Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Queso Dip with Raw Cashews



For years I was a “card carrying cheeseaholic”. There, I said it. I love the taste and texture of cheese. I always have, and I probably always will. Even though I still love the taste, I don’t eat the stuff anymore. Now that I know how bad it is for me how could possibly enjoy its rich gooeyness?

For those of you that don’t know there are two major components that make up dairy protein, they are casein and whey. Whey has been associated with positive health benefits. However the problem is that 80% of the protein in dairy milk is casein and that is known to be tumor promoting. Sadly, that is why we gave up dairy at our house. No matter how good it tastes, since it promotes cancer tumor growth, it is out our house and our lives. Given how cheese is made, where the whey is separated, cheese must be much higher than 80% casein. Something to think about if you are concerned about cancer.

Since I was someone that worshipped at the altar of cheese I knew to survive a vegan diet I had to come up with suitable cheese substitutes. I don’t mean the type you buy at the store with full of mystery ingredients, but something that I could make at home so I knew what was in it. The first cheese that I began making was the cheddar cheese brick, then there was the almond feta. Finally there was queso dip. I have been modifying this recipe each time I make it. Both vegans and omnivores have enjoyed the version that is posted below. If you are looking for a queso dip that is lower in fat and calories (than the dairy version) and has no cholesterol this is good choice.

This is the dip I took to Jackie and Walid’s house on Christmas Eve. The queso dip was so popular I needed to remake it and document exactly what I had done so I could give them the recipe. There was one change between this recipe and the prior version and that was the diced tomatoes/salsa. When I remade the dip my elderly parents were going to be eating it with us so I backed off on the heat and used canned diced tomatoes in place of salsa. If you have any extra dip this is great on baked potatoes with broccoli. Here is what I made.

Queso Dip with Raw Cashews
Makes approximately 7 ½ – ½ cup servings

Ingredients:

½ cup raw cashews, soaked and drained
½ cup oatmeal, ground into flour
1 ½ cups water
2 teaspoon onion flakes, dried
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 clove garlic, peeled
14 ounces diced tomatoes (or substitute an equal amount of salsa if you like heat)
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon hot crushed peppers (wet hots, finely minced pickled peppers), or to taste
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 dash cayenne, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine the cashews, oatmeal, water, onion flakes, turmeric, and garlic in your blender. Puree until the mixture is smooth. Pour the mixture into a heavy bottom saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring often to keep it from sticking. Add the canned diced tomatoes with their liquid (or salsa if using), paprika hot crushed peppers, chili powder and cayenne and stir to combine. Taste the mixture and add salt and pepper, as you desire. Cook the mixture (continuing to stir) until it is hot and the texture you want. You can add more liquid if it gets too thick.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 65.95
Calories From Fat (39%) - 25.78

Total Fat - 3.08g
Saturated Fat - 0.55g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 5.32mg
Potassium - 209.9mg
Total Carbohydrates - 8.69g
Fiber - 1.68g
Sugar - 2.01g
Protein - 2.35g

Comments:

This dip is thick and rich and tastes much more decadent than it actually is. We like to eat it with corn chips, but more often it shows up on a baked potato stuffed with broccoli.

Each serving of the queso dip contains 600IU of vitamin A, and 70mg of phosphorus.

Unrelated note:

Today is going to be hectic. My husband has taken the day off and we are going to spend the day together shopping and then have dinner with our good friend Louis. I will be back later with a dinner recap. I hope you all have a great day today.

31 comments:

  1. Hey! I've got all of this stuff! I've never made vegan cheese before, so this is an exciting prospect. I don't have onion flakes though, just the powdered kind. So what do you think the equivalent measurement in the powdered variety would be?

    My roommate's mama is coming today and staying with us a few days. She is lactose intolerant so I bet this would be a really special treat for her.

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  2. Sarah,

    Onion powder should be fine. I added it for a little background flavor. I would guess you should start with 2/3 of what the recipe says and then adjust at the end if you need more.

    I would highly recommend the almond feta as well for your roommate's mama. That recipe has been universally loved, even our chef friend liked it.

    Alicia

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  3. I was JUST telling my husband yesterday that I needed this queso recipe. Thank you. I think I may be making a trip to Whole Foods today!

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  4. I am really looking forward to trying this. All those mystery cheeses are scary! And most of them either contain casein (which isn't even vegan, dumb grocery stores will label them vegan) or contains no casein yet has billions of ingredients and tastes horrible! Looks delicious.

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  5. Heather,

    You are very welcome. This is an easy recipe. Our Egyptian friend told me last week that he likes this better than dairy queso dip.

    Cheese was hands down the hardest food for me to give up. Buffalo taleggio is still calling my name. I have to avoid the cheese counter at Wegman's to keep the taleggio from jumping in the cart. ;) This and the almond feta make it much easier for me to stay away from the dairy cheese.

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

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  6. im going to try this for sure! can food processors gring oatmeal? dumb question? i dont have any other type of machine to do it.

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  7. Michelle,

    Yes, I have ground dry oatmeal in my food processor before. I think the blender does a little better job, but both work. If you have a little coffee grinder you use for spices that will also work.

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

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  8. also you used to have something on your sidebar that i miss...it had the name of each ingredient...like you could go to "fennel" and you could see all the recipes that you could do with it. can you put that back? i tried doing a search but it just wasnt the same

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  9. Michelle,

    I have been cleaning up the tags which is why I took that down. As soon as I get finished, probably in a week or so I will put it back up. At the moment the tags are just a mess. I discovered that I could only have 10 tags per recipe which is why I needed to clean them up.

    Alicia

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  10. its me..again
    i just got done making this and...drum roll its husband aproved!!!lol and you know my husband! this was so easy to just whip together. i did omit the garlic so walter could try it but it was excellent@ i am going to try some other cheese recipes now.....almost out of cashews though!!!!! have you made any cheeses out of walnuts???didnt you makwe a pate once???hm ill go look:)

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  11. oh and thats good news about the tags. is that weird that im so into your blog that i would notice...dont answer that

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  12. Michelle,

    Yay! Thanks so much for letting me know. I am so glad Walter liked it too!

    Yes there is a mushroom and walnut pate with marsala. I think I posted that back in May or April. It was quite some time ago.

    Thanks again for letting me know,
    Alicia

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  13. Dani,

    The mystery ingredients in the commercial vegan cheeses scare me too. That is what I decided to figure out how to make my own. No OCD here. ;)

    Michelle,

    You are too funny! Lovable, but funny, not at all weird.

    Alicia

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  14. Wow! That dip looks so delicious! I'm not a fan of cheese but both my hubby and sun are so I'll definitely give it a try and I will make sure they read this post! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe and for the links to the recipes of other cheese. I love it!

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  15. Oraphan,

    You are very welcome! :) This has a "cleaner, less fatty taste" than the dairy version of queso. You may like it too. I think your hubby and son will enjoy it.

    Alicia

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  16. Meant to ask - how long do you soak your cashews? We just found out yesterday that hubby is allergic to dairy!

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  17. Heather,

    Great question. I should have been more specific. When I first started using raw cashews I never soaked them and the sauces worked fine. Then I soaked them for an hour and the sauce got creamy more quickly. What I am saying is soaking is helpful but not required. Thirty minutes or an hour is more than enough. I also soak them overnight in the refrigerator when I have planned ahead.

    Sorry to hear about the dairy allergy. On the bright side, it is much healthier to avoid dairy that it may be a blessing in disguise. I was just reading yesterday that normally if someone has a problem with dairy it is either the lactose or casein but the whey is almost never the problem. I wanted to metion that in case you are adding protein powder to both your smoothies.

    I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

    Alicia

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  18. I've tried cashew cheese on pizza, but never as a dip. It's a great idea though (I could totally go for some right now...)

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  19. Beatrice,

    Cashew cheese on pizza you say. I haven't tried that before but I will definitely keep it in mind now. Thanks for the suggestion!

    Alicia

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  20. I'm curious ... is your "dry oatmeal" the same as rolled oats? (the original kind, not quick-cooking) I'm going to start soaking some cashews right now! I too love cheese but mostly avoid it.

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  21. Laura,

    The dry oatmeal is regular Quaker rolled oats. Nothing fancy. I haven't tried instant oats so I don't know how that would work, but I think it would be fine too.

    Alicia

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  22. We had the dip on mashed potatoes/veggies with tortilla chip bits on top and it tasted good. However I couldn't get it smooth in my food processor and I'm thinking about buying a good blender. What model Vitamix do you have? I'll start by looking on eBay.

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  23. Laura,

    We have had our Vitamix for a number of years (4 I think), it is a model 5000. I have seen refurbished models for sale (on the vitamix website I believe). They would probably come with a warranty that way. You might try that route.

    Alicia

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  24. Hey Alicia - just wanted to let you know that my hubby took some up to work (office of men only) and they really liked it! One requested the recipe too. Thumbs up!!

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  25. Heather,

    That is great news. Thank you so much for letting me know. You made my afternoon!

    Alicia

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  26. I just found this recipe from your new post and I was wondering if there was a substitute for the oats. Could I use gluten-free flour or something like arrowroot?
    I usually make a cheese sauce using nutritional yeast, but this recipe sounds so tasty!

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  27. VeganPossum,

    I have only made this with the oats but arrowroot or cornstarch should also work.

    We like cheeze sauce with nutritional yeast too. But omnis don't always like nooch so I try to leave that out when I am serving them. This is good with or without a little nooch added.

    My hubby will put this on anything. I hope you like it too.

    Alicia

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  28. Wow!! Just made this and hands down BEST DIP EVER. It was so rich with a nice chilli kick. I made it with some homemade tomato sauce from a couple of days ago which had onion and garlic in alredy so I omitted the flakes. This is going to be another regular for me. I actually had it for lunch spread in a wholemeal wrap with bell pepper and romaine, yum yum....
    Such a good change from hummus.
    Thank you again,
    Emma xox

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  29. Emma,

    Yay! I am so glad you like it. Thank you so much for letting me know. :-) What a nice way to start my morning.

    It is also good tossed with pasta and veggies for "mac and cheese" if you make a thinner version of the sauce. It has a lot of uses which I know you will find. :-)

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

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  30. What a great idea to have it mixed with pasta! I'm having so much fun cooking as a vegan, especially with all your recipes.
    I was wondering if you could give me your email as the link isn't working for me? I want to ask a couple of nutrition qs but don't want to clutter up your comments section..
    Thank you, E

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  31. Emma,

    Of course I don't mind. I am happy to chat with you.

    veganepicurean@gmail.com

    I am so happy you are enjoying cooking.

    talk to you soon,
    Alicia

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