In my quest to make a grilled cheese sandwich to go with my tomato soup, I thought I'd give this recipe a try. The cheese was very good! It's the consistency of Velveta cheese...just much healthier and tastes better! :) I put it in the refrigerator for an hour to thicken up. I will say, it is very messy. I didn't mind. I dipped it in the tomato soup recipe on my blog and it was fabulous!! I have a lot of the cheese mixture left over. I will make macaroni and cheese out of it tomorrow night!
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups peeled and finely diced potatoes (i used Russets, but yellow work as well)
1/4 cup peeled and diced fresh carrot
1/3 cup peeled and diced onion
2/3 cup water (preferably from pot of cooked veggies above)
1/2 cup raw cashews (pre soaked for a few hours if not using a high speed blender)
1/4 cup coconut milk (lite or full fat)
2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 loaf vegan french bread, or vegan bread of your choice
Vegan butter (I used Earth balance) or coconut oil for grilling sandwiches.
Instructions:
- In a medium saucepan, bring several cups of water to boil.
- Place prepared potato, carrot, and onion into the boiling water, and cook until potatoes are fork tender, or about 10 minutes.
- While your potatoes, carrot, and onion are cooking, place ⅔ cup water (preferably water from your pot of cooking/cooked vegetables), cashews, coconut milk, yeast flakes, lemon juice, salt, and garlic powder into your blender. Blend on high until everything is creamy smooth.
- When potatoes are fork-tender, place potatoes, carrot, and onion into your blender--using a slotted spoon to avoid adding excess water to your cheese.
- Blend everything on high until smooth.
- You can use this cheese as is (pretty warm) to make your grilled cheese sandwiches, or you can place it in the fridge for a few hours or days to cool and thicken up slightly--which makes a less messy grilled cheese sandwich. If you're like me, you don't mind ooey gooey all-over-the-place cheese, and the hot stuff works just fine.
- Slather your cheese sauce on 2 thick slices of bread, slap 'em together, and brush the outsides of your sandwich with either coconut oil (or other heat-safe oil of your choice) or vegan butter. (I use Earth Balance, generally.)
- Place your sandwich in a preheated pan or griddle on medium heat. Usually, my sandwiches only need about 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side to be nice and crispy. Check your first sandwiches frequently, as they can burn quickly without warning.
