Nibbles with Nelly
No-cheese Queso Blanco
Hello, and welcome to the Blue Barn Farm and Sanctuary. This week has been a little intense for us. We have wildfires spreading to the East, North, and South of us. As of this post, we are all safe. We have an evacuation plan in place, and a team of total rockstars ready to jump into action at a moments notice to make sure all of the animals get out without issue. Those of you who have witnessed the power and effects of wildfires will know how eerie it is to have it be dark when the sun is up, there is an intense orange-red coloring to the light that does get through, and everything is covered in a fine dusting of ash.
After we finished preparing for an evacuation, I did what I like to do to de-stress: I made some food. I was once again inspired by one of my favorites, Nora who writes the blog noracooks.com. I thought it would be fitting to share her post since she is a fellow Oregonian, and although she is in Portland, she might also be experiencing some intensity around all of these fires. As I scoured her website for something that grabbed my attention, and for which I had all of the ingredients, I stumbled across this little gem for vegan queso blanco. Oh my goodness! I am super glad I did! This time, however, I made the recipe almost exactly as it was written! Yes! It’s true! The only difference is that she calls for one cup of potatoes, and I used a bit more because that’s how it worked out with the potatoes I had to work with. Oh, and she wanted me to peel them first. I’m not much for peeling anything…unless you’re talking about something like a mango. I firmly believe all those people out there, my father included, who say there are a lot of vitamins and minerals in the skins. So my potatoes went into the blender, skins and all.
Just add water and a blender for queso blanco perfection!
From start to finish, this probably only took me about 20 minutes.
Scrub and chop potatoes
Boil them in a pot with the whole, raw cashews
While that’s happening I put everything else in the blender
canned green chilis and their juices
pickled jalapeño with a bit of brine
juice from a lemon
pink Himalayan sea salt
LIQUEFY!
Drain the potatoes and cashews
Add them to the blender with the green mixture and about a cup of water
Blend it all up until it’s super smooth and creamy
That’s it! I can hardly wait to add this to my rice and bean bowl. I bet it will also be delicious just as a tortilla chip dip, or drizzled onto my tacos and enchiladas. I’ll have to do another post soon with those pictures, and let you all know how it turns out.
For now, I’m happy to have a nice little stash to store in my fridge until the moment is just right, which will most likely be tomorrow. Haha! This queso blanco is so unbelievably creamy and cheesy tasting, it is hard to imagine that it doesn’t have any cheese in it whatsoever! As with all of the recipes I find at noracooks.com, this is all vegan, family-friendly, affordable, dairy free, and cruelty free. What’s not to love?!? She makes eating compassionately a breeze. Plus, she’s great at dialoguing in her comments section. So if you’re looking for ideas about substitutions, or a bit of support in your methodologies, she’s on it.
Before I wrap up this week’s post, I want to say an extra special and heartfelt thank you to all the people out there helping to keep the animals safe during catastrophic emergencies like these wildfires we are dealing with now at the Blue Barn Farm and Sanctuary in Oregon. Unfortunately, it seems as though in those critical moments, the animals often get left behind. With dedication, planning, and hard work a lot of these tragedies might be avoided. Take a moment, and put yourself in the position of the one being left behind. Use those feelings of empathy to motivate yourself into doing something to help. Remember, even small gestures of kindness can go a long way to changing somebody’s life.
From all of us at the Blue Barn Farm and Sanctuary to each one of you out there, we wish you safety, peace, kindness, and happy times ahead! Check back next week to see how we weathered the fires, and to find out what else vegans eat!
Miss Nelly Rose and her fabulous piggie friends