Smothered Burrito with Cashew Cream Sauce

One of my new recipe faves is Cashew Cream Sauce. The process starts out similar to making cashew cheese - by simply soaking some raw cashews.

I recently made Cilantro-lime Cashew Cream Sauce to smother my vegan burritos in. Totally cravable! But the best part about cashew-cream sauce is that you can flavor it with a wide variety of ingredients - for use in a wide variety of recipes. Try sun-dried tomato cashew cream sauce over pasta - or perhaps a lemon-basil sauce over a crisp green salad, or wasabi-infused sauce over tofu and rice noodles. The possibilities are endless. So check out my "how-to make Cashew Cream Sauce" and get started!.. It's super easy.

Cashew Cream Sauce - Inside a veggie burrito

How-to Make Cashew Cream Sauce

Ingredients
raw cashews
water for soaking
sea salt for soaking

flavoring ingredients

How-to:

1. First you'll need some soaked raw cashews - I usually use about 2 cups per batch. I soak mine overnight, but at least 4-6 hours is standard. For soaking your cashews you'll want to add a pinch of salt and enough water to cover the cashews by at least an inch - since the water will absorb into the nuts.

2. When you are ready to make your sauce simply add your cashews, soaking water (a little at a time until the desired consistency is reached) and add-in flavors. I always like to add in at least one spice and at least one acid like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.

Need a recipe?..

Smother Sauce and more. This dairy-free (ultra-creamy) Cashew-Cream Sauce is not only fabulous for smothering burritos – you can easily use it as a raw salad dressing, toss pasta in it and you can even fill your burritos or enchiladas with this sauce. You can also flavor it however you’d like! I used cilantro and lime to stay with the “fiesta” flavor profile. But here are a few other yummy ideas..

basil and lemon
dill and onion
scallion
orange and parsley
sun-dried tomato and garlic
olive
caper
artichoke
roasted pepper and chiles

..and on and on..

But for right now, lets stick to the smothered burrito sauce..

Cilantro Cashew-Cream Smother Sauce
vegan, makes 4-5 cups sauce

soaked cashews (soak for at elate 4+ hours)
2 cups raw cashews
1 teaspoon sea salt
water – enough to cover the cashews by at least an inch
*reserve the soaking water

flavors:
2 cups fresh cilantro (leaves and stems – about a half a big bunch)
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 limes, juiced (add some zest too – optional)
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon cayenne powder
salt and pepper sauce to taste
optional: a few tablespoons of agave syrup if you’d like a sweet accent

burrito garnish: fresh cilantro, pumpkin seeds, olives and chipotle powder – lime slices

Burritos with your choice of fillings (I did whole wheat veggie-stuffed burritos)

Directions:

1. Soak your raw cashews in the salted water for at least four hours. Overnight is best – you want the cashews to become velvety and soft to puree perfectly in your high speed blender or food processor.

2. Add your cashews and the soaking water to your high speed blender or food processor. I add in about 1- 1 ½ cups of the soaking water. Adjust the liquid to however thick you want your sauce to be. Obviously, the more water you add, the “wetter” your sauce will be. But just be sure to add enough water to properly blend the cashews.

3. Add in your flavors – here I used cilantro, lime and cider vinegar – and a few spices.

4. You can either serve your sauce raw and as-in (aka, room temperature) – or you can heat it and add it over top your burrito as a warm sauce. Either way is delicious. I think i prefer this sauce warmed over burritos – however, on salads – I love this sauce raw and chilled.

-add smother sauce to your favorite burrito recipe – I used veggie burritos stuffed with plantains, spicy tofu, portobello mushrooms, cabbage slaw, spinach, soy cheese and green chiles..

..I used this recipe which added lime and fresh cilantro to make my smothered burritos...

Vegan toppings to make burritos - tacos - or enchiladas! Spicy tofu, portobello mushrooms, plantains, cabbage slaw and cashew cream sauce..