I got the idea to do a spinach cashew spread from one of my favorite blogs, Raw Mazing. While I somewhat veered from the original recipe, I tried my best to keep the proportions similar, as I had been having a rough day of trial-and-error with my recipes. A failed strawberry clafoutis. A failed gluten-free bread. A second failed, though edible, gluten-free bread, which you can see pictured above (it made a great vehicle for this spread!). The bread was tasty, but rose no higher than an inch. I did happen to make a really nice cardamom-rhubarb ice cream (I really, really love that flavor combo), though it didn’t turn out to be all that photogenic (the color was kind of blah, and at that point I was too lazy to really style it up). So for my final test recipe, I wanted something that was as close as possible to a sure thing, but that I could still play around with a bit. I had lots of herbs on hand from my trip to the Greenmarket today — with some new potted varieties for my window sill as well. I like bringing a little bit of nature into my dingy, NYC apartment. So I omitted the sun-dried tomatoes from the original recipe and instead threw in some of my favorite fresh herbs, including some of my new window sill basil.
This cashew spread is great on bread (and can even liven up the most failed of gluten-free breads as well, as I can attest). I could also see it being nice over pasta (zucchini pasta for a raw meal, perhaps?) or even sauteed vegetables.
Cashew Spinach Spread:
Adapted from a recipe by Susan Powers at Raw Mazing
1 1/4 cups raw cashews, soaked for 4 hours, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped
8 fresh basil leaves
2 handfuls (about 2 cups packed) fresh spinach leaves
1/4 cup minced sweet onion
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup golden flax seed meal
1-2 tablespoons water as needed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.