Dairy-Free Creamy Queso Dip

One of my favorite recipes, made entirely of veggies and whole foods, 

it's tastes so good, it's so versatile, and so healthy too!

Dairy-Free Creamy Queso Dip:

3 organic russet potatoes
3 organic carrots
1 organic small yellow onion
1 organic red pepper
1/2 cup organic cashews
lemon juice from 1/2 an organic lemon
15oz diced tomatoes and green chillies

Optional: 1/2 or whole packet of taco seasoning
Optional: organic diced jalapeño


Peel the potatoes, carrots, and onion and deseed the pepper. Add them all to a pot of boiling water along with the cashews and boil until potatoes, carrots, and cashews are soft. About 15-20 min.

Set aside about 1 cup of of the water used for boiling incase you need to thin out the dip, and then add the drained cooked veggies, cashews, and lemon juice to a high speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth, adding about a tablespoon of reserved water at a time to thin out only if needed.

Once blended, add to a small sauce pot over low-medium heat and stir in the the tomatoes and green chillies. This is also when you would begin to add the taco seasoning and diced jalapeño to taste if you want.

Serve warm and enjoy! I also find this freezes well if you end up having extra or want to make it ahead of time.

Perfect to top these Twice Baked Potatoes with,

or dip these Southwest Taco Wontons into!

Product Review: Kite Hill Cream Cheese

I have to start my product reviews off with the BEST vegan product I've ever tried. Years ago when I started to more closely examine the foods I ate, I started gravitating toward a predominantly plant-based diet knowing eventually I wanted follow a completely vegan diet, but at that time felt no urgency to do so for health benefits alone. 

Since 2012, each time I came upon a vegan alternative to one of my favorite foods I would try it, and switch whenever I found one I liked. I started getting worried however when I decided to go completely vegan and still hadn't found a vegan cream cheese I would consider eating. Cream cheese (Well, neufchâtel. I had switched to that years ago because of its "healthier" properties) is pretty much a staple in my life; bagels, sauces, dips, apps, mac and cheese, everything. Every kind I tried was a disappointment, tasted like a whipped up oil, and were just never worth it. I began to think cream cheese would just be a thing of the past. 

Then, JUST in-time, my local grocery store decided to stock some Kite Hill Cream Cheese...

kite hill pictured in photo from wokwildside's Instagram

Life-changing! First they stocked the Regular, and then they stocked my favorite flavor ever, Chive. Both of them are cream cheese heaven and exceed expectations! Texture and flavor are perfect. They are creamy and rich in flavor that actually tastes like cream cheese whether on a bagel, spread on a cracker, in a sauce, or mixed in a dip. Perfection. 

         

My favorite part about this cream cheese... It's made from almond milk, not partially hydrogenated oils (that you want to make sure to avoid to begin with - here's why) like many other vegan cream cheeses, so you can enjoy it without worrying about eating something you should be avoiding.

Enjoy!