'Raw'some Taco Salad with Lime Cilantro 'Sour Cream'

I'm in love with this raw nut meat. I've been wanting to try this for awhile now. I ran across a recipe from Rawified for 'Raw Nut Meat' and immediately agreed with the use of mushrooms in the nut meat and knew this would be a winner. Since the beginning of becoming a vegan, mushrooms were the replacement for meats because of their wonderful meatiness, and they are so earthy...I just love them. It made perfect sense to me that they should be a key ingredient in raw nut meat. Mushrooms are full of goodness, same as the walnuts used in this recipe. This mixture is full of omega's, protein, healthy fats and trace minerals from the mushrooms such as selenium. My version of the nut meat and salad are also adapted from another recipe from My New Roots, 'Raw Taco Fiesta'. Take a look at both of my sources and be inspired.

This was just delicious. This nut meat is definitely a keeper for my life as a vegan as well as this colorful salad. Goodness everywhere on my plate.

Let's begin with the nut meat as it is the true feature here...

Ingredients for Raw Nut Meat

1 cup walnuts
1 cup mushrooms

1 tablespoon nama shoyu or tamari

1 teaspoon cumin

1/8 teaspoon chipotle powder or cayenne

Put all ingredients in blender and pulse until coarse and chunky, don't over blend or it will become a spread like consistency.

I started with taco's in mind, as you can see in the above photo, took a couple pictures to play around, still working on becoming a better photographer (patience is key). I ate those and went on to make the lime cilantro cashew 'sour cream' and taco salad. That was delicious already. Now for some added extra's to top things off...

Lime Cilantro Cashew 'Sour Cream'

1/2 cup cashews

1/4 cup water, give or take

1/2 lime. squeezed

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 clove garlic

few sprigs cilantro

pinch of mineral salt

Add ingredients to blender or food processor and blend until smooth, I used a blender. Add extra water a tablespoon at a time if needed. For thicker cream use less water, for thinner use more. I found that I needed to add more water to get to my consistency.

You may also like this without the vinegar. I tried it and it was good without the extra bite, especially for those who don't usually care for vinegar. You may want to add extra lime juice or lemon juice to replace the vinegar.

A lot of recipes call to soak your cashews in water for up to eight hours. I have done both, you will yield a bit more cream if you soak them first but it really isn't necessary in my experience.

The other ingredients I used are as follows...

Romaine lettuce, chopped

asparagus, diced

grape tomatoes. quartered

orange bell pepper, diced

scallions, thinly sliced

cilantro, chopped

pepitas, for extra chrunch

lime, squeezed

chipolte, garnish

It was a fairly simple dinner. Both the taco's and salad were clean and delicious. I felt terrific after eating it ! I finished off everything myself but I would venture to say this serves two...you may want to make extra just in case if serving for two or more.

You can do the taco salad anyway you want...add more colorful bell peppers, jalapeno's, etc. The possibilities are endless. Really looking forward to trying the nut meat again in all the different ways possible as described in Rawified's 'Raw Nut Meat'. You can use this nut meat in 'vegan' and 'raw vegan' spaghetti, lasagne, taco's, top it on chili, etc.......I will have more tasty adventures ahead to share...

Enjoy the rawesomeness !