Monday, October 30, 2006

Savory Cashew Cream Sauce

I must give credit where creidt is due. And this recipe is an adaptation of a recipe in the new book The Nut Gourmet by Zel Allen. The book is filled with nut recipes. If you are afraid of eating too much fat, take some comfort knowing that although nuts are high in fats, they contain all-natural fat and antioxidants. Since nuts are rich, they fill you up and then it's less likely that you will overeat. If you eat the sauce with lots of veggies, you are doing something that is good for you.

Enjoy this sauce over grains, veggies, beans and more. It freezes well and can be flavored in an almsot endless number of ways by varying the herbs and/or spices that you add -- curry poweder, smoked paprika, Italian herbs and more.

Savory Wine Cashew Cream Sauce
Makes about 2 cups
If you don't want to add wine, increase the amount of water or soy milk.
½ cup finely ground cashews
½ cup soy milk
1 cup water
4 tablespoons nutritional yeast
½ teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
½ cup white wine

Grind the cashews in a coffee grinder until they are powdered.
Combine the soy milk, water and nutritional yeast in a saucepan over medium
high heat. Bring to a boil, being careful not to let it boil over. Add the salt and
pepper. Whisk in the ground cashews. Continue whisking for a minute, until the
mixture thickens. Stir in the wine. Taste and adjust seasonings. If the mixture
seems too thick, add water, wine or more soy milk.

5 comments:

Deborah Trujillo Carpenter said...

I'm sure this recipe is delicious, however soy products are not real food, and are in fact harmful to human beings. The cashews give all the creaminess one could possibly desire, and may be creamed in the blender (without grinding first) with the other ingredients and then gently heated to retain the most nutrients.

Jen-Jen said...

I can't have soy milk myself as I'm sensitive to soy (too many years of tofu/tempeh burgers). Thanks for the tip!

Michael Lagace said...

In response to Deborah's comment, soy products are not harmful to human beings. Soy comes from a bean, and beans - like any legume - are perfectly fine for our consumption. There has been a great deal of anti-soy information spreading in the last few years, but it is unsubstantiated. The fact is that as long as you don't make it the foundation of your diet - just like absolutely any food - there are no detrimental effects. For more information, check out the Food for Thought podcast episode "Soy is Not Evil" for more information. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VegetarianFoodForThought/~3/Y3E4Jp_YswI/soy_not_evil.mp3

Michael Lagace said...

My apologies, the previous link did not work.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VegetarianFoodForThought/~3/Y3E4Jp_YswI/soy_not_evil.mp3

Deborah said...

With all due respect to Mr. Legace, all beans are "not perfectly fine for consumption".

The Chinese, to whom the soy plant is sacred for its nitrogen fixing properties, never ate soy until they discovered how to ferment it to make it somewhat digestible (as in miso, tempeh, and soy sauce). Soy milk and tofu are very recent additions to the Chinese food supply (historically speaking; theirs is a long history). In China, tofu is traditionally used as a condiment, not as a protein staple. Soy milk is very mucous forming, much like cow's milk. Mucous is a contributor to sinus headaches as well as a host of other ills.

Beans are very difficult to digest until sprouted or fermented or cooked with other ingredients such as cumin and kelp. Some beans, such as favas, can be deadly to those with a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (an inherited condition), and harmful to young children as their digestive and immune sytems are not fully developed.