Cashew Cream

[Nay-nay]

Cashew Cream
Recipe from The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen


Cashew cream is a vegan-chef staple that stands in for dairy in a variety of ways.

In the raw-food world, where it originated, it's used in lots of desserts. When you cook with it, though, it can be so much more—from cheese filling in ravioli to heavy cream in soups. It can be stored 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator and can be frozen for up to 6 months (although after it's defrosted it can be a bit lumpy, so it's good to give it a spin in the blender to smooth it out before using it).

The trick when making cashew cream is to use raw cashews. They have no flavor of their own; they're just a vessel for fat and creaminess. (It's the roasting that brings out the familiar sweetness in cashews.) Because it has a nice fat content, cashew cream reduces in a pan even faster than heavy cream. (Soy milk, which some people use in vegan cooking, has no fat, so it doesn't reduce into a thick sauce—it's really not an alternative.)



Ingredients:Makes about 2 1/4 cups thick cream or 3 1/2 cups regular cream


2 cups whole raw cashews (not pieces, which are often dry), rinsed very well under cold water
Put the cashews in a bowl and add cold water to cover them. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.

Drain the cashews and rinse under cold water. Place in a blender with enough fresh cold water to cover them by 1 inch. Blend on high for several minutes until very smooth. (If you're not using a professional high-speed blender such as a Vita-Mix, which creates an ultra-smooth cream, strain the cashew cream through a fine-mesh sieve.)

To make thick cashew cream, which some of the recipes in this book call for, simply reduce the amount of water in the blender, so that the water just covers the cashews.


Tebasile: I love Cashew Cream and soak/mix raw cashews depending on the dish in/with water, fresh pressed orange juice or
lemon juice. Too bad, he doesn't know about the Thermomix yet. So easy and creamy at speed 8-10 
I cup dried cashews = 130 g
2 cups soaked cashews = 350 g

MJ: I made a cashew cream for the Cashew Chicken Curry from Fast and Easy Indian Cooking and it called for 150g cashews and 150g water. It was a beautiful creamy sauce.

Jabba: I just made a kind-of chocolate pudding based on cashew nut cream.  I used 1 MC of cashews, 1/2 MC of water and blitzed them on 9 for a few seconds.  Then scraped down and blitzed again on 9 for about 10 seconds and repeated again (probably wouldn't have to keep scraping if I'd used a larger amount of ingredients).
Then added 2 teaspoons each of cocoa and sugar.  Another 5 seconds on speed 9.

Nay-nay: recipe from Vegetarian Cookbook:
130g cashews
80g honey
150g water
Looks like too much water???

Thermomixer: makes the vegetarian recipe above.
OK - did as the recipe said - but just started by adding 50g water to begin and even with that it appeared to be a fairly watery mix.
So, then put the heat on and cooked it for 4 minutes and it thickened up.  So then added the remaining 100g water and cooked for another 5 minutes and it was a very thick mix at that point.

[Tebasile]

(If you're not using a professional high-speed blender such as a Vita-Mix, which creates an ultra-smooth cream, strain the cashew cream through a fine-mesh sieve.)

I love Cashew Cream and soak/mix raw cashews depending on the dish in/with water, fresh pressed orange juice or
lemon juice. Too bad, he doesn't know about the Thermomix yet. So easy and creamy at speed 8-10 

[Thermomixer]

Thanks both for the info - once he finds out about TMX it may take off via Oprah

[Tebasile]

Hihi, I'm more than happy to do a demo 
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I cup dried cashews = 130 g
2 cups soaked cashews = 350 g

[bartoncs]

I tried the sweet cashew cream recipie in the TMX vegetarian cookbook.

It didn't work, just ended up with watery cashewness.

I did salvage it though by blending with ice cubes to make a cashew/honey sorbet is yummo!!!!

But anyone have any ideas as to how I could make this cashew cream work?

[Thermomixer]

Haven't tried it but will look at it.

[Tebasile]

Sorry, I don't know the recipe from the TMX vegetarian cookbook bartoncs  My recipe works for sure 

[Nay-nay]

Vegetarian Cookbook:
130g cashews
80g honey
150g water
Looks like too much water???

[meganjane]

I don't know if it's too much water, or the method.
The instructions say to grind the cashews first then add the honey and water. I would put the whole lot in together.
I made a cashew cream for the Cashew Chicken Curry from Fast and Easy Indian Cooking and it called for 150g cashews and 150g water. It was a beautiful creamy sauce.

[Thermomixer]

Think I would be happy to grind them for about 30 seconds on speed 8 or 9 to really pulverise them and then add the honey and water and cook with some heat for 5 minutes or so and then blend on speed 8 or 9 again to make it smooth?

Sounds OK to me on paper(computer screen) - but may have to check the recipe and give it a whirl.

Is it supposed to be a substitute for pouring cream?

[bartoncs]

I'm not 100% sure if its supposed to substitute for pouring or whipped cream, I got the impression from the recipie that it was whipped but there are no pictures!

[Thermomixer]

OK - did as the recipe said - but just started by adding 50g water to begin and even with that it appeared to be a fairly watery mix.

So, then put the heat on and cooked it for 4 minutes and it thickened up.  So then added the remaining 100g water and cooked for another 5 minutes and it was a very thick mix at that point.

The photos are out of focus (sorry) but give the idea that it is no longer watery (I hope)

[bartoncs]

Thankyou thermomixer, I will make a note in my book to actually cook it as it doesn't tell you to do that.

Yum can't wait to try again as the cashew sorbet I made out of my runny mix was delish!

[judydawn]

Nice to see you in your 'test kitchen' Thermomixer helping out your flock. 

[Thermomixer]

LOL - helping myself as much as anybody.