I always get a kick out of vegan recipes that call for “cheese”. As if whatever combination of nuts, nutritional yeast, and soy sauce would yield something that actually tastes remotely like what comes from an animal.

Last night I tried out one of said “cheese” recipes that I found on the internet, using nutritional yeast and cashews as the base flavours. Toss it all in a food processor, and voila! You’ve got….a creamy mixture that tastes kinda like cashews and nutritional yeast! Amazing!

So I may not be able to eat cheese anymore but that doesn’t mean I don’t remember what it tastes like. Perhaps for some, time plays funny tricks on memory, and somehow nutritional yeast creeps its way into that part of our brains that was once held for mozzarella, old cheddar, Monterrey jack, Gouda, chevre…  ok you get my point.

Anyway, back to the “cheese” recipe.

I tried it. And to be honest, it actually was pretty good. I think it was meant to replicate a cheese topping for a pizza, but to me, the only cheese it could possibly pass for would be an alfredo sauce, or maybe the white cheddar you get in macaroni ‘n’ cheese.

So instead of calling it Cheese, rebrand it as Yummy-Versatile-Creamy Sauce, and it might just get the love it deserves.

Vegan “cheese” sauce:

• 2/3 cup raw/roasted cashews
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
• ½ cup “milk”
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• ¼ red onion
• a few pieces of sundried tomato or raw/roasted red pepper (optional)

Toss all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.