CASHEW TZATZIKI
My family and I really enjoy wraps with hummus, vegetables, and vegan tzatziki sauce. Tzatziki sauce can be used on its own as a dip for pitas and vegetables or can be used as a salad dressing. It’s delicious.
This recipe is by Alison Andrews at “Loving It Vegan” though I modified it by removing the oil: Vegan Tzatziki. The picture below is from her blog post since I did not take a good close up photo!
Here is a wonderful article at “Plant Based Health Australia” explaining why olive oil and other processed oils are not part of a whole food, plant-based way of eating. Included in the article is Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s famous 4 minute video excerpt describing why olive oil is not a health food: No Oil!
CASHEW TZATZIKI
Ingredients
1 cup peeled. grated cucumber, divided (I used 1/2 of an unpeeled English cucumber)
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped (I didn’t add since didn’t have any)
1 cup raw cashews (I soaked mine in hot water for an hour to soften, then drained)
3/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon lemon juice (Use fresh squeezed)
2 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 Tablespoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon salt (I reduced to 1/4 tsp)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (I used freshly ground)
Instructions
Peel and grate the cucumber and chop the mint. Squeeze the grated cucumber to remove excess water. You can squeeze it with your hands or with a paper towel or dish towel. Set aside.
Place the cashews, water, lemon juice and garlic into your high speed blender and blend until smooth.
Add in half the grated cucumber and pulse the blender once or twice so that it’s mixed in but still chunky.
Pour it out into a bowl and add the remaining cucumber, dried dill, chopped fresh mint, salt and pepper and stir it in.
Now it’s ready to serve or you can place it into the fridge for an hour for the flavors to blend and get even better!
Serve it with a sprinkle of dried dill, sliced cucumber and fresh mint leaves.
(My pictures don’t match because the instructions I used and those currently available are a bit different.)
