Basil Cheese Spread
(click on image to enlarge)
Serves many!
A true cheesy delight. Remniscent of traditional pesto :)
Ingredients
- 3 cups raw cashews, soaked for 2 days
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 3 small lemons, hand-juiced
- 1 bushel of basil
- 1 teaspoon garlic
- raw salt, to taste
Preparation
Get your cashews. Soak them in water for 2 days. After the 1st day of soaking, switch the water out for new water. Now that your cashews have their nice clean water, let them soak for their 2nd day.
Is it day 2 yet? Yay! Ok, on the 2nd day, drain the water from the soaked cashews. Place the cashews in your food processor (a blender will work too). Blend blend blend! Add the nutritional yeast and the lemon juice to help the mixture turn in the processor. Add in the garlic and salt. Then add the basil. Keep a blendin until its nice and smoooooooth.
And there you have it! “Cheese” that tastes like PESTO!!!
I used purple basil, that’s why mine looks like it has dark specks in it.
This was my first attempt at cheese..a raw friend of mine told me how to make it, but she told me it would be really delish with nutritional yeast. It IS yummy, but I can’t help it…nutritional yeast isn’t raw. I want to give this another go just by using lemon juice next time.
Enjoy! It’s seriously amazing…everyone’s going to LOVE IT!
Comments
sweetpea writes: (June 15, 2008)
sounds wonderful!
babycat writes: (June 15, 2008)
Hmmm I have a surpluss of sunflower seeds, I think I’ll try that
RawVoice writes: (June 15, 2008)
Sounds great, but why do you soak your cashew for 2 days? I usually only soak them 8 hours. Also, I’m not sure how much a “bushel” of basil is. Can you tell me approximately how many leaves that might be?
simplyraw writes: (June 15, 2008)
Is there another seed or nut you would recommend to substitute the cashews??? I am wondering how it would taste using pine nuts. They tend to have a cheesy flavor without the use of nutritional yeast.
Never the less….Your recipe sounds and looks Simply Divine!!! I am going to give it go, using pine nuts. We were just talking about making a nice cheese spread. Looking for something new to eat with our sliced red peppers, cucumbers, carrot sticks, etc..
Thanks!
meganthevegan writes: (June 17, 2008)
babycat – that’s a fab idea. i would love to try that sometime!
rawvoice – i don’t know. haha! my friend was telling me how she does it, so i followed her “soak them for 2 days” advice. it turned out great, but i don’t know what difference it would make from 8 hours-2 days…probably tastes the same. Yeah I should have been more specific about the basil. I’d say probably about 25-30 medium leaves. I could only measure by the “bushel” because I bought it at the farmers market…it used almost every leaf on that thing!! It was amazing!
simplyraw – so that’s why people use pine nuts?! i never have pine nuts. not by intention…next time i’d love to try that! If I could have an amazing flavor without the nutritional yeast, i’d be on cloud 9!!! Well thanks for the comment, I can’t wait to try it your way!
christy breeze writes: (June 21, 2008)
Recipe sounds great..try using Rejuvelac (soaked wheat ‘juice’) instead of the nutritional yeast as that works well with every other kind of nut/seed cheese I have made. (Web has info on ‘making’ Rejuvelac – it’s really easy and very good to drink neat as well – full of vitamins. Keeps well in a lidded jar in the fridge for up to 5 days so is very useful!). I use a cup or mug of whatever ground up seeds/nuts (usually half and half of 2 different kinds ie. sunflower seed/walnuts)I fancy plus the same again of rejuvelac (ie. one of same cup or mug). Add the seasoning/herbs I want and leave it,once mixed, covered with a tea towel, at room temp. for 12 hours (it will then set). Refridgerate.
meganthevegan writes: (June 25, 2008)
Ooooh…christy breeze, you know what? I JUST saw rejuvelac at my local Co Op for the first time!! I’ll be trying that next time..thanks so much!!!
richlady writes: (August 27, 2008)
I want to make all these yummy desserts and spreads, but cant handle the nuts right now. My body is just wanting easier to digest things…. is there a substitute? I mean everything is made with nuts… plus its really expensive.
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