VEGAN RECIPE REVIEW: Cashew-Bean Queso

We had a super fun time with Dave and Renee last night--it had been way too long! We played Euchre and I think that was probably the worst game of Euchre I've ever played, thanks to very unlucky deals, but we needed the laughs.

Before they came over, I made a vegan queso dip recipe that I'd been wanting to try for the longest time. A reader named Laura sent me this recipe last fall and said it was the best vegan queso dip. I kept forgetting about it, but when I wanted to hurry and put together a snack before Dave and Renee came over, it popped into my head and I thought I had all the ingredients. And luckily, I did!

I hadn't been planning to review it here, so I didn't take pictures; but Jerry loved it so much that he asked me to make more of it today for the Superbowl. This time, I figured I'd take some pictures and post about it here.

Usually I write my opinion after the recipe stuff, but since this is my second time making it in two days, I think it speaks for itself. This was VERY good (we ate it with tortilla chips). The flavor reminded me a lot of chili cheese dip; the texture was a little different because of the puréed beans, but I thought the texture was perfect for a dip.

What the others thought: Dave complimented it right away, but I never mentioned anything about it being vegan. Renee ate some, so I'm assuming she liked it. Jerry loved it and finished off the bowl last night. Noah thought it was surprisingly good. Eli, being Eli, said it was okay--if he was "into vegan food" he would like it. Hahaha.

Anyway, this recipe was actually from a book called The Great Vegan Bean Book by Kathy Hester. I was so glad to google it and see that it was also printed online so that I could share it! You can find the recipe here (I'll link to it again at the end of the post). I ended up changing a couple of things after tasting, but I didn't make any changes until after I tried it as written.

(There's actually not much to write... this is another very simple recipe!)

First, the ingredients:

Cashews, white beans, nutritional yeast, unsweetened non-dairy milk, chopped green chiles, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt. Optional pickled or fresh jalapeño slices. I ended up using jalapeño slices--not pictured.

(I didn't mean to add the tomatoes to the ingredients photo, because they aren't called for in the recipe. After tasting the recipe as-is, I made a few adjustments, including the tomatoes, which I'll explain below.)

I used great northern beans because they have very soft skin and blend very smooth. Soy milk is my non-dairy milk of choice.

This really couldn't be any simpler: Just put all ingredients in a blender. (The cashews should be soaked in water until soft unless you have a high-powered blender that can get them super smooth.)

Blend until completely smooth.

There was still a tiny bit of texture to it but I realized it was from the beans, so there no amount of blending was going make it smoother. (The texture wasn't bad in any way--I was just unsure if I should keep blending to try to get it even smoother.)

Definitely serve this when it's hot--it's amazing! Yesterday, I ended up putting it in a small crockpot so that it would stay warm until we were ready to eat it.

YUM! It was SO good and the whole thing took less than five minutes to make. I always have those ingredients on hand, so this is something I could definitely make for last-minute guests. And it's super healthy; I think that it would be just almost as good on a baked potato as it was with chips.

Jerry and I gave it a try right away and we both loved it. First, though, I decided to add a couple of things. I *love* green chiles and you couldn't really taste them, so I added the rest of the can. I kind of missed a chunky texture, so I added a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles (yesterday, I used few big scoops of fresh salsa) and stirred it in--I didn't blend it. 

This is what it looked like after I stirred everything in. Not sure if it looks better or worse, haha! But it tasted amazing :)

I'm sure I'll be making this frequently! Here is the link to the recipe: Cashew-Bean Queso.