and ta-da, dinner is served. Easy to make and easy on the stomach, it’s even OK without the salsa though it’s dry.

My goal for this week was to find easy meals so good that I’d crave them.  And I found some!

First I wanted to try making cashew cream sauce as I’ve seen it used as a base for mac and cheese, nachos, and even whipped cream.  The base recipe is this easy:

Cashew Cream Sauce:

  • raw cashews
  • water

Rinse the cashews, soak them overnight, rinse them again.  Put them in a food processor, cover with water to about an inch over the cashews, and blend very, very well.

Done!

Since it’s a base for so many things and freezable I made too much and froze some in mason jars to be used later.  After all, easy as it is to make it’s even easier to pull it out of the freezer to defrost.

I’m hoping to try an alfredo sauce with it, I’ll let you know how it works out.

I found a recipe with great reviews to use cashews as a base for a nacho dip, so I made some of that too, modified slightly (I really over bought the cashews…).

Nacho Dip:

  • 2 1/2 cups water
  • 2 cups raw cashews
  • 2 juiced lemons
  • 3/4 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder (heaping)
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder (heaping)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast

Basically you throw everything in the food processors and blend until it’s liquified.  I stopped at this point and stored the liquid half in the fridge and half in the freezer.  I’m guessing if cashew cream freezes well so will this.  We shall see!

At this point it is the consistency of water almost. I still dipped a chip in it and this stuff is amazing tasting!  The end product is definitely more than the parts.

To finish it up it should be heated up for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. As I said I didn’t get this far and I’m already addicted to the taste. If I can have this for my burritos and such vegan just got a whole lot easier!

My other big win came from The Simple Veganista, mashed chickpea salad.  The name does not do it justice at all. I made it and thought well, it’s healthy looking.  Then I tried it on a cracker and wow, delicious.  I had the 13 year old try it, win.

I made a couple modifications as raw veggies are out at the moment.

Chickpea Salad:

  • 1 can garbanzo beans, drained
  • 1/2 cup carrots
  • 1/4 cup scallions
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1/4 cup cashew cream (I just happened to have some in the fridge so…)
  • 2 tablespoons mustard
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • pinch of paprika

Ground up the carrots, scallions, and garlic pretty small in food processor

Pan fried them to soften

Throw everything but the cashew cream in food processor and pulse.  Leave the garbanzos chunky, not smooth like hummus.

Stir in the cashew cream (hummus or vegan mayo was suggested in original recipe)

Eat with crackers or on a sandwich. It’s really, really good on crackers!

lunch

I had some plain on spelt bread. It would be great with lettuce, tomato and onion. Also, it would have made a better picture that way!

Bread Maker Spelt Bread:

  • 1 1/4 cup rice mik
  • 2 Tbls. agave
  • 2 Tbls. coconut oil
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 4 cups spelt flour
  • 2 tsp. ground flax seed
  • 2 1/2 tsp. yeast

Warm the milk slightly, add all ingredients in order to bread machine, and set on basic.

My bread fell somewhere in the final bake cycle, as it always does. It’s still soft, nutty and delicious!