New! Humpday Queso
Scraping together ingredients mid-week for my tostadas
I was making tostadas from some leftover batch-cooked beans and didn’t have my usual ingredients (fresh or roasted red peppers) to make one of my usual vegan queso recipes. It was a little chilly outside so a hot, gooey queso sounded perfect. I thought about what I already had that I could use to create something suitable.
I got this idea of using the oats from Jill McKeever (see her 5-minute Game Changer Cheese Sauce). Hers is made with oats and roasted red bell pepper. I love making cheese sauce with cashews, but the oat version is very good. I decided to combine the idea of cashews as queso and oats as queso, but using a smaller amount of cashews to cut back on the fat. I always have some kind of salsa around – in this case it was a jar of Trader Joe’s Taqueria style salsa, so I used that in place of red peppers.
I must say, it turned out pretty darn good!
This goes to show, once you have a well-stocked pantry, you can pull a meal together in minutes!
Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened plant milk + more for smooth consistency
1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked in boiling water (keep water!)
1/3 cup salsa
2 T Nooch
1 T corn starch (can use Tapioca starch/flour)
1 small lemon, juiced
2 tsp white or yellow miso paste
2 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (for color)
Instructions
Soak your 1/2 cup cashews in 1/2 cup boiling water. While they are soaking, place everything else in your high speed blender. Add the cashews and their soaking water and blend on high (I used a Nutribullet ) and blend until it gets warm – about 5 minutes. It should be nice and gooey, if not you need to keep going until it is! Add more liquid as needed if it’s too thick.
If (big if!) you have any left, it will thicken as it sits, especially after refrigeration. To heat, add 1/2 cup unsweetened plant milk, water or veggie broth to a pan and heat. Add your leftover cheese sauce and whisk until smooth, adding more liquid if needed to get the desired consistency.
