Smoky Sweet Potato Cashew Queso
Mexican-style queso is that creamy, orange, spicy, liquidy cheese you love to slather over nachos, tacos and loaded baked potatoes. But what if you can’t eat cheese? Then this dairy-free version is for you.
This recipe was a result of quite a bit of trial and error. In a cooking class I taught at my family’s church, the theme was Super Bowl party appetizers and I really wanted queso to be part of it. But I just couldn’t find one that I liked.
I’ve tried straight up cashew queso ‘cheeze’ and found it pretty dissatisfying. That doesn’t mean you can’t make a fantastic cashew queso, just that the ones I tried, I didn’t love. I don’t want to taste nutritional yeast and thickeners, I want to taste creamy, spicy cheeziness.
The other thing I tried was making queso from butternut squash. This presented a few problems. First, many recipes I found used loads of oil, which was the opposite of what I wanted to do. I wanted a delicious but healthy dairy-free queso. Back to the drawing board.
I tried my hand at creating queso from roasted and grilled veggies, including butternut squash, jalapeño, onion and garlic, with the idea that grilling could impart a naturally smoky flavor and umami. Result: epic fail. The butternut squash (which I roasted), came out much too watery and diluted the overall taste of the dish. And the onion, which many queso recipes call for, just left me with a much too oniony tasting cheese sauce.
In the end, I managed to come up with a queso that is creamy, smoky, spicy, and oil free. It’s equal parts cashew and sweet potato, and you can adjust the spice factor depending on the tastes of your audience.
A few things to keep in mind when you make this queso
You must soak the cashews at least four hours
This is what helps them blend together and give your queso and nice smooth consistency and creamy taste.
“sweat” The garlic without oil
Normally, “sweating” garlic involves the following: add minced garlic and a bit of olive oil to a cold sauté pan and then turn on the heat to very low. When the garlic begins to cook, you’ll barely hear it because the heat is so low. The garlic is then cooked until soft, always remaining its original color, never browning.
In this recipe, you can use a little olive oil when you sweat the garlic, or you can use this alternate, no-oil technique. Instead of oil, you’ll just need to add a little bit of water (maybe a tablespoon at a time) every so often in order to keep the garlic from sticking to the pan. You want the garlic to soften and not brown. It might take you a try or two to get right, but it’s a great skill to master.
THIS non-Dairy queso is not going to taste like real cheese
And that’s true of any dairy-free cheese. It’s important to get that out of your mind, so that your taste buds are not disappointed. But if you can let go of the need to have oozy, fatty cheese, and allow yourself to be open to new culinary adventures, I think you’ll be pretty happy with the result.
Smoky Sweet Potato Cashew Queso
Makes about 2 1/2 cups
Ingredients
1 cup raw cashews, soaked and drained
2 cups sweet potato, cut into large dice
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 jalapeño, seeds removed
1 tablespoon miso paste
1 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (like almond milk)
Smoked paprika, chopped cilantro and sliced scallions for garnish (optional)
Directions
1. Soak the cashews in a bowl of cold water for four hours or overnight, then drain.
2. Steam the sweet potato until tender.
3. In a non-stick pan, sweat the minced garlic over low heat. Add water, a tiny bit at time, to keep the garlic from sticking. After a few minutes, the garlic should be softened.
4. Add the cumin, chipotle chili powder, and salt to the garlic and stir to coat. Add in the sweet potato and stir so that the seasonings are coating the sweet potato. Add the apple cider vinegar to deglaze- in other words, you want to get all the bits of garlic, spices and sweet potato to become unstuck from the pan.
4. Immediately toss the pan mixture into your blender. Add in the drained cashews, nutritional yeast, dijon mustard, turmeric and jalapeño. In a small bowl, add about a tablespoon of water to the miso paste and mix it thoroughly with a spoon until the miso is dissolved and you have a thick but viscous paste. Add that to the blender, along with one cup of the milk.
5. Start blending until smooth. If you need additional milk to blend everything together or reach the smooth consistency that you’re aiming for, add more milk.
6. You’re done! Garnish with a sprinkle of smoked paprika, sliced scallions and cilantro.
Recipe Variations
Want a milder dip? Use only half the jalapeño or cut the amount of chili powder.
Like it even spicier? Forget about de-seeding the jalapeño and just throw the whole thing into the blender! You could also garnish with chipotle powder instead of smoked paprika, or stir in some of your favorite hot sauce at the end.
Looking for something a little more chunky? Stir in a bit of your favorite salsa at the very end. Just make sure the salsa is thick and not watery.
You can easily cut this recipe in half- but once you taste it, you’ll probably be happy you didn’t- trust me, it won’t last long in your fridge!
