Nachos with avocado-cashew cream!

Last night I was craving nachos.  I got the idea in my head to make some sort of avocado topping for the nachos.  And I had the idea to blend some avocados with cashews…because cashews seem to make most things better.  I did some research and found a few recipes similar to the idea I had in my head.  And I came up with my own avocado-cashew cream topping!

I caught sleepy Juniper yawning this afternoon. I like to image that she’s singing a song. Perhaps Erasure? Probably Oh L’amour.

Avocado-Cashew Cream

• One avocado
• 1/2 raw cashews soaked for a few hours
• 1/4 cup water
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder (if you don’t like spicy things, just leave this out)
• 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast

Blend the soaked cashews with the water until super smooth!  Transfers to a food processor.  My blender didn’t want to blend the avocados.  If yours does…then no need to transfer.  Add the avocado and spices.  Blend and then serve!  I left mine chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes, but it’s ok to use it right away!

Avocado-cashew cream!

Usually we top our nachos with tvp, refried beans and some melty gooey vegan cheese.  I felt like being a little healthier so I chopped up some raw veggies.  I also had some corn and pinto beans to add to the fun!

Bell pepper, avocado-cashew cream and tomatoes.

Also…everything is better with Tapatio sauce! Happy Nacho-ing!

Homemade Vegan Carnival Squash and Cashew Cheese Tortelloni !

I was inspired by a post over at Luminous Vegans to make my own stuffed pasta!

I roasted some Carnival Squash to make my filling for the pasta.

I made a quick cashew cheese to mix in with the roasted squash. I used two cups of soak cashews, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, about 4 tablespoons soy milk and 2 diced jalapenos. I used my blender to mix that together. Then I used one cup of the cashew mixture and combined it with two cups of the roasted squash. And there’s your filling!

For my pasta dough I used two cups unbleached flour, one teaspoon salt and about 1/3 cup water. The jalapenos weren’t as hot as I was hoping so I added two teaspoons cayenne powder to my dough. I must be immune to heat because I couldn’t taste the cayenne at all! Next time I will used habaneros!

My original plan was to make ravioli. They aren’t very pretty so I then started to make tortellini. These are technically TORTELLONI since they are bigger than the traditional sized tortellini. I looked that up…I’m Polish and German…I don’t know THAT much about pasta  🙂

The tortelloni is much prettier than the ravioli!

I gave the finished pasta a quick 3 minute boil.

And then I pan fried them in a little butter to give them a bit of a crunch. Overall this recipe was a success! The filling could use a little more salt and more spicy heat too! Happy pasta making!