Creamy Cashew Dressing

This dressing is meant to mimic Caesar dressing, but it tastes more nutty than traditional Caesar to me, so I have decided to call it Creamy Cashew Dressing! The creaminess that the cashews add to the dressing is what I love most about it; you don't have to feel guilty because it's right in line with Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live guidelines, even the strict phase. According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, adding a little fat from nuts and seeds to your meal allows better absorption of the nutrients in your veggies and fruit.

You're probably like, HEY MAURA! Why can't I just buy vegan dressing at Whole Foods? Well dear reader, of course you can do that! However, keep in mind to pay attention to labels. If you are trying to follow the nutritarion/Eat to Live lifestyle which frowns upon added oils, be mindful that most store bought dressings contain a lot them. You may also have a higher sodium content in the store-bought version than the homemade kind, which is usually the case.


Ingredients:

3/4 cup raw cashews

3/4 cup water (or more, depending on how thick or runny you want your dressing)

4 tablespoons lime (or lemon) juice

1 dried (and pitted) Medjool date

5-6 cloves garlic

1/4 cup nutritional yeast*(optional)

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp red (cayenne) pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375°F
• Put garlic cloves on pan (take cloves off the bulb, but do not unwrap them entirely)
• I tend to do it like this, and use the rest of the roasted garlic in another recipe 

Picture from www.ecurry.com

• Let them roast in oven for up to 25 minutes
• Soak raw cashews in water for approximately 10 minutes to soften them up. This will make them easier to blend. I let them soak while I am waiting for the garlic to roast.
• When garlic is roasted, add 2 tbsp of roasted garlic to blender or food processor.
• Add all other ingredients
• Process/blend, adding water until you reach the desired consistency
• Serve over your huge salad and pat yourself on the back for being awesome!

*For those not familiar with nutritional yeast, it can be found in health food stores or in the health food section of stores. Here in NEPA we have Wegman's (all hail) and they have a great heath food section where you can get ingredients such as nutritional yeast in bulk. It's about $10/lb of it, and a pound of this stuff is a LOT. It's a good value.

- In the recipe, Feel free to add LESS nutritional yeast than me. I always add more than other recipes call for, because I happen to love love love the cheesy flavor and thicker consistency it yields. I've heard that some people find the flavor weird. You can also omit nutritional yeast entirely if you like, it will still taste yummy. If you decide to use it, it IS a good source of B vitamins and amino acids!