So, y’all know my nickname is the Bacon Babe, right? I’m all about meat eating fabulousness– and as far as I’m concerned, bacon is one of the 4 four groups. But, sometimes, it’s healthy to have a meatless meal when you’re out of bacon just to change up the flavor profiles, yo!
So, this is one of the ONLY purely vegan meals I make. It passed the “dude test” with flying colors– JP tried it and asked me if he was eating PORK! (I consider that a success story. Vegans reading might cringe at the thought, though, LOL!) Anyhoo, it’s freaking good.
I taught a group of ladies how to make this meal at my first cooking class– the cashew cheese was the biggest hit, ever.
It’s sooo worth learning how to use a food processor for this. Just use the “S” blade and pulverize the nuts with the ingredients. The red pepper turns the cashews into a pretty shade of Doritos (!) and tastes even better. You can spread this “cheese” on kale chips, bake them and then do a fake out with your kiddos and let them think they ARE eating Doritos. It’s that good, y’all. Seriously. Who’s hungry??!
Save your bacon for another day….
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnuts
- 4-6 red cabbage leaves
- 2 Tb chipotle chili powder
- 1 Tb coriander
- 1 Tb cumin
- 1 Tb dried cilantro
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup raw cashews (soak in water for 1-2 hours and drain)
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 Tb olive oil
- 1 roasted red pepper
- 2 Tb nutritional yeast
- 1 Tb soy sauce
- Kosher salt to taste
- 1 mango diced
- 1 jalapeño
- 2-3 Tb fresh chopped cilantro
- 2 Tb chopped red onion
- ½ lime squeezed
Instructions
- Take the one cup of walnuts and pulse in the food processor a few times to crumble into smaller bits (so it looks like taco meat).
- Soak walnuts for 3 hours and drain.
- Mix spice mix together and sprinkle a couple teaspoons on the walnuts until coated. (You won't need to use the entire amount of spice mix-- just put it in a baggie or a spice container to use for a later time. The spice mix is fabulous on ground chicken, ground turkey or beef as well.)
- Preheat oven to 350 and bake the spiced walnuts on a rimmed cookie sheet for 5-7 minutes until warm.
- Soak cashews for 3 hours. Drain.
- Add cashews and all the other ingredients to the food processor and mix until smooth-- about 1-2 minutes. You can always thin it out by adding a little water to the mixture, but I like the consistency of this proportion a lot. It's cheeeeeesy!
- Combine ingredients and top on to your taco.
- *I like to layer the walnuts on the cabbage leaves, then the cashew cheese, then the mango salsa.
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