ROASTED RED PEPPER CASHEW CREAM SAUCE

WHAT WE THINK

We love meat. Like, really love it. But this has zero meat (in fact, it’s vegan AND pretty damn healthy) and we also really love it. If you tasted it and didn’t know it was made with cashews, you would think it’s an alfredo sauce. SURPRISE, IT’S NOT. Now we’ll shut up. Let’s eat!

WHAT YOU NEED (SERVES 2-3, DO MATH IF YOU NEED MORE OR LESS)

1 cup of raw cashews 

2 cups of water

1 red bell pepper 

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup fresh basil 

1/2 can of coconut milk 

1/4 cup veggie stock

olive oil 

2 shallots

1-3 tablespoons of red chili flakes (we use 3, duh)

2 tablespoons sun dried tomato paste 

2 tablespoons of red pepper paste (if you can’t find this next to the sun dried tomato paste, go ahead and double up on the tomato paste)

salt 

pepper

WHAT TO DO

SOAK YOUR ‘SHEWS.

Put your cashews in a bowl. Put your water in that same bowl. Leave it for at least 2 hours to soak (we like to let them hang all day). Wasn’t that easy?

ROAST YOUR PEP.

Turn your oven’s broiler on. Throw (or gently place) your red pepper into the oven. We do it directly on the grates but you can use a baking sheet I GUESS. Let it roast for about 4-5 minutes on each side or until it’s blackened all over.

Remove the pepper from the oven and place it into a bowl, then put plastic wrap over the bowl. This will steam the pepper and make it way easier to peel the skin off. Give it about 10-15 minutes.

Remove your roasted, steamed pepper from the bowl, cut off the top (it may pull right off), and peel the skin off of it. You don’t necessarily need to worry about getting rid of all the seeds since this is going in the blender.

GET TO BLENDING.

Drain your cashews, then throw them in a blender with your peeled, roasted red pepper, veggie stock, garlic, basil, coconut milk, plus a generous pinch of both salt and pepper. Blend all of this up until it’s nice and smooth.

ADD SOME HEAT.

Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Once hot, throw in your shallots and red pepper flakes, and allow this to sizzle until the shallots are translucent.

Pour what’s in your blender into the pan with the shallots and red pepper flakes. Let this warm through and you’re ready to roll!

SERVE IT.

You could of course put this sauce on top of any noodle; fettucine, penne, rigatoni…okay we’ll stop naming different types of noodles, you get it.

BUT, being a healthy vegan sauce, it might make sense to make an entire healthy vegan dish out of it. Try tossing zoodles or spiralized sweet potatoes into the pan and serving it that way.

OR, if you don’t give a damn about that, go buckwild and slap it on some noodles, top it with some grilled chicken, and add a dusting (lol jk it should be a heavy downpour) of freshly grated parmesan cheese to tie it all together.

WHAT TO DRINK WITH IT

Since you’re on a health kick, just a La Croix. With some vodka or gin in it.