Dragonfly's Bulk, Dry Uncheese Mix
3 cups raw, organic cashew pieces
2 cups nutritional yeast (I like Red Star or Vegetarian Support)
3 tablespoons seasoning salt
3 tablespoons garlic powder (not garlic salt)
3 tablespoons onion powder (not onion salt)
8 tablespoons arrowroot powder (can use cornstarch, but it is not stringy like arrowroot)
1. Using a very dry blender, blend the nuts until they are very fine.
2. Add all ingredients, and blend in batches of about 1 cup.
3. Mix in a dry container.
4. To make sauce, add heaping 1/2 cup mix to 1 cup water, and stir over heat until thickened.
Use less water and add salsa for queso dip. Pour over hot veggies and/or pasta. Spread on vegan bread and toast for grilled uncheeses, or look up my enchilada recipe and use it that way.
You can keep this tightly covered in the fridge for about 6 weeks.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
can i make this without yeast? i dont have any right now...
Be warned, this stuff is addicting! My husband & I love it! I took the advice of a member of the vegweb Q&A board & grind my cashews in a spice grinder. It's small, so it takes more time, but the results are worth it -- perfectly creamy sauce! ;D
I worked out the nutrition facts for my version of this, and it came out to 12 half cup servings (one cup yield), each having about 210 calories.(All coming from healthy fats and a nice helping of yeast and nut protein.) This will come out totally different for you, because I messed with a lot of the ingredients, but here's how I did it: I figured out the recipe's yield by measuring the whole mess after I mixed it up. After I figured out the total yield, then it was just adding all the calories from the ingredients (one cup of cashews = 640 calories, times 3, = 1920, ect.) and dividing by 12. This really doesn't help you much, if any. But the good news is, all my volumes stayed the same, even if I did screw with the ingredients, so therefore, you should still come up with about 12 servings.
This is one of my favorite recipes, You can always find a stash of it in my cabinet. I was wondering if anyone has the nutrition facts for this recipe. I am trying to count calories...Does anyone know of a website that will convert recipes into nutrition facts? Thanks Joni
I have not yet tried this but I'm looking forward to it after all the great reviews. I just wanted to mention that 8 tablespoons is equal to half a cup. Maybe that'll save you some measuring....
If your sauce didn't thicken up, did you use enough arrowroot? I don't know for certain, but I think arrowroot can "grow tired" like baking powder and yeast can. You could blend in some extra cornstarch too, and that would help. If you have tried both of these things, try adding more of the mix to the water. A heaping 1/2 cup works the best to just 1 cup of water and whisk the devil out of it!
I tried this recipe last night, but I must have done something wrong because it didn't really thicken up. I used 1/2 cup of mix to 1 cup of water but it was really thin, more like alfredo sauce than something that you could use in enchiladas. I hope someone can tell me what I did wrong. Even though I screwed it up it still tasted great though. I can't wait to try it again.
Dragonfly, you're amazing! :P I actually just picked up all the original ingredients so that I could do this again without screwing with it so much. (Right down to buying Arrowroot at the health food store... apparently, it's hard to come by around here. I used cornstarch the first time.) It may be saying something that I've used almost this entire recipe (I measured it all out after I made it, and came up with enough dry mix to make 12 cups of cheese sauce); I'm the only one eating this stuff, and I usually only use a quarter cup of it at a time, so that means I've used this nearly 24 times in the last... month-ish...
I am glad you all like it! I found it so simple to make, to keep and to use, I just had to share it with all of you. I love all the comments and I am going to be experimenting with other types of nuts as well. I will freely admit being terribly addicted to this. When I am desperate, I toast a whole grain corn tortilla and spread leftover uncheese and salsa on it for a quickly quasi-dilla. It is lovely in 7-layer bean dip with guacamole. I love it stirred into chili beans for uncheesy bean dip. If you thought that potatoes au gratin were a thing of the past, you'd be wrong, I have used this. NOTHING beats it on pasta though. As someone said, they add some red peppers to it make it more orange and I do this too. I have rethought every inedible cheese dish I loved and missed (I am also lactose intolerant and veganism grew from that) and remade it with this. Oh oh! Whole grain bread, spread with thick sauce, sliced onions, mushrooms and Roma tomato, more cheesed sliced bread on top, using Earth Balance to toast them...grilled uncheese!
This was delicious. Had it on nachos tonight and I can foresee using it in many other ways. Thanks Dragonfly!!!
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