Tag: vegan baked potato

Loaded Baked Potato with Cashew Garlic Cream Sauce

Turn a baked potato into an award winning side by adding cashew garlic cream sauce, a sprinkling of nutritional yeast and fresh chives. The cashew garlic cream sauce is a great substitute for sour cream without all the saturated fat. Nutritonal yeast is a deactivated yeast powder that has a cheesy and savory flavor. It is a great substitute for cheese. I like to add cut up chives for a nice oniony flavor. Some other additions could be black beans, broccoli florets, sliced jalapenos, salsa or corn kernels. For a fun dinner party idea set the toppings in individuals bowls and create a serving station.

What is nutritional yeast? Nutritional yeast is an inactive yeast that is grown on sugarcane or molasses. It gets heated and dried then crumbled into flakes or powder. It is low in calories and sodium and – best of all – nutritious. Nutritional yeast is an excellent source of B vitamins (B1 thiamine, B2 riboflavin, B3 niacin, B5 pantothenic acid, B6 pyridoxine and B7 biotin). The only B vitamins it does not have are B12 cyanocobalamin and B9 folic acid (unless it has been fortified). You cannot get yeast infections from eating nutritional yeast.

Where can you get nutritional yeast? I started off buying mine online because the local grocery stores did not sell it. I have since found that Trader Joes sells it near the baking products and Lucky’s Market sells it in their bulk section.

How do you store nutritional yeast? To preserve the B vitamins in nutritional yeast it ideally should be stored in a container with dark glass, tightly sealed to keep moisure out and in a cool dry place or refrigerator. Under these conditions it can keep for up to 2 years.

What are some ways you can use nutritional yeast? Add it to anything that you want a cheesy flavor to. Sprinkle on popcorn, bake it in crackers, stir it in mashed potatoes, cauliflower potatoes or rice, toss it on baked kale chips, add it to salads or add it to the cashew garlic cream sauce (along with some other spices) to make a fantastic vegan nacho sauce for tortilla chips or macaroni and cheese.

Nutritional Yeast

Cashew Garlic Cream

  • 2 cups raw cashews
  • 1 1/4 cup vegetable broth
  • 2 large garlic toes
  • 2 tsps onion powder

Directions

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Pour in the cashews and cover the pot. Let cashews soak for 30 minutes (minimum) to 1 hour. Drain the water. Note: Soaking pulls the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors out of the cashews making the cream tastier and easier to digest. The longer you soak the cashews the softer they become and the smoother and creamier your cream sauce will be.
  2. Place cashews, vegetable broth, garlic and onion powder in a high speed blender and whip it up for approximately 1 minute until creamy. Note: For best results use a blender. A food processor will not create the satiny smooth texture achieved by blending. If you don’t have a blender a food processor will work but the result will be less desireable.
Allow raw cashews to soak in hot water for 30 minutes to 1 hour
Raw cashews, garlic, vegetable broth, onion powder (not pictured)

My Mom’s Christmas Eve Mushroom Soup

A special dedication to my mom

This recipe dates back to childhood. It was a favorite of my sister Joyce and I. Funny, I haven’t thought about this soup in all of forever but recently I had a dream that we were all sitting around the dining room table and mom was serving this soup. Isn’t that crazy how past memories way back from childhood resurface during the deep of REM? In the dream I remember Joyce being the taste tester as mom gradually added more and more vinegar until the perfect level of sourness was achieved. I was always jealous of that. I mean why was Joyce always the taste tester???

The original recipe was from the Slovak-American cookbook that mom lovingly bought for each of her three girls. She made some changes though. Intead of saurkraut juice she used white vinegar. My mom was smart. Saurkraut juice is freakin high in sodium. She also added Acini De Pepe “stones of grape” pasta which gave the soup more substance. Three additional change that I made were, instead of using butter to make the roux, I used extra virgin olive oil. Now I know this blog is about no salt, oil or sugar but this is one recipe I had to make a compromise. The second change I made was using whole wheat flour instead of white flour. The last change was I added an extra cup of water to account for the pasta . Despite the changes I made I honestly feel the final product was a 100% match to my childhood soup.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound fresh white mushrooms
  • 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp. flour
  • White vinegar to taste
  • 1 – 2 tsps. ground black pepper
  • 1/3 onion
  • 3/4 cup Acini De Pepe pasta
  • 5 cups water

Directions

  1. Wash mushrooms then cut up in small pieces. Cook in 1 quart water until tender. Do not discard the mushroom water. Add the pepper.
  2. Brown flour in olive oil until light brown. Add the onions and brown. Add 1/4 cup water, bring to a boil while stirring. Strain. Add to the mushrooms and mushroom water. Simmer for a couple minutes.
  3. Add the Acini De Pepe pasta and simmer 10 more minutes (or until the pasta is cooked).
  4. Slowly add the white vinegar 1 tbsp. at a time until desired sour level is achieved.
Mushrooms, onion, black pepper, Acini De Pepi pasta (not pictured)
My American-Slovak cook book. Thank you mom. I love you.
Recipe with notes taken from my sister that were dictated by mom
I loved when my mom wrote us recipes and added special notes