My Bridge to a Plant-based Diet

Quote du Jour   
   Coronary artery disease need never exist. ~ Caldwell Esselstyn, MD

It's the Weekend: Time to VEG!
Along with a suggested YouTube video to enjoy at your leisure, today's blog includes the long promised recipe that provides the delicious aspects of cheese, with none of the casein and cholesterol. This recipe made a plant-based believer 
out of me.

VEG Video

Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, gives a 62 minute talk from the 2003 VegSource Healthy Lifestyle Expo. 

Click this link to watch:  Make Yourself Heart Attack Proof

Oh, I could never give up cheese!
Everyone makes this statement, me included! So, I decided to think about what qualities I like about cheese, and see if I could find those qualities in plant-based ingredients. It worked!

Identify the traits you like about dairy
Good food includes a variety of elements beyond taste, including color, temperature and texture. With dairy off the table, I struggled to come up with a alternative that would provide a creamy texture. How could I make velvety Vichyssoise without cream? Pizza without cheese?

Finally, the recipe that was my bridge to a Plant-based Diet

Cashew Cream 

Creamy Texture: I don't know where I came across this wonderful recipe. It is so good, it stands alone. Not a cheese-alternative or cream-substitute, it is excellent all by itself in providing creamy texture to both savory and sweet recipes.

Well...it doesn't stretch: Cashew Cream does not provide the melting quality of cheese. Casein - the growth promoter protein in dairy - provides the stretchiness in melted cheese. If you purchase "vegan cheese," check the label for casein. Generally, if a Vegan cheese promises it melts like cheese, casein is an ingredient. Crazy!

Gee whiz fact: Casein and Gluten have similar molecular structures, and they both provide stretchiness. Gluten, the protein in wheat that many are sensitive to, provides the stretchy elasticity in wheat flour dough that helps it rise, keep its shape and bake into bread.

Where does cheese get flavor?: You know how yeast provides a yeasty flavor to bread, and another flavor to beer? This got me to wondering. Since yeast is used to make cheese, does yeast add flavor to cheese? I think it does! I'd never have thought this, until trying Nutritional Yeast. 

All the cheese flavor, none of the cholesterol, and loaded with B12

Nutritional Yeast: Yellow in color with a nutty cheese flavor, it’s basically unfermented brewer’s yeast (the yeast used to make beer). Nutritional Yeast is made by culturing yeast in a mixture of sugar cane and beet molasses for 7 days, then harvesting, washing, drying and packaging it. Sold as a powder resembling corn meal, or in flakes, it’s a major source of B12. Use it to add cheese flavor. Some folks use it as a condiment and sprinkle it on foods in the same way that Parmesan cheese is used. Some movie theaters even sprinkle it on their popcorn! Use Nutritional Yeast when a recipe calls for cheese flavor, for example, plant-based macaroni and cheese. (It's been around all my life, but still, what a find!)

Recipe Notes: Raw cashews have little flavor making them an ideal nut to use as a base for savory or sweet "cream." When roasted and salted, cashews have a somewhat sweet and distinctive flavor. Some cashew cream recipes call for soaking overnight. Generally, I don’t bother with the soaking, but it does yield a velvetier creamy texture. For different applications, vary the consistency by adding water or fruit juice to thin the cashew cream. 

Cashew cream will continue to thicken a bit as it stands. In cooking on a stove-top, because of its fat content, cashew cream reduces quickly in a pan, even faster than heavy cream, so watch it closely, and stir often.

Use in recipes the same way as cream, or half-and-half

Cashew Cream

Yield 2 ¼+ cups, depending on the thickness you need

     Place in the container of a heavy duty blender           

               2 cups cashews (can be purchased in 3 lb. containers at big box stores)
                  Use raw for flavorless creamy texture
                  Use roasted, salted cashews for a layer of flavor

     Cover with fresh, cold water, by one inch
                Add additional increments of water as needed, to process, and to thin

     Blend on high speed for several minutes, until velvety smooth. Cover
     and refrigerate until needed. 

Variations  
Get creative!

1. Cheesy: Nutritional yeast to taste
2. For Mexican Crema, thin with a bit of water
3. Go Nuts: Instead of cashews, try almonds, or walnuts, or pecans
4. Salad dressing: Add one whole lemon, one garlic clove, 1 tsp Dijon mustard
5. Savory: Add garlic, herbs, roasted red peppers, “heat,” fresh basil, etc.
6. Sweet: Add honey, maple syrup or agave nectar and vanilla and use as a dollop on pies, cobblers, etc.

I moooooove cashew cream replaces dairy cream in all cooking!