Cashew Crumble

Cashew Crumble

Cashew Crumble~ Cashew everything has been all the rage in gluten-free and vegan magazines.  And rightfully so since it is a versatile seed.  Vegan cheese made from cashews is creamy, and has a similar texture to cheese.  But more on vegan cheeses in another post.  I have been using cashew crumb in desserts, like for a filling in a trifle, as breading on top of baked dishes, salads,  and as crumbled cheese, such as a blue cheese.  If you ground the cashew very small, you can also use it for a soup thickener.  The beauty being that you can marinade the cashew crumble in just about anything and the flavor will take with sweet bite to it.

Cashews are a nutritious food that are lower in fat than other nuts.  They contain protein, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, potassium and zinc.  Try buying whole cashews rather than pieces because these nuts tend to stale rather quickly once out of the shell and the whole pieces keep the whole fresher longer.

Cashews work similarly to almonds in that you can make cashew butter or even milk out of them.  For many people, however, they are not always well digested, however, so soaking them and applying them for different uses like some of the ones I have talked about is a possible solution.

The photo below shows the cashews in a fairly small crumb, the size of rock salt.  I find this size to work for many dishes such as salads or toppings.  You can keep the crumb in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Cashew Crumble

Ingredients

• 2 cups of whole fresh cashews
• 3 cups of room temperature water

Instructions

• In a medium-sized bowl, place cashews and water.  Cover with plate or another flat surface and soak for 6 hours at room temperature.
• Drain cashews and place them in a food processor on the pulse level until you get a crumbly texture.  Find different sizes of crumbling for whatever you would like to use them for. The consistency will be a bit sticky from the oils in the cashew.