Poor Man’s Cashew Cream/Sauce
It’s been a long time since I posted a half-assed recipe.
I first made this years ago, before we had a ton of fake cheeses and I needed to use up half a pack of silken tofu. It came out great and was what won Brian over to the side of vegan pizza so we don’t have to make two. But then all of the vegan cheeses came and we got lazy. Since Isa is being paid off by the cashew lobbyists and cashew cream is everywhere right now, I made it the other night for the first time in a long time so I could pass it along because cashews are expensive and raw cashews can be hard to find, so make those suckers stretch!
One thing to keep in mind is that you kind of need the nooch to cover the silken tofu flavor – I don’t really like the taste of silken tofu so I can’t imagine using this without nooch in it, so if you don’t like nooch or want something that’s just like blended cashews + water only, take a pass. But it makes a great alfredo-y type sauce and is really good on pizza!
3/4-1 c soaked and drained cashews (I was using up leftover soaked cashews and I had slightly over 3/4ths)
1/4th a cup almond milk, or enough to blend the cashews up
1 pack of silken tofu, the shelf stable size
2-3 tablespoons of nooch
salt to taste
optional for you, but always for me: half a ton of black pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder (or more if you want), a couple of shakes of thyme (cumin and red pepper flakes if you want something spicy)
Blend the cashews and the almond milk, then add the rest and blend. Heat in a pot on the stovetop over medium heat stirring so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. I should thicken up in 5-10 minutes. Taste for your desired level of saltiness. Use it how you will. If you use it for pizza, the top will get yellow-ish and dry out a little, but underneath it will be creamy goodness. When I put it on pizza I just use a silicone spatula spoon to plop down blobs and then gently spread it.
The amount made will thickly cover one large pizza with leftover sauce, so i’d say you could easily cover two medium sized pizzas.
This is how it looks on the spatula after it’s cooked, it will still drip but as you can tell, it’s pretty thick:
P.S. If you are like me, in a small town without a bulk bin in sight, raw cashews are probably impossible to find. I order this five pound bag from amazon, it’s a good price and you can freeze them. Or go on a cashew binge, whichever.
