Cilantro Cashew-Cream Smothered Burritos

POSTED BY KATHYPATALSKY ON APRIL 28TH, 2011 AT 12:22 PM

Smothered Burrito

If you like sauce-smothered enchiladas, you’ll love these Cilantro Cashew-Cream Smothered Burritos. This pastel green, creamy cashew cream smother sauce is a fabulous new recipe to add to your Mexican night fiesta. If you’ve never made a cashew cream style sauce – here is your chance to experiment. And with Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, these burritos provide an exciting alternative to the standard taco, enchilada or burrito feast you are used to serving. Get my Cashew Cream recipe and smother your favorite burrito recipe tonight!

Cilantro Cashew Cream Sauce

Smother Sauce and more. This dairy-free (ultra-creamy) Cashew-Cream Sauce is not only fabulous for smothering burritos – you can easily use it as a raw salad dressing, toss pasta in it and you can even fill your burritos or enchiladas with this sauce. You can also flavor it however you’d like! I used cilantro and lime to stay with the “fiesta” flavor profile. But here are a few other yummy ideas..

basil and lemon
dill and onion
scallion
orange and parsley
sun-dried tomato and garlic
olive
caper
artichoke
roasted pepper and chiles

..and on and on..

But for right now, lets stick to the smothered burrito sauce..

Cilantro Cashew-Cream Smother Sauce
vegan, makes 4-5 cups sauce

soaked cashews (soak for at elate 4+ hours)
2 cups raw cashews
1 tsp sea salt
water – enough to cover the cashews by at least an inch
*reserve the soaking water

flavors:
2 cups fresh cilantro (leaves and stems – about a half a big bunch)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 limes, juiced (add some zest too – optional)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp cayenne powder
salt and pepper sauce to taste
optional: a few tablespoons of agave syrup if you’d like a sweet accent

burrito garnish: fresh cilantro, pumpkin seeds, olives and chipotle powder – lime slices

Burritos with your choice of fillings (I did whole wheat veggie-stuffed burritos)

Directions:

1. Soak your raw cashews in the salted water for at least four hours. Overnight is best – you want the cashews to become velvety and soft to puree perfectly in your high speed blender or food processor.

2. Add your cashews and the soaking water to your high speed blender or food processor. I add in about 1- 1 1/2 cups of the soaking water. Adjust the liquid to however thick you want your sauce to be. Obviously, the more water you add, the “wetter” your sauce will be. But just be sure to add enough water to properly blend the cashews.

3. Add in your flavors – here I used cilantro, lime and cider vinegar – and a few spices.

4. You can either serve your sauce raw and as-in (aka, room temperature) – or you can heat it and add it over top your burrito as a warm sauce. Either way is delicious. I think i prefer this sauce warmed over burritos – however, on salads – I love this sauce raw and chilled.

-add smother sauce to your favorite burrito recipe – I used veggie burritos stuffed with plantains, spicy tofu, portobello mushrooms, cabbage slaw, spinach, soy cheese and green chiles..