Superbowl Sunday Recipe: Heavenly Nacho Cheese Dip

Raw, vegan nacho cheese dip. Yes, Please. 

Superbowl Sunday parties are synonymous with "worst food choices possible." Am I right? I have never gone to a football party that served anything remotely healthy. Fake cheese dip from a jar and other processed junk is not the way I like to have fun, because even if my favorite team won, I'd feel like crap the rest of the day from the gastrointestinal distress. Well, here's an addictive, but healthy, raw cheese dip from my new book Raw and Simple that you can bring to your next sporting soiree that won't make you feel gross.

The key to making this dip fabulous is not soaking the cashews or minimally soaking for 30 minutes if you don’t have a powerful blender. The sweetness of the cashews is essential to the flavor balance in this super creamy, luscious cheese sauce. Serve as a dip or spread it on everything. 

Nacho Cheese Dip

Makes 8 servings

Plan Ahead: If you do not own a high power blender, soak cashews for 30 minutes. Do not oversoak.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

1 cup cashews

1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper

¼ water, if using soaked cashews, 1/3 if unsoaked

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon ancho chili pepper (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a blender until very smooth and creamy. You may need to stop and start the blender to scrape sides back into the blades.

Adjust seasonings as desired.

From Raw & Simple: Eat Well and Live Radiantly with 100 Truly Quick and Easy Recipes for the Raw Food Lifestyle. Copyright Quarry Books 2013. Available on Amazon

Snack Attack!

I went to Expo West a couple weeks ago to check out the latest happenings in the health food world. Though I wouldn't say much of the food offerings were exactly health food, it's good to know there are a lot of companies who are at least making an effort in changing the Standard American dinner plate.

I didn't discover anything super innovative this year but the trend toward using stevia as a sugar substitute in products was definitely prevalent. NOW foods have really stepped it up on creating a non-bitter stevia liquid that is raising the bar across the board. So Delicious is coming out with a sugar free line of their coconut milk and coconut ice creams using stevia that were very, very good. I was blown away by how great their sugar-free ice cream was in particular.

After I made the rounds on the main floor of the expo I went down to the lower level (or 'hot new products' section) where my favorite raw companies were handing out delicious samples. I made a bee-line to Hail Merry, whose snacks I fell in love with last year, to see what was new for this year. Behold Merry's Myer Lemon Miracle Tart.

There are 3 servings in one tart. The "miracle" is not eating it all in one sitting.

This was sooooo goooood. Very tart and lemony, just the way I like, and has a creamy, melt in your mouth sort of cheesecake consistency. Very much like Earth Cafe desserts. It's incredible. The crust which is made of almond flour, coconut butter, palm sugar and sea salt is thick and buttery tasting. My husband and I had a fork sword fight over the last few morsels.

A couple other fun snacks new on the market were from Earthlings Organics who also make raw, vegan, gluten-free treats. I anxiously ripped open their chocolaty Vital Bites superfood cookies soon as I got home.

You had me at cacao.

These are really tasty, brownie type bites made of dates, almonds, coconut, cacao and mesquite. The label says "may contain immeasurable amounts of love and hard pieces." I only tasted the love.

I wasn't sure I'd like the Ceremonial Green Tea Matcha Bar as much as I did.

Made with coconut, almonds, pumpkin seeds, figs, agave, matcha (green tea) and lemon, it had a really nice crunch and texture. Not bitter at all from the matcha, I mostly picked up the coconut and lemon flavors. I liked that it wasn't too sweet and didn't taste like a typical dehydrated snack. This is something I would keep in my purse when I'm on the go.

For more snack ideas why not purchase my book Going Raw? I've got lots of fun snack recipes and more. Available May 1st, pre-order it here! www.rawjudita.com