6 raw ideas to make the most of cashews

With raw cooking methods, cashew can be transformed into almost any ingredient you want. It is also very rich and nutritious.

Cashew is the “dairy” par excellence of the plant kingdom. With this rich nut, increasingly popular in our culture, we can obtain culinary results very similar to a cheese, cream or milk and achieve very pleasant creamy textures.

This dried fruit is the seed of a tropical tree, native to the Amazon, which is also found in Asia. This tree gives fresh red and yellow pseudo fruits that grow next to the cashew, the seed protected by a very hard shell. That is, the same tree generates two different fruits.

HOW DO I CONSUME CASHEW?

The fresh fruit is consumed only in the regions where it is grown because it is very perishable. The dried fruit is peeled and ready to consume. You can get cashews “raw” (they have actually been steamed during peeling to inactivate a toxin in the peel), roasted, fried, salted, etc.

The “raw” are the most recommended because they contain more unchanged nutrients. There are really raw, uncooked an arcade, which are cold peeled with a safe process, but they are more expensive and difficult to find.

CASHEW IS GOOD FOR THE BRAIN

At the nutritional level, it is an ideal food for the mind. In some places they call it “the fruit of memory”, probably due to the combination of magnesium and B vitamins. It is also loaded with zinc (20% of daily needs in a 30 g ration), phosphorus (20%), selenium (10%) and iron (9%).

DARE WITH THESE PREPARATIONS WITH CASHEWS

1. Activate them: they can be eaten as is, but I recommend that you let them soak for 4-6 hours to improve their texture and digestibility. You can eat them like this or dehydrate them again.
2. Flavored snacks: after soaking, season them with curry, tomato, pesto, wasabi, cinnamon or whatever you want and dehydrate them at less than 40 ºC.
3. Raw parmesan: Crush 150 g of cashews along with 4 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, a little salt and turmeric. You can use it in salads, pastas, etc.
4. Cashew milk: once activated, drained and washed, crush them with water and pass them through a cloth bag to make a delicious milk with which to prepare smoothies, sauces and creams. With the remaining pulp you can make cake bases or dehydrate it and get a cashew flour.
5. Creamy cheese: crush the cashew previously soaked with rejuvelac (here we explain how to prepare it with quinoa) until a creamy consistency is achieved. Then let it sit for 1 to 5 hours. You can season this cheese with whatever you want and use it for spreading or for any other recipe.
6. Sweet and savory creams: crush them with water, lemon juice, salt and herbs and you will have a delicious pâté. If you do it with red fruits, oil and coconut sugar you will get a pastry cream. Connect with your inspiration!

RECIPES WITH “RAW” CASHEWS

Dates filled with cashew and pistachio cream

Irresistible vegan cheese for pasta

Very green cashew salad