spicy, dairy free, cheese

I am just over a week into the dairy free portion of my experiment. I bought some almond milk, really not thinking it was going to be that good from what I've heard. It is definitely different than cow's milk, as one would guess, but it's pretty good. I haven't had any on it's own, just with food so I can't tell you if I like it alone or not. I can tell you I don't like cow's milk on it's own so I've never been in the habit of drinking it alone anyway. It's surprisingly creamy feeling. It only has35 calories a cup. I liked that.

On my weekly menu is enchiladas. I like cheese with mine so I looked at a bag of dairy free cheese. It's a small bag for $6 something and the ingredient list didn't look that great to me so I didn't get any.

Having done the raw diet before, I had heard about cashew cheese but never made it. I have an online friend who recently made some so I was ready to try it! But her's was fermented and I didn't think far enough ahead to do that...I didn't think far enough ahead to soak the cashews. Oh well. Such is life.

I didn't follow a recipe. I looked at a few recipes and took what I liked and used it. I added cashews, minced garlic, pepper, chili powder, paprika, lemon juice and water into the blender and let her rip.

I had little chunks in my cheese but I think soaking the cashews would have taken care of that. Here's what it looks like. I used paprika to change it to more orange...but that only worked a little.

It's thick like cream cheese. You can make it thinner or thicker according to how much water you put in it. I gave it a hesitant taste but was surprised...it's pretty good! It's not identical to dairy cheese, as one would guess. No one would be fooled in a blindfolded taste test but it is good in its own way.

Hey, I just realized I ate this spicy meal without my nose melting! Cool! I haven't been able to eat anything without my nose running like crazy in a few months now. Change is a good thing!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the enchilada guts were black beans, salsa verde and mashed sweet potatoes. Corn tortillas are gluten free.