Coconut and Berries

Healthy, Vegan Recipes by Emma Potts

Beetroot & Sweet Potato Salad with Baked Cashew Cheese

Beetroot & Sweet Potato Salad with Baked Cashew Cheese

I get a lot of my cooking inspiration from restaurant menus, normally not vegan or even vegetarian restaurants. I love being able to take a dish containing animal products and make it vegan-it’s sort of my gentler way of putting two fingers up and saying “ha, I don’t need your animal products- I made your dish better- for us, the planet and the animals!”

This “Beetroot & Sweet Potato Salad with Baked Cashew Cheese” is my take on the beetroot & goat’s cheese salad I’ve been seeing on menus all over the place.

Eliminating cheese is a doddle when you’ve got cashews, the magical nut! I usually use cashews for creamy sauces and spreads, but to replicate goat’s cheese’s crumbly texture I baked my blended mixture to dry it out, taking this recipe as my starting point.

I used the same recipe back in the summer for my Herby Courgette Galette recipe (Please excuse the terrible pictures, photography’s been a steep learning curve!) and learnt then that straining the cheese didn’t achieve much so I skipped that step this time.

Baked Cashew Cheese

Here’s what my little ramekin of cheese looked like out of the oven.

Baked Cashew Cheese
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Ingredients
  1. 1/3 C (Heaped) Cashews, soaked, drained and rinsed
  2. 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
  3. 1 Tbsp Neutral Oil (I used Organic Sunflower)
  4. 1 Tbsp Water
  5. 1/2 tsp Salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F
  2. Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor or high-power blender for 5 minutes (This helps the cheese firm up so even if it’s smooth blend for the full amount of time).
  3. Pour into a lined/oiled ramekin. Bake for approx 25 minutes, until firm on top and beginning to turn golden.
  4. Remove from oven and let cool completely in the fridge.
Notes
  1. *This makes twice the amount you need for the salad but it’s nice to use in other dishes too)
Adapted from C'est La Vegan
Adapted from C'est La Vegan
Coconut and Berries http://www.coconutandberries.com/

Beetroot & Sweet Potato Salad with Baked Cashew Cheese

To turn this into a meal-worthy salad I bulked it up with roasted sweet potato chunks, some spicy rocket leaves and a scattering of toasted pine nuts. Simply delicious.

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Beetroot & Sweet Potato Salad with Baked Cashew Cheese

Yield: 2-3 Servings

Ingredients

  • 3 Medium-size Beetroot
  • 2 Medium-size Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into 2” chunks
  • 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • Sprig of Thyme
  • 1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
  • 3/4 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
  • 1-1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1 Tbsp Parsley, coarsely chopped
  • Handful of Rocket leaves
  • Salt & Pepper
  • 2 Tbsp Pine Nuts OR walnuts, toasted
  • 50g/2oz/1/2 Recipe Cashew Cheese (See Above), crumbled

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F
  2. I like to roast beetroot using the tin-foil method. Alternatively, if you want to avoid getting messy, you can also use the pre-cooked kind (usually found in vacuum packs).
  3. Drizzle sweet potato chunks with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and spread in a roasting pan with the thyme. Roast for approx 25 minutes, until soft and golden.
  4. Meanwhile, whisk mustard, vinegar and olive oil together for the dressing.
  5. Peel and chop cooked, peeled beetroot into chunks the same size as the sweet potato.
  6. In a large bowl, toss the beetroot and sweet potato with the dressing. Add the parsley and rocket, salt and pepper to taste and toss again. (You can either wait until the roasted vegetables are cool to do this or eat the salad warm, in which case the rocket will wilt).
  7. Remove to a serving dish and top with the toasted pine nuts and crumbled cashew cheese.
http://www.coconutandberries.com/2013/11/02/beetroot-sweet-potato-salad-with-baked-cashew-cheese/

I’m submitting this recipe to the weekly link-ups: Wellness Weekends and Healthy Vegan Fridays

Beetroot & Sweet Potato Salad with Baked Cashew Cheese

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Comments

  2. I have to try your baked cashew cheese. It looks delicious! The whole salad does, really. I find with beets, you find people who either love ’em or hate ’em, and thankfully my family, including my preschooler, love them! :)

      • My little one is open to many different types of food, the only problem is, he doesn’t eat. Seriously, he’d rather be doing other things, so that’s our struggle with him. He’s quite small for his age but when he does eat, it’s usually quite healthy and diverse!

  5. What a great idea. Your baked cashew cheese looks like it’s got a gorgeous consistency, yum! I love baked vege salads. Definitely putting this combo on the list for the warm weather we’re getting at the moment. Thanks lovely! x

  7. how delicious - if only this was a regular menu item at the restaurants I go to I would be very happy (actually that is why I eat at home a lot rather than eating out too often). I made this cheese a few years back and really enjoyed it but I think mine didn’t benefit much from draining either.

    • I agree! So often eating out the thought that I could make something tastier at home crosses my mind. Eating at restaurants has become more about the social side than the actual food.
      Glad you enjoyed the cheese too.

  8. what a lovely winter salad! But I have this strange thing with beetroot. I adore them raw, but find them too earthy when cooked or roasted, and cannot stand the pre-cooked kind. But I find that I usually find veggies in their raw state more appealing then once cooked. Pumpkins and sweet potatoes of course being huge exceptions to that rule :) I have loved your blog, recipes and pictures from day one, but compairing it like that I must say your photographs have really evolved. Do you have any tips for fellow bloggers who like to strenghten their picture-taking-capacities? Do you use a light box?
    and as far as recipes go,I would love to see your take on a chicken ceasar salad. I hope one day to find the secret behind that amazing version I had in Candle 79, so I’m looking forward to trying out different recipes for the dressing (some cashew based, others tofu based)…

    • Beetroot is definitely a love or hate vegetable! Especially when cooked when the flavour becomes more pronounced.
      Thank you so much for your kind compliments on my photography. I really think it’s just down to practice and good lighting. I don’t use any fancy equipment (except a decent camera). You’d laugh I’m sure if you saw my set up…Pieces of card propped up with dictionaries in front of a big window! I learn a lot from looking at other photos I like too.
      Thanks for the proposition on the chicken Caesar salad. I’ll see what I can do! Is the Candle 79 recipe not in the book you bought?

  11. I love doing the same thing with restaurant dishes! Taking the flavor profile and veg-izing it.

    This salad packs so much fun into every bite!

  12. I like veganizing recipes as well! I’ve never tried to make my own nut cheese, but yours looks pretty easy to make. I am all about beets and sweet potatoes, especially roasted, yum!

  13. i love veganizing restaurant favorites as well. the cashew cheese with the pretty colors of beets and sweet potato look fabulous

  14. Those colours are so beautiful together, it’s like a painting. A painting I would need to eat a lot of with some crusty bread. You know, that kind of painting…

  17. Wow Emma, your baked cashew cheese looks amazing in the salad! I love making herby cashew cream cheeses but I’ve never tried a baked cheese yet. I was wondering whether it would have enough flavour to warrant the effort of making it… the cheeses that usually appear in salads - like feta and goats - tend to have very strong flavours. Do you think the baked cashew cheese adds another dimension of flavour to a salad, or is it more of a texture thing?

    • I definitely think it’s worth it! It’s got that nice salty tang to it which is a lovely contrast to the earthy/sweet flavours of the roasted veg (at least in my opinion!) I want to try making a nut cheese cultured with rejuvelac too as apparently that really makes it even more cheese-like in flavour and texture.

  20. Catching up with your posts! Me too, it’s really fun to veganise dishes, proving that they taste better! I also love making cashew cheese, too, with the wheat berry rejuvelac (boy they stink but they are pretty tasty to make cheese!) Just beautiful salad - sweet potatoes & beetroot, delicious! Before I was a vegan, I remembered going to a lot of Chinese restaurants with my family - and there were loads of dishes that I would love to veganise, but I hope to find the time to do it! Well done Emma for veganizing this wonderful dish!

    • I still haven’t tried making cheese with rejuvelac but have seen some tutorials online and really want to give it a go. Especially as you say it makes a good cheese!
      Look forward to seeing all your veganized Asian dishes :)

Trackbacks

  11. […] I love cheese and I’ve tried several nut cheese recipes but until now nothing had convinced me much. But then I saw a recipe on the coconut and berries blog and decided to adapt it and try it myself. The recipe is simple. It includes ingredients that I can find easily or have in my house. And it’s really good. I wouldn’t say cheesy, to me it’s more like vegetarian pate. But I’ll definitely make it again, I think it’s a good staple to have in the fridge and it would be a nice starter for when people come round. You can find the original version here. […]

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