Cashew Dressing
This is the workhorse. Soaked cashews blended with water make a stable emulsion with no oil in it, because the fat is already suspended inside the nut and blending simply releases it into the water phase. That is the same physics behind a vinaigrette, minus the bottle of oil.
Two ingredients do the heavy lifting once the base exists. Nutritional yeast supplies glutamates, the savory compounds that salt usually gets credit for delivering, and lemon juice plus cider vinegar supply the acid that keeps a fatty dressing from tasting heavy. Skip either one and you get cream, not dressing.
It keeps five days refrigerated and thickens noticeably by day two. Thinned, it dresses a slaw or a grain bowl; left thick, it works as a dip for raw vegetables or a spread on whole-grain toast. Cashews are one of the pricier things in the pantry, which is why the recipe uses three quarters of a cup to make eight servings rather than treating them as a base ingredient.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Raw cashews
- 3 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp Nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 clove Garlic, peeled
- 1/4 tsp Black peppercorns, freshly ground
Method
- Cover the cashews with boiling water and leave them 10 minutes. Cold soaking takes four hours and does the same job; boiling water softens the cell walls fast enough that a standard blender can break them down instead of leaving grit. Drain and discard the soaking water, which carries a faint bitterness.
- Put the drained cashews in a blender with the lemon juice, vinegar, nutritional yeast, dijon, garlic, pepper, and 1/2 cup (120 ml) fresh water.
- Blend on high for a full 2 minutes. Stop early and it tastes like wet nuts; the emulsion only forms once the cashew fat is broken small enough to suspend in the water, and that takes longer than it looks like it should. Scrape the sides once and keep going.
- Check the consistency. It should ribbon off a spoon and hold a line for a second. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time for a pourable dressing, or leave it thick for a dip or a sandwich spread.
- Taste. If it reads flat, add lemon juice rather than reaching for salt: the acid is what makes the fat legible on the tongue. Refrigerate in a sealed jar. It thickens as it chills, so loosen with a splash of water before serving.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 80 calories, 3 g protein, 1 g fiber, 10 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
