Special Occasion Scalloped Potatoes

Being fairly new to this WOE I am always on the lookout for a vegan cheese sauce. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to fake cheese recipes.. for a couple of reasons.. I know what real cheese tastes like and honey once you know what the good stuff tastes like you compare it to the fake and in the trash it goes. I'm a extremely picky eater.. just ask my family.. it's easier to name what I will eat rather than what I won't.. sad but true.







So I knew that finding a plant based cheeze recipe that I would like would be extra hard. Y'all, I think I found the one! This is the first recipe that didn't get dumped in the trash. Let me tell ya, I prayed the whole time I was making this recipe. Let this one taste good! PLEASE!!!!


 So I made it.. I even prepared myself mentally by saying. Girl, you know this isn't going to taste like cheese. This is going to be one more batch in the trash. I can't tell you how many videos of people making vegan cheese saying this is the best cheese ever! I make it.. (even went and purchased the weird hard to find ingredients) and taste it.. then think to myself what were these people thinking.. are my taste buds broken?

 So I will say this one isn't bad, it is by no means perfect... does it take like real cheese? Well, not exactly.. but this worked beautifully with potatoes for what I'm calling Special Occasion Scalloped Potatoes. Why special occasion?!? This recipe uses cashews which are high in fat, it is not ideal for me to have often, as my main goal is weight loss. 

~Cashew Cheeze Sauce~

1 cup potatoes diced
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 medium carrot sliced ( or 4-5 baby carrots)
1 cup plus 1 tbsp boiling liquid
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion
1/8 tsp turmeric
2 drops liquid smoke ( any more and it will be too smoky)

In a medium saucepan bring 4 cups of water to a boil add carrots, potatoes and cashews. Continue to boil until carrots and potatoes are tender about 10 minutes.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer your cashews, potatoes and carrots to the blender. (don't drain because you need that precious boiling liquid)

 Add rest of ingredients to blender. This includes the 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of that precious boiling liquid you reserved. If your blender is like mine ( really old) let ingredients cool down before blending. Otherwise you may face a blender explosion. Trust me when I say you don't want one of those. If you don't have a Vitamix or really high speed blender, I have found that double blending this makes a really smooth sauce. After blending this in my ninja I put that mixture in the cup attachment and blended it again. The result was a smooth creamy sauce.





~Special Occasion Scalloped Potatoes~

6-8 Yukon gold potatoes, thinly sliced
1 batch of Cashew Cheese Sauce


Take your thinly sliced potatoes and mix with cheeze sauce. Making sure to evenly coat potatoes.

 Place them in a 9x13 inch pan. Cover with foil and bake at 400 F for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 -20 minutes or until potatoes have turned a beautiful golden brown. After baking is finished let potatoes stand for 10 minutes before serving. We like to add a touch of garlic salt before eating.

They don't last long around here.