Cheese Please Sauce
I never thought i’d see the day when we could go without dairy cheese in our home but surprisingly that day actually came. We still love those cheesy flavours but we satisfy them in different ways these days. This is a great cheesy sauce that is as versatile as cheese itself. We use it poured on all sorts of vegetables especially broccoli and kale, in mac-n-cheese, on baked potatoes, or as a nacho cheese dip. If you are not a fan of spicy then just leave out the jalapeño all together. This recipe can be made raw vegan but we prefer to do a quick water saute on the onions, cashews, garlic & jalapeños and roast the red peppers before blending. So the next time your kids say “Cheese Please”….don’t hesitate to serve up this beautiful and tasty substitution. Even the big kids will like it…as does my husband who prefers it poured over a portobello mushroom burger with sautéed onions.
- 1 large yellow onion (rough chopped)
- 1 large red pepper (raw, roasted or sautéed)
- 1 cup nutritional yeast
- 3 TB cashews
- 1 TB tahini (sesame butter, optional)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped, optional)
- ¼-1/2 jalapeño (seeded, optional)
- ¼ tsp salt (optional)
- If you choose to roast the red pepper, put on a pan with parchment in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes turning once, or you can buy them already roasted. If you choose not to roast then sauté them with the onions.
- Water sauté the onion, cashews & red peppers (reserve 1 tablespoon red pepper ) in a pan until the onions & red peppers are tender.
- Once ready, pour the onion mixture into the blender with the nutritional yeast, tahini and salt and blend until smooth.
- Mean while, do a quick water sauté on the last 1 TB of red pepper (small chopped), jalapeno & garlic while the mixture is blending.
- Add this to the blender and do about 5 quick pulses to blend but not too much as we want to see little bits of red & green fleck for visual appeal.
- If you prefer no spice, then just leave out the jalapeño and sauté all the red pepper and garlic with the onion.
- Best served warm but not necessary.
- If you want it raw then just throw everything in the blender straight way and serve.
