This was a first snack with our usual red wine and we also had my salmon spread shown in the top dish.
Both were quite good and although the carrot cashew was a bit unusual it was very good.
Ingredients:
4 large carrots cut into pennies
1 1/4 cups roasted and salted cashews (original recipe calls for raw unsalted cashew but in general we like nuts that have been roasted)
2 cups 1/3-salt Swanson's chicken broth (original recipe calls for vegetable broth to keep it vegetarian).
3 tablespoons white miso
Roasted (although it was already roasted, we dry roasted on a frying pan) white sesame seeds, ground in a Japanese Suribachi until oil came out (1 tsp) (this is our addition) and save some for garnish.
Directions:
Peel and trim the carrots, then chop them into 1/2-inch pennies.
Place in a medium saucepan along with the broth. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes or until the carrots are very tender.
Remove from the heat. Reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid and whisk the miso into it until dissolved.
Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked carrots and cashews, and the ground sesame seeds and the miso mixture to a blender; puree until fairly smooth.
Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the sesame seeds
We are not sure how much of the difference it would have made between using raw and boiled cashew and roasted cashew. Our addition of ground toasted sesame seeds added a nice fragrant sesame flavor. The combination of miso and sesame flavors are most noticeable. The carrot and cashew flavors are a bit muted, but the carrot did give a nice texture, slight sweetness and color to the spread. This was a very unusual spread and we liked it very much.
This recipe is very similar to one in Paleo Perfected, from ATK. They have a recipe in it for cashew nut cheese. Raw nuts are essential as the roasted ones can be grainy and are usually sold pre-salted. I order raw cashews from Amazon. Here is the recipe:
ReplyDelete1 cup raw cashews
water
2 T EVOO
2 t lemon juice plus extra for seasoning
Kosher salt and pepper
1. Place cashews in bowl and add water to cover by 1 inch. Soak cashews at room temp for at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours. Drain and rinse well.
2. Process soaked cashews, 1/4 cup water, oil, lemon juice and 1/2 tsp salt in food processor until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Adjust consistency with extra water as needed. Season with salt, pepper and extra lemon juice to taste. (Cheese can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.)
It's not bad. Try it.