Nacho Cheese with Cashews

(pictured: 1 potato, 3 cups of broccoli, 1 cup nacho sauce with 1/2 avocado and a few pumpkin seeds)

After getting a little over four hours of sleep last night I ran out of steam early this afternoon so that I didn’t get to cross everything off my to-do list. When it was time to make dinner I wanted something fast and easy. This normally means what can I pop in the microwave, which is part of what I made tonight. For dinner tonight we had potatoes topped with broccoli and nacho cheese sauce topped with avocado and pumpkin seeds. Start to finish dinner was ready in about 15 minutes because I used the microwave for both the potatoes and frozen broccoli florets. Here is the sauce I made.

Nacho Cheese with Cashews
Makes a little over 4 cups

Ingredients:

½ cup leek, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
¼ cup water to water sauce the aromatics above
¼ cup nutritional yeast
¼ cup whole-wheat flour
¼ cup raw cashews
1 ¾ cups water
½ tablespoon onion flakes
¼ teaspoon turmeric
dash of cayenne
¼ teaspoon chipotle chili powder
¼ teaspoon cumin seed
14 ounce can diced tomatoes
½ tablespoon hot crushed peppers (wet hots)
kosher salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:

Water sauté the leek and garlic until soft.

Combine the nutritional yeast, flour, cashews, water, onion flakes, turmeric, cayenne, and cumin in the blender. Puree until smooth. Pour the wet mixture into the saucepan with the leeks and garlic and add the diced tomatoes, and hot crushed peppers and cook a few minutes until the mixture thickens.

Taste the sauce and adjust the salt and pepper level to your tastes.

Nutritional Information (for ¼ of the recipe):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 125.83
Calories From Fat (28%) - 35.7

Total Fat - 3.08g
Saturated Fat - 0.54g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 84.89mg
Potassium - 359.49mg
Total Carbohydrates - 14.41g
Fiber - 2.79g
Sugar - 3.73g
Protein - 3.44g

Comments:

I don’t know if we have just been away from cheese so long that I have forgotten what it tastes like, but this really reminds me of cheese sauce. Additionally the percentage of calories from fat is so much lower than a traditional cheese sauce. This worked really well on baked potatoes, and broccoli. I added the avocado and pumpkin seeds on top the dish because both of those remind me of Tex-Mex food. Overall I was very happy with this quick meal. I need to remember this the next time I need food fast and don’t have anything in the freezer.

I am going to bed early tonight to catch up on my lost sleep. Tomorrow I will be making more seitan for the freezer. I try to stock up on seitan in the freezer to make it easier to make meals during the week.