Walnut Cheeze Spread

I received an email the other day about recipes for walnut cheeze. This was one that I hadn’t tried yet. However the more I thought about the idea the more I liked it from a nutrition perspective. Walnuts are the healthiest nut in terms of omega 3 fatty acids so if I could make this into a “cheeze-like” spread it would be a good thing. I knew the color of the walnuts would make the spread a light beige color, which it did. Additionally I was worried the flavor of the walnut would be too strong to mask with other flavors. It did take more seasonings but it turned out fairly well. Here is what I did.

Walnut Cheeze Spread

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts, soaked overnight and drained thoroughly
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (or to taste)
½ teaspoon onion flakes (start with half next time)
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste (note kosher salt has a different level of saltiness if using another salt start with ½ the amount and taste)

Directions:

Combine everything in your food processor and process until smooth. You may need to stop the machine a couple of times to scrape the sides of the bowl.

Place the spread in a tightly covered container and refrigerate for a few hours before eating. The spread needs time for the flavors to marry.

You can use the spread on a sandwich, as a dip for veggies, on crackers. It can be used anywhere that you would use soft spreadable cheese.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 105.05
Calories From Fat (83%) - 87.03

Total Fat - 9.54g
Saturated Fat - 0.9g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 145.85mg
Potassium - 67.23mg
Total Carbohydrates - 2.16g
Fiber - 1g
Sugar - 0.44g
Protein - 2.25g

Comments:

This is a thick spread that is also soft. The flavor is a little “oniony”. Next time I will use less onion flakes to start. Overall this worked out better than I expected it to. The hubby declared this a success and had a little snack last night of this on Mary’s Onion crackers. You may also want to increase the amount of nutritional yeast. I prefer that to be a more subtle flavor.

Unrelated Note:

Yesterday was a very productive day at our house. One closet down, a few more closets to go. On the bright side I now know that I own over a dozen pairs of exercise pants. To think last week I bought another two pair because I didn’t have enough. Yeesh!

I purged my main closet of a lot of stuff. My rule was it I hadn’t worn something last season it was gone. When I put things back I turned the hangers backward. My reasoning was when I clean the closet next year if any hangers are backward I know those items didn’t get worn and they will be quicker to identify for the next purge. Tomorrow I am working on another closet. This one is my overflow closet which is geographically undesirable. Something tells me 90% of that will be leaving.

Last night I made Dan a smoothie similar to the one posted here, but I sweetened it with the yacon powder. The powder has a very mild flavor, which is much less sweet than I expected. Now I know why the bag label gives the nutritional information for one serving. On the positive side the powder is not the slightest bit bitter. I think it will make a nice sweetener for tea, which I will try today and let you know how it works. When I see the syrup I am going to pick up a bottle to see what we think of it.

For now I am off to tear apart another closet. I will be back later today when I take a green tea break and let you know how the yacon powder worked in tea.