- Prep time:20 minutes plus soaking time
- Cooking time:None
- Recipe serves:6
Kick back and VEG-OUT with this delish 'cashew cheese' ball :) Nut cheeses are a fabulous discovery and a delicious, full of flavour nutritious addition to your lifestyle, they can be used in place of normal cheeses easily if you are trying to reduce or eliminate dairy from your day to day :) Awesome to have in the fridge for when mates or family pop in for an easy nibble round-the-bench platter, just add some crackers, vege sticks or fruit sliced up, some olives and voila! This delightfully bright lemony-flavoured wild evergreen is our fairy friend Miss Wood Sorrel from the (ox-AL-is, meaning "sour") family. She is super easy to gather and loves the cooler months, you can find her in shady areas around your home and is a vitamin C rich sour spark addition to salads and soups and pesto’s, found underneath trees and shrubs and the best part? They're VERY hard to misidentify, especially when you take into account their VERY distinctive lemony taste and heat-shaped leaves in three's. This is a slightly unconventional cheese ball, so is bound to get great conversation going :)
Ingredients
- 320 grams raw cashew nuts
- 4 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
- freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon of seeded mustard
- 1/2 cup of Pesto of your choice (wood sorrel pesto recipe available on our site here http://www.thegreenkitchen.co.nz/recipes/sides/wood-sorrel-pumpkin-seed-butter-pesto/)
- 1/2 cup of lightly toasted sunflower seeds, for rolling
Method
- Soak the cashews in about a litre of cold water for at least 4 hours – overnight is best. Drain the water off and rinse the nuts thoroughly. You may see them starting to sprout :)Properly preparing them by soaking them, then rinsing them is (activating) them.
- Place the cashews in a food processor and add the lemon juice, dijon, salt and pepper, then pulse for a few minutes to combine (be patient). Add some water and continue to process until the texture is smooth, fold in your seedy mustard. If the macadamia cheese seems overly thick or dry, gradually add more water and lemon juice to adjust the consistency. The cashew cheese can be stored refrigerated for up to one week.
- Once in the fridge it will firm up, when firmer you will be able to make it into a cheese-ball.
- Place your cheese in some glad wrap or baking paper, dollop some pesto (check out our wood sorrel pesto recipe) or a pesto that you enjoy, you could use chutney here too... inside and place some more of the cashew cheese on top to lock in all that goodness.
- Pull the glad wrap up together to create a ball and twist at the top to secure it. Place back into the fridge to firm slightly.
- Roll is lightly toasted seeds, such as sunflower or sesame, for texture, enjoy :)