The easy - no cook- creamy romesco style sauce. GF-DF

The recipe that broke the taste testing lunch.

When you are making a new recipe, you can’t just rely on your own taste buds, especially when you are on version 5 of a gluten, dairy, soya free dish. The versions can blur into one and you need an extra opinion or two to check you have the right amount of seasoning or texture in your final recipe.

Once I started creating recipes two friends selflessly volunteered themselves to be my chief taste testers.

Mrs C – Loves meat, veggies and is super easy. The only things she doesn’t like are peas, raisins, and some soups.

Mr C - Loves meat and eggs. And could be described as veggie reluctant. (He has been known to refuse meals if they contain veg that are on his naughty list.)

If I make food they both loved, I know I am onto something.

Their fantastic feedback, including ‘It looks too green’ (Guess who that is from?) lets me know when a recipe is ready to go out into the world.

How it works…

Either I would deliver food to them or have Mrs C round for a taste testing lunch.

But this recipe I’m about to share with you broke our taste testing lunch system.

Usually, myself and Mrs C would test 2-3 versions of a dish, share notes and lots of laughter. When we taste tested my potato salad (link to youtube), The winner was obvious.

‘I could eat this one all day.’ My friend moaned as she went in for another spoonful of recipe B.

And I mentally ticked off the recipe in my head and thought about writing it up.

But this time was different.

I made three versions of this sauce. One, a more traditional romesco sauce made with almonds and two were variations on a theme made from cashew nuts.

She tried all three.. There was a pause, she tried them again then smiled.

‘I love all of them!’ as she reached out to try them for a third time.

‘But if you had to choose….’ I prompted.

She couldn’t.

This hadn’t happened before. Usually there is a clear winner or at least notes on how to improve a recipe.

‘You should share all of them.’ She smiled as she went for some more.

That didn’t help and I was confused. I couldn’t share 3 different lots of the same sauce with you all!

So, we came up with a solution. I merged the first two which were similar anyway and left the third one alone.

So this is the first one I’m sharing with you. A creamy romesco style sauce with a twist, it’s made with cashew nuts.

It’s naturally gluten/dairy/egg/soya free and is tangy, smoky, and complex in a way that will make your mouth do a happy dance.

The cashew nuts make it extra creamy and really versatile, as a dip, on pasta, in tacos or with veg.

It’s quick and easy to make with no cooking. It also freezes really well in ice cube trays. I just pop them out when I need them and leave them to melt.

If you want to see how it is made, here is a video of me making it too. Wait till you see how it can make a second easy meal.

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"If you had to choose just one sauce to use forever, what would it be?"

Servings: 1.5 cups - Will make enough for tacos for 4, or to serve with roasted cauliflower for 4 too.

Prep time: 10 mins + soaking time for cashews.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of cashew nuts soaked in water for 1-2 hours (If you can’t soak them for this long, then soak for 20 mins in hot water)

• 1 garlic roughly chopped

• 35g of sun-dried tomatoes

• 160g of jared cooked peppers drained of brine

• 0.3 cup of water + little more to lose

• 1.5 teaspoons of red vinegar

• 0.5 teaspoon of smoked paprika

• Pinch of smoky chilli flakes

• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Soak the cashew nuts in hot water for 20 mins or cool water for 1-2 hours.

2. Drain them then add to blender with the other ingredients apart from the water.

3. Blend till smooth. I used a Nutri bullet to do this but you can use a regular blender too. It just might just take a bit longer.

4. Add water in two parts, till you get your desired thickness and flavour.

5. Add more seasoning if you need.

6. Pour into a bowl and use a little bit more water to rinse the blender of the rest of the sauce. This is best done with the lid on so you can shake it.

7. Serve as a dip, as a base for roasted cauliflower or a salad. Pour over veg or pasta.