Chocolate Cherry Cashew Bars

This recipe came to me by way of my dear friend, Mary Ann. She enjoys cooking and reading blogs, and she always sends me her best finds. This one is from the blog "Peas and Thank You" and it hit a home run in my house. It's a sweet and salty, fruity and chocolaty, crunchy and chewy taste treat.

What more could you want?

Chocolate Cherry Cashew Bars

Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 30 mins | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• Ingredients (12 bars)
• 2 T. flax seeds (or approximately 3 T. ground)
• 1/2 c. maple syrup, agave or honey (or mixture of any of the three)
• 1 t. salt
• 1 c. whole almonds, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 c. peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 c. cashew pieces
• 1/2 c. dried cherries
• 1/2 c. quality chocolate chips

Directions:

Prep Time: 5 min.
Cook Time: 30 min.


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To the ground flax, add the syrupy sweetener of your choice. Mix well and set aside. In a large bowl, combine salt, almonds, peanuts, cashews and cherries. Pour flax syrup mixture over nuts and cherries and stir until evenly coated. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper. Spread the nut mixture in the baking pan evenly, from corner to corner. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, until bars are slightly browned and edges are crisp. They will be soft, but will harden upon cooling.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave or over a double-boiler. Drizzle chocolate over almost cooled bars. Chocolate will be wet, but will set upon cooling.

When bars and chocolate have set, pull parchment out of pan and set bars on a flat cutting surface.
Cut bars into squares, and store in an airtight container. They stay especially crunchy if you refrigerate them.

Nutritional Info:

3.62 = weight watcher points 1/3 cups = cherries

Note: The pic is not mine.

Artichoke Dip

My sister Kathy makes a baked artichoke appetizer that's too good to pass up. So my goal with this recipe was to use that as inspiration and make it every bit as delicious, but vegan. This dip can be served hot, cold or heated on top of slices of a baguette.

Artichoke Dip

1 garlic clove
1/2 C raw cashews
1 t fresh lemon juice
2 6oz. jars of marinated artichoke hearts
pinch of onion powder
crackers or baguette for serving

In a food processor, pulse the garlic until finely minced. Add the cashews and process until the cashews are chopped small but not finely processed. Add the remaining ingredients, picking the artichoke hearts out of the jars and transferring only the oil that comes with them. Pulse until the the ingredients are well mixed.

You can serve the dip either hot or cold with crackers or a sliced baguette. To warm it up, put it in an oven proof dish and set it in a 350 degree oven for 10 - 15 minutes. If you want to serve it on toast, slice up 1/2 of a small baguette, place the slices onto a sheet pan and put it into a 350 degree oven. Keep an eye on it. The slices will toast quickly. Remove the baguette slices and put the dip on top of each slice. Place it back into the oven and heat for 5 minutes. Serve.

Note: The photo isn't mine.

Cashew Cream

Cashew cream is a raw, dairy free substitute for (you guessed it) cream!  There are many recipes out there for cashew cream, they vary slightly but basically it's the same process in each. The first time I made cashew cream I used the recipe from Tal Ronnen's cookbook, "The Conscious Cook."  He explains the process well, but his recipe makes a lot of cream. I would rarely use it up before having to throw it away. Since, I've been making it in smaller batches. This  recipe will yield between 1/2 - 3/4 cups of cream. Here's how I do it.

Cashew Cream

1 C raw cashews
water

The night before you need the cream, put the cashews into a bowl and cover them with water. Store the bowl of cashews in the refrigerator. When you need the cream, drain and rinse the cashews under cold water. Place them into a blender and cover them with about one inch of water. Blend  until smooth. This usually takes two or three minutes. Next, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve (if you have a Vita-Mix blender you won't need to strain it and you'll end up with 1 1/2 cups of cream). Once strained it should have the consistency of cream.

Note: It only keeps for two or three days.

Mushroom, Leek and Cashew Risotto

I was up north recently and my sister made this risotto for the entire family. It's a real mix, the family that is, and although we are certainly not hard to please, most include meat and dairy in their daily diet. 

But this dish was loved by all. 

Now... my sister... she rarely follows a recipe. She's a brilliant cook and often uses recipes more as a guide than anything else. So instead of veggie broth, she used mushroom, she excluded the wine and made a few other changes. Since then, I've made it exactly how it reads and my conclusion is you can't go wrong with this recipe. If you use the same basic ingredients and follow the instructions, you'll be a happy vegan.

The recipe comes from the cookbook, Seasonal Harvest Recipes. My understanding is that this is not a vegan cookbook. However, it was written to inspire us all to plant a garden or search out fresh local vegetables, so there must be a lot of vegetable recipes in it.

The book is the result of an organization named Grow Benzie, in Benzie County, Michigan. The group defines itself as a farmstead where people can a cultivate a piece of land in a community garden or take classes on growing and cooking food. I think you'll enjoy this one...

Mushroom, Leek and Cashew Risotto

1 1/2 C brown rice

3 3/4 C vegetable stock or a mixture of stock and dry white wine in the ratio of 5:1

1 T      walnut of hazelnut oil

2         leeks, sliced

2 C      mixed wild mushrooms (such as morels), trimmed and sliced

1/2 C   cashew nuts

grated rind of 1 lemon

2 T      fresh thyme, chopped

1/4 C   pumpkin seeds

salt and ground black pepper

fresh thyme leaves and lemon wedges for garnish

Place the brown rice in a large saucepan, pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook gently for about 30 minutes, until all the stock has been absorbed and the rice grains are tender. About 6 minutes before the rice is cooked, heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the leeks and mushrooms and fry over a gentle heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the cashews, lemon rind and chopped thyme to the leeks and mushrooms, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper. Drain off any excess stock from the cooked rice and stir in the mushroom-leek mixture. Turn into a serving dish. Scatter pumpkin seeds over the top and garnish with fresh thyme sprigs and lemon wedges. Serve immediately.