Vegan "Cheese" Sauce

Upon Hive account@justinparke 's prompt for week 3 of the Plant Powered Cooking Challenge , I quickly made a trip to grocery store to try my hand at a new challenge for myself. The goal was to make vegan enchiladas, and the first step for myself was to make both the "cheese" sauce and the enchilada sauce.

Now, I ended up way in over my head with this recipe. But I did it! And they were absolutely amazing. There was so many steps to this process that it felt like a single post would be overwhelming. I had considered making a separate posts for the sauces themselves so my other post was a little lighter. But then I kind of second-guessed myself on that note; and yet again went back on my decision.

As I had mentioned in my Pak Choi post(thank you Hive account@holisticmom for the spelling suggestion; although any input on that debate is warmly welcomed!), I had kind of wanted to post some of the recipes I enjoyed on here as a type of cyber-"cookbook"; really for my own future reference when my partner and I are trying to decide on a meal. I often cook really great things and neglect to remember how I did so or forget about them entirely. So these are for my own future reference as much as anything else; to help an often-forgetful person with memory damage remember some of his culinary experiences.

Side note; I don't consider myself a cook. I just like to cook. I've worked in too many kitchens I don't want to return to to even dare mentioning that word in relation to myself.

Anyways, I decided to make the cheese sauce a post on it's own. Why, might you ask? Doesn't it seem like kind of "double-posting"? Are you doing this for attention? What's the point?

The answer to all of the above, at least in my own eyes, is no. And the reason is that this vegan cheese sauce is absolutely amazing and should not be even close to limited towards enchiladas. This is something I plan on making again for all sorts of different foods; or even just to keep around for when it's wanted. The versatility of this sauce is limitless; and I figured that it would be a good thing to have access to regardless of what you're cooking. It turned out absolutely amazing; dare I say better than any "real" cheese sauce I've had in the past?

So I wanted to leave this here for those who aren't necessarily running out the door to make a giant dish of enchiladas. Although, if you're motivated, I would highly recommend it. Anyways, enough of my personal blathering, let's get on with the sauce.

As with many things I cook, other than my normal staples, this recipe was borrowed and adapted from the internet. I adjusted certain things, replaced certain ingredients, et cetera; but I just want to be clear I am by no means taking full credit for this brain child.

As I hadn't planned on making this it's own post, I did not take many photos of the process. But that's all as well; despite the lacking aesthetics of this post, the information is still there. Above is pictured most of the ingredients that went into the sauce. Now, adjust these measurements however you see fit! The important part is the ratio; however this is simply the ratio I used. You may use whatever ratio you'd like!

Here's what you will need:

• 2 cups cashews
• 3 TBSP lemon juice
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 TSP paprika
• 1 TSP garlic powder
• 1 TSP onion powder
• 1/2 TSP chili powder
• hot sauce(optional, but recommended) (to taste)
• salt (to taste)
• water (~4 cups, but will likely change by the batch)
• 1/2 TSP turmeric, for color(obviously optional)

OK, so some notes on the ingredient list. Firstly, I wanted to use raw cashews(and soak them) for this, but my local store was out so I had to buy roasted cashews. If that's easier for you, then go for it! I can say, it still turned out amazing.

Additionally, I'd like to take this moment to plug my friend Sandra's hot sauce company; Dog Daze. She has just started this new small business venture of hers and locally sources/home grows as many peppers/other ingredients as she can. This bottle of "Only Fans" is one of her first hot sauces and one of my absolute favorites. She has an Instagram and a Shopify, Hive account@dogdazehotsauce on Instagram if you feel. I believe she also has a Facebook page but I stopped using that long long ago.

Anyways, obviously you can use whatever hot sauce you'd like- or omit it if you're not a fan of the heat. Your call, always. I just wanted to take an opportunity to shamelessly plug her amazing sauce.

Salt for me, is always to taste. I'm not a fan of telling people how much salt they should use(nor do I even measure my own). If you'd like guidance, I used about a teaspoon I believe; however, my cashews were also salted.

Ok, Herb, get on with it

1. THROW THAT ISH IN YOUR BLENDER - shit, maybe I should have mentioned you needed a blender. It's a little presumptuous to assume everyone has access to a blender. But, then again, if you're reading cooking recipes on HIVE, that's probably not a long shot. Put the cashews, spices, yeast lemon juice; essentially everything but the hot sauce in your blender. Add ~3 cups water. Blend it as smooth as you can get it.

2. Pour your sauce into a medium saucepan. Or whatever size works with the amount you've decided to make. Just make sure to leave a little room as you will add water later on. Heat it over medium-ish heat, whisking constantly, until you start to see them bubbles popping up. You'll notice the sauce thickening a little bit, and that's exactly what you want. Extra points- don't wash your blender just yet.

3. Once the sauce has begun to thicken, add a little more water and continue the process. This step is entirely improv, and completely dependent on what you want the thickness of the sauce to be/what you're using it for. If the sauce sits, it will thicken on it's own. So go nuts. The reason I suggested not washing the blender is because I really hate waste even in the smallest amounts. So, when adding additional water, I would use the blender to gather some of the sauce remnants still living on the glass.

4. The final step is to add your optional hot sauce, salt, and turmeric! I only added the turmeric for the color as I knew I would likely be posting this on HIVE, whereas normally I wouldn't give an arse about the color. But, I figured, this was a case where presentation was important(even though I neglected to takes many pictures of the sauce). I added quite a decent amount of the Dog Daze hot sauce and, from what I can remember, not very much salt; if any. Keep on the stove as long as you see fit. I covered the sauce while I was preparing the rest of my dish and it didn't really thicken; however I noticed afterwards the remainder did, uncovered. All I had to do was add a little more water and give it a couple minutes on the burner and it was as good as new.

I made a little too much of the stuff and stored it in my fridge. I used a little bit of the remainders this morning, after a few days refrigerated, and with a little time and a little water back on the stove, it was right back to the consistency I had desired.

So there it is! A simple, easy, vegan cheese sauce. Adapted from the internet. As I said before, I thought this would be a good post on it's own due to the sheer versatility of the sauce! Change it any way you'd like, give me feedback, critique, let me know if you've done something similar; whatever! All comments are warmly welcomes and encouraged.

All love to you and yours, always <3