| Prep Time | 12 minutes |
| Cook Time | 8 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 1/2 cup cashews soaked if possible
- 1 cups water
- 3 Tbsp. arrowroot flour substitute 1/4 cup of tapioca flour
- 2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes
- 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp onion granules substitute onion powder
- 1/2 Tbsp. miso paste optional, substitute 1 tsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. tahini optional, substitute plain hummus
- 1/2 tsp. ume plum vinegar optional, substitute apple cider vinegar
- 2-3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup Sweet Onion chopped
- 1/2 cup red cabbage chopped: optional, but awesome
- 1 Tbsp. Diced Jalapeno optional, canned okay
- 1/2 cup green bell pepper chopped
- 1 can black beans drained and rinsed; or prepare your own from scratch
- 1/2 cup Sweet Corn
- 1 tomato, large chopped
- 2 tsp. lime juice
- 2 tsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1/2 tsp. turmeric
- 1/2 cup cilantro and/or green onion optional for garnish
Ingredients
Cheese sauce
Black Bean Casserole
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- Place ingredients for cheese sauce in a high speed blender. Don't worry if you don't have the harder to find ingredients. You can make the substitutions, or keep it simple and taste at the end to see if you need more flavor.
- Blend cheese sauce ingredients on high for 8-15 minutes, depending on your blender's capacity. Once you see steam, you know you're close. At some point, it will stop bouncing around like a liquid and you'll hear a down-shift in the blender's motor. That's when you know it's done. If you don't have a high speed blender, transfer to a sauce pan and heat on medium low for 8-9 minutes, stirring regularly, until it's thickened.
- In a skillet, sauce the garlic, onion, cabbage and jalapeno for a few minutes until soft. Add green pepper for another minute or two (don't overcook, color should stay bright green). Add black beans, corn, tomato, lime juice, chili powder, salt and turmeric. Continue to heat as you stir until everything is hot. Remove from heat.
- Stir in the cheese sauce and garnish with cilantro and green onion. Serve warm.
- Serving suggestions: Wrap in a tortilla shell or romaine lettuce leaf. Serve with salsa and guacamole. You can also serve over rice or create a taco salad with greens and crumbled tortilla chips. Or keep it simple: grab a spoon and enjoy.
A word about the optional and substitute ingredients in the cheese sauce:
Here's the thing. Cashew cream is really good, no matter what you do to it. The suggested ingredients create a very specific, mozzarella-esq flavor. I have listed the ingredients in order of importance. If you don't have the miso, tahini or ume plum vinegar, make it without and taste it. Then you can either add more of what you have or try the suggested substitutions.
Also, arrowroot is not gluten free, if that matters to you. Tapioca flour works almost as well. It's not quite as thick, but adding the extra tablespoon brings it darn close.
The vegetable ingredients are optional too. Mix and match, use what you have. It's queso, not complicated. Use your imagination.
Colleen Kachmann is a health coach, writer, teacher, yogi, mother of 4 (+3 bonus stepkids), and personal chef. She has a B.S. in education from Indiana University, and a master of science in health coaching from International Health Coach University. She also successfully completed the Women’s Functional & Integrative Medicine Professional Training Program through the Women’s Integrative Medicine Institute. Buy her book on Amazon. Find her on Twitter Pinterest Instagram YouTube Facebook
