CHEESE DIP AND SAUCE

“Wait, did I hear you correctly? It sounded like you said ‘vegan’ and ‘cheese sauce’ in the same sentence…” Yes! Your ears are not playing tricks on you. You can be a raw vegan and still enjoy the pleasures of cheese dip and cheese sauce with this recipe. Heck, even if someone isn’t raw vegan, they can still enjoy this one, because it really is tasty.

Cheese Dip / Sauce (raw vegan)

  This savory cheese sauce is a great one for raw vegan soft pretzels, crackers, and it goes great on raw noodles (kelp or zucchini) to make mac-n-cheese!   TOTAL TIME15 mins    

EQUIPMENT

• food processor or Vitamix blender

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup cashews
• 1 red sweet bell pepper (chopped)
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 clove garlic
• 1 tsp salt (Himalayan or sea)
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp crushed red pepper
• pinch black pepper
• 2 tsp oregano (for fresh oregano leaf, use 2x more.)
• some water (if needed)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Place all ingredients (besides water) into vitamix blender (or food processor) and blend.
• If you desire a creamier consistency, slowly add water (1 tbsp at a time) until achieved.
• Enjoy! 

NOTES

• Sometimes I like to add more salt or nutritional yeast to this recipe, especially if I will be using it as a sauce on zucchini noodles as these are very watery. 
• This sauce seems to come out as a smoother texture when using the vitamix blender opposed to the food processor. Though, both appliances produce a wonderful cheese sauce. 

This is the perfect cheese sauce recipe to dip raw vegan soft pretzels into or to put on raw vegan tacos, lasagna, or even pizza. It’s a great dip for crackers, etc. The list goes on! My point is that this raw vegan cheese sauce dip is probably my favorite sauce to make because it goes with so many of my favorite foods. 

Some of the raw vegan Cheese Sauce ingredients

SOME RAW COMMENTS ON RECIPE INGREDIENTS

The picture above shows some of the ingredients that go into this vegan cheese sauce. In an ideal world, where we would get the maximum life-force from our food and optimal nutritional value, all of the ingredients would be from plants we grew ourselves. Though this is not feasible for the majority of us. If you do have a garden, you can at least grow the bell pepper and oregano yourself.

Rawest Oregano

My favorite oregano to use in this recipe is the oregano that grows right outside of my house in Puerto Rico. It’s different from the oregano I saw  growing up in Indiana (the one with tiny leaves) This tropical oregano has big, broad leaves.

When I make vegan cheese sauce, I like to put two of these big leaves into it instead of store bought, dried oregano.  I am not sure whether there is a big difference in taste between the two varieties of oregano, but the quantity of leaves makes a difference here!

ANOTHER RAW REASON TO EAT THAT RAW VEGAN CHEESE DIP:

Of course I have to share some of the medicinal properties of at least one of these plants in this recipe! For this one I chose oregano since it can be grown in almost all climates! Even if you don’t live in a place where you can grow plants outside all year round, I found you an article on how to grow oregano indoors!

Now, back to our raw benefits of Oregano!

Oregano contains a natural antifungal called Thymol that helps the immune system protect itself against toxins. It also contains Rosmarinic acid, which is a powerful antioxidant that protects the body from any damage caused by free radicals. Oregano could help defend against yeast infections since it eliminates the growth of fungus. The list goes on!

Additionally, research from the Pacific College of Health and Science, claims as follows:

“Oregano contains quercetin, an ingredient that may help fight ovarian and breast cancer.”

– Alex A. Kecskes

Are you considering growing oregano yet? 

PEEL GARLIC FASTER TO SAVE TIME ON RECIPES

This is a trick I learned on how to quickly remove the outer, papery shell on a garlic clove. You simply smash the clove with a hard, flat surface. I find that the bottom of a cup or the side of a knife works well for me. Then, the shell easily pulls off.

If you love this cheese sauce flavor, be sure to check out the raw vegan mac and cheese recipe. This sauce recipe is used for that also!

If you try this cheese sauce out, feel free to share your experience in the comment section below!

[Original article I wrote on my website]

For more information on why I went R.A.W. feel free to check out my other article.

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