Vegan Cashew Cream with Roasted Vegetables

Let’s get the most obvious out of the way. You do not have to adhere to a vegan diet in order to enjoy vegan recipes. There are many reasons to opt for vegan recipes, including health concerns, weight loss, environmental sustainability, allergy requirements, and animal rights. Whether any of these reasons speak to you, or whether you’re eating vegan by accident, there are countless vegan recipes — some that use substitutions to recreate a favorite dish, and some that naturally cook up vegan (such as this recipe) — that pack all the flavor and heartiness to satisfy even the staunchest of meat–eaters. Similarly, you don’t have to eat strictly vegan in order to realize the health and environmental benefits of vegan cooking. Every plant–based substitution that you make will benefit you and the planet. 

This cashew cream recipe makes for a delicious and wholesome vegan meal when paired with roasted vegetables and your choice of whole grain. Toasted cashews and garlic deliver rich, savory flavor; simmering and blending the sauce creates a thick luxurious texture. The resulting sauce is versatile and pairs easily with myriad flavor profiles. 

The process

Whipping up this delicious cashew cream is a quick and straightforward process. The whole thing can be prepared while roasting vegetables in the oven and cooking rice on the stove. 

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And that’s all there is to it! Simple roasted vegetables taste great with the cashew cream, but if you want to branch out, consider serving the sauce with Japanese soba noodles with toasted sesame oil; Caribbean–inspired rice with turmeric, allspice, plantains and peppers; Mediterranean grains with herbs and pomegranate molasses; or just some lentils and crusty bread; just to name a few options. I admit I’ve served the sauce with meat before, and although you get fewer of the plant–based benefits, it’s definitely still a delicious meal. 

That’s where a plant–based diet comes in. 

What Does Plant–Based Mean?

On a surface level “plant–based” is a straightforward and self–explanatory term. It refers to foods that are derived from vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, nuts, seeds and other naturally grown sources; as opposed to foods that come from animals such as meat, dairy and eggs. However, the definition of a plant–based diet is less standardized. Definitions and implementations can vary depending on the source, and the term is often used interchangeably with vegetarian and vegan. 

Several leading sources employ my preferred approach to a plant–based diet, in which plant–based ingredients are the primary components of recipes, but animal products are not strictly eliminated. In other words, it’s a “flexitarian” diet that avoids animal products as centerpieces or foundational recipe ingredients. By making plant–based recipes a priority but not a requirement in your diet, you can enjoy many of their benefits without feeling constrained. 

With every plant–leaning choice, you can foster a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle. Even when you continue to use animal products as necessary or in supporting culinary roles, reducing your consumption of them brings health and environmental benefits. There is no required threshold — simply focusing on incorporating more plant–based foods in your meals makes a difference. 

When you make room on your plate for more vegetables, fruits, grains, beans and nuts, you give them the opportunity to perform to their full potential. You’ll find that all of these plant–based ingredients burst with flavor and easily hold their own as main courses. So whether you aim to cut animal products out of your diet entirely, or just move them out of your kitchen’s spotlight and into a supporting role, you create opportunities for more plant–based foods and their corresponding benefits. 

How to Incorporate Plant–Based Meals

Shifting to a more plant–based diet doesn’t have to feel daunting. There are many different approaches to incorporating a higher ratio of plant–based ingredients in your kitchen, and there’s no wrong place to start. Any change you make in favor of plant–based products counts. Here are a few easy options of how to start eating more plant–based foods. 

A Recipe Per Week

Choose a vegetarian or vegan recipe to make each week. With this approach, you know exactly how to use each ingredient, and know that you will end up with a meal that is vegetarian or vegan. If it makes the routine easier, you can plan for it to be the same day every week. Whether it’s meatless monday, meat–free friday, or salad sunday, you can get into a healthy rhythm. If you already eat one or more plant–based meals per week, plan to increase the number of recipes you make — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, whatever feels achievable to you. 

Ingredient Substitutions

Choose plant–based products that you can substitute for animal products. You can choose to substitute staple ingredients in your kitchen, such as using plant–based milk instead of dairy milk; refined coconut oil instead of butter; plant–based meat instead of ground beef. You can also substitute an ingredient that is a part of a recipe if the recipe suggests the option, or if you are confident that the ingredient will not negatively affect the recipe. For instance, you can use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth; or depending on the recipe, tofu instead of chicken, or mushrooms instead of bacon. 

Think Outside the Box 

Don’t let yourself be confined by conventional practices. If you find that it’s easier for you to eat more plant–based products by having 5 smaller meals a day instead of 3 large meals, then go for it! If you’re used to preparing a main course, a side, and a sauce, but find that a spread of side dishes is easier to incorporate plant–based options, then try it. If switching up your meal prep routine, and making a big batch of whole grains over the weekend to mix and match with different sauces and vegetables throughout the week works for you, then do it. 

Think beyond dinner as well. Look for plant–based options or substitutions in your breakfasts, lunches and snacks. Get creative and you’ll inherently open up more options — some of those options may align with your plant–based aspirations.

Tie–Breaker

Let the plant–based factor be a tie breaker. When you’re deciding between multiple recipes to make, or if you’re on the fence about your afternoon snack, consider which option is more plant–forward. With this approach you don’t have to plan ahead or go out of your way to prioritize plant–based products. Instead, you choose the more plant–based alternative among the options that you are already considering. 

Important Plant–Based Ingredients

Eating more plant–based meals is easy when those meals are delicious and you look forward to them — and delicious meals start with having the right ingredients to develop full, complex flavor. There is no shortage of delicious ingredients when it comes to vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, and nuts. The produce section is where I’m most likely to pick up an impulse purchase when I’m at the grocery store. However, there are certain noteworthy ingredients that either have specific culinary properties or flavor compounds that make them particularly useful in the plant–based cooking arsenal. 

• Cashews are low in fiber and high in starch, resulting in the ability to produce a smooth cream, such as in the recipe here. All other nuts make great additions to plant–based cooking as well, adding earthy, rich and sometimes tannic notes to recipes. Most nuts are also good sources of protein, omega–3 fatty acids, calcium and zinc, all assets in the plant–based world. 
  
• Coconut serves as an effective dairy substitute for milk, yogurt, and cream. Coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature, is also unique in its ability to replace butter, and crucial in vegan baking. Unrefined coconut oil has a strong coconut flavor which is often pleasant in baking applications. Refined coconut oil is a neutral, flavorless oil with the same beneficial cooking properties. 
  
• Kombu, miso, soy sauce, tomato paste and nutritional yeast are all high in glutamates, the compounds that carry umami flavor, one of the five basic tastes. Umami is described as meaty, savory or brothy, and is arguably the most difficult flavor to conjure in plant–based cooking. These plant–based glutamate–rich ingredients are therefore crucial in developing complexity and depth of flavor in vegan recipes. For more about umami, read this helpful guide.
  
• Mushrooms and cauliflower are able to mimic the texture of meat. Mushrooms have chitin, which keep them from breaking down when cooked and provide a pleasant meat–like chew; they are also high in glutamates, delivering umami flavor as well. Braised mushrooms, or stuffed and roasted mushrooms make great meat–alternatives. Cauliflower’s mild flavor, and varying textures make it particularly versatile as a meat substitute. Slicing cauliflower to create “steaks”, or roasting it whole make great additions to the plant–based diet repertoire. 
  
• Beans are a healthy source of many of the essential minerals that are less common in plant–based foods, such as iron, calcium, and zinc. Beans are also high in protein and fiber, making them a particularly nutrient–rich food.

A common concern when considering plant–based cooking is achieving enough protein and essential minerals without meat. Personally, I find that many of the plant–based ingredients that provide these harder to come by nutrients are my favorites to use in recipes and therefore particularly easy to incorporate. Dark leafy greens, beans, nuts, and seeds provide almost all of the beneficial nutrients found in meat, without any of the negative health effects. 

Health Benefits

We all learned at a young age that vegetables are healthy. At the dinner table we would hear “eat your vegetables,” “they’re good for you,” and “so you can grow up big and strong.” But what is it that actually makes vegetables and other plant–based foods good for you? It’s a combination of what they have and what they don’t have. 

To be clear, eating nothing but potato chips, twizzlers and soda, although completely vegan, are still full of saturated fats and processed sugars. A plant–based diet is built upon nutritious whole foods — vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds. These foods are rich in antioxidants, fiber, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals, while also containing very little saturated fat, which plagues meat products. There is extensive scientific evidence documenting the health benefits of these dietary elements.

• Heart Health: Plant–based diets are linked to lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, thanks to less saturated fat and more fiber. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are both significant risk factors for heart disease. Therefore a plant–based diet can help to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases. 

• Weight Loss: Plant–based ingredients and recipes deliver all of the essential nutrients the body needs with fewer calories. Once again, fewer saturated fats, more fiber and more antioxidants are all contributing factors. Although weight loss is not always the goal of a plant–based diet, it certainly makes it much easier to maintain a healthy weight.

• Reduced Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: As mentioned above, eating a plant–based diet helps to keep cholesterol levels and weight, or body–mass index (BMI), in check. Both cholesterol and BMI are risk factors of type 2 diabetes. Eating a healthy plant–based diet can significantly reduce a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 

• Protection Against Cancer: Fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, all abundant in plant–based diets, are beneficial in preventing and recovering from cancer. Meanwhile, red meat and processed meats contribute to the risk of cancer. Plant–based diets are also less likely to contain processed foods with artificial chemicals, which often carry increased cancer risk. 

• May Even Prevent Dementia: Healthy cell function, healthy BMI, and lower risk of heart disease are all correlated with reduced risk of dementia. Antioxidants work to reduce oxidative damage leading to cell deterioration. Omega–3 fatty acids, found in nuts, seeds and seaweed, also promote healthy cell function, cell repair, and reduce inflammation. 

Environmental benefits

Incorporating more plant–based foods and fewer animal products in your diet leads to tangible sustainable impacts on the environment. Plant–based agriculture generates less greenhouse gasses, uses less energy, uses less fresh water, and requires less land than the meat industry. In other words, growing plant–based foods is a more efficient use of resources, is less harmful to the planet, and in some cases even rehabilitates the local ecosystem. Whether you are vegan, flexitarian, or a devout carnivore, every choice in the kitchen that prioritizes plant–based ingredients instead of animal products has incremental benefits for a more sustainable planet. 

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The meat industry is one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gasses. Meat and dairy production requires resources to raise and feed animals, extending the environmental impact far beyond just the production line. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the livestock sector is responsible for 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions. While meat products account for only 18% of calories consumed around the world, they are responsible for 60% of emissions in the agricultural sector.
  
• Fresh Water Consumption: Meat and dairy production requires far more water than crop–based agriculture. Raising livestock accounts for 25% of the world’s fresh water consumption. While it takes 30 gallons of water to produce 1 gram of protein from beef, it only takes 5 gallons for 1 gram of soy protein. Once again part of the problem is the food needed for the livestock. The Water Footprint Network reports that 98% of the water used by the livestock sector is to grow animal feed.
  
• Land Footprint: The meat industry occupies 30% of the ice–free land on earth compared to the 6% used by crop–based agriculture. The meat industry is also a main driver of deforestation, which leads to soil erosion, biodiversity decline and the release of CO₂ stored in trees. Using land to plant crops rather than raise livestock helps to rehabilitate soil, and trap carbon. 
  
• Food Insecurity: By growing more plant–based foods, it is possible to grow more food while using less energy, water and land. The disproportionate use of resources by the meat industry makes it less efficient than its plant–based counterpart. Food insecurity already plagues 750 million people, and with the global population projected to reach 10 billion by 2100, growing more food more efficiently is essential to reducing world hunger. 

What you’ll need

This cashew cream recipe is a great place to start adding more plant–based meals to your diet, and reap all of those health and environmental benefits. Here’s the equipment that I recommend for success. 

Blender: When it comes to blenders, it doesn’t get better than Vitamix, although it is undoubtedly a pricey purchase. I find it incredibly useful for the smoothest sauces, soups, smoothies and purées.

A more affordable option that is still very reliable is this KitchenAid version.

Another alternative is an immersion blender; I’ve been using this model for years. It helps reduce the number of dishes to wash, making clean up a breeze. However, in a recipe such as this one, expect the resulting sauce to be a little gritty and not as smooth.

Sheet Pan: To roast your vegetables, and for so many other kitchen tasks, you always need a good sheet pan. It’s the most frequently used pan in my kitchen, and you can never have too many.

Additional plant–based cooking resource: America’s Test Kitchen’s The Complete Plant–Based Cookbook