Tag: sauce

Dairy Free Spinach Pesto Recipe

Melissa King 30 Comments

You need to try this Dairy Free Spinach Pesto!  Who doesn’t like pesto?  I actually prefer it over a tomato sauce any day.  We have basil growing in our backyard, so I thought I would use some of it to create a pesto sauce.

I could seriously sit there and smell it all day!  Seriously, if you don’t have basil growing in your house or yard, you need to get some.

Basil grows like a weed!  You can save so much money by growing your own herbs, and basil is no exception.

Plus, you can freeze them and have herbs all year round.  This dairy free spinach pesto recipe makes more of a paste than a sauce, so if you want to turn it into a sauce, you need to add a bit more oil and/or some water.

 

dairy free spinach pesto

I love using this recipe for making pizza.  It’s great with a cherry tomatoes as well.  If you are not familiar with nutritional yeast,  it comes in flake form and gives a nutty and cheesy taste.

It is often used in place of cheese.  Nutritional yeast is a great source of protein, fiber and B vitamins.

You can find it at most health stores.  I used almonds when making this pesto, since pine nuts are so expensive.  Almonds make a great substitute.

You can also make this healthy pesto recipe with kale if you like.  Works just as well.

Dairy Free Spinach Pesto

Dairy Free Spinach Pesto

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Prep Time 10 min Serves 1.5 cups     adjust servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Throw everything in the food processor and mix until combined. Since my food processor’s lid broke and I am waiting for a new one to arrive, I had to use my Vitamix for this. I can tell you it was a bit harder in the Vitamix than the food processor.

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Recipe Notes

This recipe made about 1 1/2 cups and should last a couple weeks in the fridge. You can also freeze it for longer storage. Enjoy!

Dairy Free Cashew Cheese Sauce

Melissa King 94 Comments

This Dairy Free Cashew Cheese Sauce is delicious.  Two weeks ago we took the kids to the zoo.  Afterward, we decided to try out a vegan restaurant here in Dallas called The Spiral Diner.  The food was so good!

My husband got a vegan nacho plate and the cheese sauce was made from cashews.  He liked it so much he decided to try to create his own cashew cheese sauce and after a few tries it worked out pretty good.

This dairy free cashew cheese sauce is really quite a good replica. We never would have thought to make a cashew cheese sauce.

dairy free cashew cheese sauce

A lot of vegan cheeses are soy based, but we wanted to do something different since a lot of people are avoiding soy these days.  The cashews gave it a nice creamy feel.

This would not only be a good sauce to eat with nachos, but it makes a great base for a dairy free mac and cheese.

With so many kids having dairy allergies these days, it’s nice to have a soy free cheese option.  To give this a cheesy flavor, we used nutritional yeast.  Nutritional yeast is a great source of protein, fiber and vitamin B12.

 

Here is a quick little video of my husband and daughter making this. For more videos, you can subscribe to my You Tube Channel.

 

Dairy Free Cashew Cheese Sauce

Dairy Free Cheese Sauce

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Prep Time 10 min Serves 2 cups     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cups raw cashews (soaked overnight and drained)
  • 1 cup water
  • 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Soak the cashews in water overnight.
  2. The next day, drain and rinse them.
  3. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

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Recipe Notes

You can store it in the fridge in an airtight container. Should keep for a few weeks. You may even be able to freeze it.

Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

Melissa King 153 Comments

Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce.  Tomato Sauce is a lot like ketchup and BBQ Sauce, in the fact that you can’t seem to find a store bought kind that doesn’t contain processed sugar.

So, I set out to create a super easy, crock pot tomato sauce that tastes great with no added sugar.  When we got our co-op basket this past week, I saw a package of tomatoes on the vine and I knew I was going to use them for sauce.

This crock pot tomato sauce recipe is almost as easy as my Homemade Vegetable Stock.

 

Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

This sauce is so easy that you really just throw everything in the crock pot and walk away.  Plus, it makes a ton.  We freeze it for those busy days when you need to make dinner in a hurry.

You can pull it out in the morning and let it defrost on your counter top all day.

Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

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Prep Time 3 hr

Ingredients

  • 12 vine ripened tomatoes peeled and chopped
  • 1/2 onion rough chopped
  • 1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley chopped
  • 10 basil leaves
  • 2-3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Throw everything in the crock pot and cook on high for at least 3 hours.

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Recipe Notes

I like to cook it longer because the longer it cooks, the more developed the flavor gets. If the sauce seems thin to you, you can thicken it with a tablespoon of arrowroot. You can also uncover and let it reduce while cooking. This sauce would also make a great sauce for my Rustic Vegan Pizza . If you like a super smooth sauce, feel free to blend it with an immersion blender.

Healthy Cranberry Sauce (No Refined Sugar)

Melissa King 23 Comments

Healthy Cranberry Sauce.  Usually when I think of cranberry sauce, I think of the high sugar, gelatinous brand that comes in the can.

This homemade cranberry sauce is as far from that as it can get.  This  healthy cranberry sauce recipe contains no refined sugars.  I love the tarty and tangy taste and I hope you will too.

 

Healthy Cranberry Sauce

This cranberry sauce recipe contains no processed sugars.  It’s also vegan and gluten free.  Another great thing about this recipe is that it can be frozen.

So you could make a large batch in the winter when cranberries are in season.  Then if you get a craving for some cranberry sauce in the summer, you can have it!   I hope you enjoy.

I used this homemade cranberry sauce as a filling in this muffin recipe too.  So delicious!  You can also use the leftovers to use in thumbprint cookies.

 

Healthy Cranberry Sauce

Healthy Cranberry Sauce

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 10 min

Ingredients

  • 1 package cranberries
  • 1 cup diced pineapple
  • 1 T pineapple juice
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 1 – 2 tsp orange zest
  • 1 T maple syrup

Instructions

  1. In a magic bullet , blend the pineapple and 1 T pineapple juice until it becomes pureed. 
  2. In a medium saucepan, heat the orange juice, pureed pineapple mixture, orange zest and maple syrup. 
  3. Add the cranberries after a few minutes.
  4. Cook until the cranberries pop and breakdown. (about 10 minutes)
  5. Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl.  The mixture will thicken while it stands.  Serve immediately or refrigerate.  Enjoy!

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Recipe Notes

Refer to the images above to see the process of making them.