Cashew Queso Recipe
SO EASY! Season per taste. You may want an extra pepper in there, you may like more garlic, throw in more liquid (either brine or water per preference), etc etc etc. The options are endless, but this is the spinal column for a sauce so good I have to hold Q back from going at it like a pint of nice cream.
NOTE: if you have a little time, letting it sit overnight (brine, seasonings, and all) makes for an extra creamy version and our most frequent way to make it these days.
This is for 2tb of queso. Note that it has zero cholesterol paired with its protein unlike cowmilk.
This queso has been a family favorite for a long-while now, but this morning when a dear friend told folks on her site to give it a look, I went back to review the recipe (originally posted a year ago) and I noted two things:
I had taken it offline and bookmarked it in drafts because it needed to be revised (<— am dealing with some background life/obligations & don’t have the hours to dedicate to the site right now <— I plan to edit this again with info from my Cornell Center For Nutrition Studies classes and take some newer photos)
The original flaming opening about environmental apathy was no longer needed because I’ve simmered on down to the acceptance-breath of my environmental-crisis/species-extinction grief cycle (ie acceptance that I’d flamed long enough in the anger-loop and I could channel those flames in better vectors)… but for illumination on that wild ride, the end of the original post remains an explanation of why I was so fired up. Read as far as your mind wants to wander, but as usual: I keep all the recipe stuff easily accessible to the top (like above) so you can see it without scrolling.
Continue for: our super simple Cashew Queso Recipe; environmental data comparing dairy & plant milks; plus examples of what this 100% plant-based (but once meat/dairy loving) family is eating.
Queso Ingredients: raw cashews, nutritional yeast, salt, pickled peppers (choose your favorite: Jalepenos? Red Bell? Banana?), smoked paprika,garlic, and salt.
Soak them overnight (or cheat and pour super hot water over it and let it sit for a hour), blend until creamy, season per taste.
For reference, the above is with quick soaking, and below is a batch where it soaked overnight.
Taco Tuesday Dinner: black bean tacos with queso, kale, quick-pickled tomatoes, and avocado. (This was Q’s.)
I like mine open-faced on a hardshells like a tostada. <3
And cashew queso isn’t just tasty, there are environmental/compassionate/healthful reasons to avoid dairy.
And below are some examples of what we were eating this week. As a reminder, we were once Meat/Dairy delighting Hobbits (who had a feast of your Standard American illnesses going on in the background), and now we’re thriving via Plant-Based foods. And this is with a family-of-three living off less than 40k.
Plant Based Kiddo Breakfast: Berry Bread, cashew cream, peanut butter, peach, cherries, and black raspberries.
Lunch: Ethiopian Style Red Lentils, fresh greens (romaine, kale, swiss chard), balsamic tomatoes, easy avocados, quick-pickled beets (made just like the cabbage), summer squash (zucchini and yellow squash), and green onions.
We’re members of a CSA down the road, and get a counter-full of organic veg for about $36 a week.
Dinner: Quinoa, seared garlic scapes, peas, tempeh, zucchini, greens (romaine, kale, swiss shard), Q’s Sesame Dressing, and hot sauce.
Dessert: Peach Smoothie with oatmilk
I’ve been saving for months and was finally able to buy an InstaPot. Not only will this thing save me sooo many hours, it will save a tremendous amount of natural gas! Previously, it was a many-hours-long process for us to re-hydrate beans. That black beans were done in 30 minutes BLEW MY MIND.
Dinner: Refried black beans, “Holy Moly!” Sauce, Queso, romaine, tomatoes (made like the Balsamic ones, but with pickled-jalapeno brine), ruby kraut, and whole-grain chips.
Nightly Reading.
(Looking for a good kids book focused on 10 Frames? This was another Dolly Parton Imagination Library WIN.)
Plant Based Kiddo Breakfast: Berry Bread, cashew cream, peanut butter, peach, and black raspberries.
My world, my heart, my Bear: flying through time on warp-speed yet always passionate about art.
Summer Schooling a Sci-Fi Enthusiast with a biology bent: “It’s alllll the carnivorous plants I could think of. There’s even a bladderwort!”
Lunch: Quinoa, shiitake mushrooms, seared garlic scapes, peas, greens (romaine, kale, swiss shard), summer squash, balsamic tomatoes, green onions, Q’s Sesame Dressing, and furikake, with a side of red potatoes.
We save on resources by making a big pot of quinoa and then using it for multiple quick meals through the week. You fill yourself up with plant-based protein and fiber-pack vegetables; and when it tastes as good as all of this does, you never get tired of eating it. <—Case in point: Q licks his bowl clean after every meal, and this is one where he’s always eyeing my bowl and seeing if he can siphon off a second helping.
Dessert: chocolate mint nice cream. (<— so easy, so quick, so inexpensive, so environmentally kind, SO DELICIOUS!)
Ian had a taco bowl when he eventually came in from the long slog of paint-scraping (up there on the roof). <3
Nightly Reading
Here seen, the first time I’ve ever had to write about sadness in relation to my beloved Coney Island Polar Bear Club. I’ve been swimming with this club since 2009 and it is filled with some of my favorite people on this earth; but I had seen posts about shock and horror over the news that polar bears are poised for extinction by 2100, so I summoned the courage to go over and do a call-to-action (<—I do this in my own realm, but have never brought it up with these beloved folks).
The response to the below was crickets with the exception of heart-broken Ian and our friend Lee.
If we can’t get protective passion out of a club that bears the same name as these doomed bears, who the heck else can we count on?
Is the taste of meat REALLY that important?! There are so many alternatives and animal agriculture is ruining our environment. And your health is made better by switching to a plant-based diet!
From We Are The Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer.
We cannot continue to claim “error” if we know better. Ignoring our leading scientists/doctors for the ease of comfort/taste eventually becomes willfully destructive to us all.
What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️
Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕
Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥
Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎
Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️
What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.
We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️
Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️
If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕
We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖
