How to make recipes that call for raw cashews without a high speed blender

Bag o Cashews

I use raw cashews in my cooking a lot. Like, a lot. Like, I just bought my third 4-lb bag of cashews since early August, which means that we go through about two pounds of cashews a month. See? A lot.

I use them to make plant milk when I need it, occasionally culturing that milk into yogurt, I use them to make creams and aioli, raw cheesecake, salad dressings, a mind-boggling variety of creamy pasta sauces and soups, and so much more. Raw cashews are one of the most versatile ingredients that exists. Period.

One of the things about using raw cashews in these ways is that, to achieve the best results, you almost always need a high-speed blender. I’ve made things for friends and family that they’ve wanted to replicate at home, and I always have to tell them that it’s probably not going to be the same. For instance, my mother-in-law loves this smooth, creamy, totally killer cashew ranch dressing that I make, but, when she tried it in the food processor at home, it came out a bit chunky and disappointing by comparison. Since cashews are the base for so many of the things I create, I’ve always felt bad that these recipes remain inaccessible to those who haven’t invested in something like a Vitamix.

I’ve had a sneaking suspicion for a while that there may be a way around this, but hadn’t actually tried it until about a week ago. The secret to making recipes that call for raw cashews when you don’t have a high-speed blender is this:

Raw Cashew Butter

Raw cashew butter.

It’s so obvious, right?! I’m sure I’m not the first to come up with this, but it still feels revelatory for me. When you blend cashews into sauces and dressings with a high-speed blender, you’re just breaking them down until they’re completely smooth—which is exactly what raw cashew butter already is. You don’t need machine that operates at 240 miles per hour when that heavy lifting has been done for you.

There are, however, some downsides to using cashew butter and I want to be upfront about them. Cashew butter is messier. You should only use natural butter made exclusively from raw cashews with no other ingredients. Nut butters without additives will almost always need a good stirring prior to use, which is inconvenient and can result in an oily/gloppy mess, even when using care (I have a pair of sesame/tahini oil-stained cords that can speak to that). The sticky cashew butter will also need to be spooned into a measuring cup and scraped out, a slower and less clean process than the quick scoop’n’dump when the nuts are whole.

Raw cashew butter is also expensive. It’s not several-hundred-dollar-blender expensive, but if you find yourself making recipes with cashew butter often, it will add up. At that point, you might want to consider investing in a machine that can just process the whole nuts and do half a million other things to boot.

All that said: cashew butter—it works!

I haven’t tested it extensively yet, so I don’t know what the limitations are, if any, but I did try it in my smoky chili aioli recipe (coming soon). I figured that something on thicker side, something where cashews really make up the body of the recipe, would be most telling of how effective this substitution would be. Guys, it turned out great, just like when I make it with whole raw cashews.

Smoky Chili Aioli w cashew butter

When subbing raw cashew butter, use half the measurement of whole nuts called for in the recipe. This means, if the recipe calls for one cup of whole raw cashews, you would use ½ cup of butter. Recipes that only call for liquids and powdered spices can probably just be whisked together, but if your recipe calls for raw garlic or other chunky ingredients, you’ll still want to blend or process it. Quick tip for things like cashew cream, salad dressing, or aioli where raw garlic is an ingredient: mince or finely grate the cloves before blending/processing so you don’t wind up with an accidental hunk of garlic in the finished product (this happens to me with hummus in the food processor sometimes—not fun).

Hopefully this has been helpful for those of you lamenting your inability to blitz raw cashews into a luxurious wealth of creamy delights. Going forward, I’ll make sure to add raw cashew butter as a possible substitution in my recipes containing whole raw cashews. Except for the Buffalo Chickpea Dip (just use the whole cashews for that one), I don’t think I have any on my site yet, which seems impossible. Seriously guys—two pounds a month!

Comments

  1. Gloria says

    Thank you so much! Am making a recipe that calls for 3/4 cup of cashews and I am using cashew butter and had no idea how much to do! Now I just need to remember basic fraction division of half of 3/4! 🙂

    • Britt says

      Ha! Glad you found this helpful. In case you haven’t gotten around to working out the numbers yet: 3/4 cup is 12 tablespoons, so half of that is 6T, which would be 1/4 cup (4T) plus 2 tablespoons. 😉

    • Shanti says

      An easy way to work this out is to think in 1/4s. So 3/4 cup is the same as if you filled up a 1/4 cup three times or the same as three 1/4 cups filled up. Visualize this. Then making it in half is so easy. It’s one of the 1/4 cups and then half of one of the 1/4 cups. Simple, right?

  2. Jaz says

    Thank you!! I regularly forget to soak my cashews and have to change dinner/dessert plans – yet have had a jar of cashew butter in the panty for sometime.. Yay!

  3. Flynn says

    Oh, this is perfect. Thank you! It’s not just that a high-speed blender is not in the budget, but we literally have no space in our kitchen for anything. We’re still trying to part with things we don’t use enough to keep. Also, I’m still just broadening my vegan repertoire – and vegan cashew “cheese”cake is my next Very Important Priority. Yay!

    • Britt says

      Oh of course–that makes sense! I refuse to get a toaster and insist on using the broiler for similar space considerations. 😉 Good luck with your cheesecake!

  4. Tricia Fitzgerald says

    Thank you! This is exactly the information I was looking for! I’m making a dairy-free tomato soup tonight, I have a little jar of cashew butter and no high-speed blender. Your solution is perfect!

    • Britt says

      I can’t say definitively as I haven’t tried it out myself personally, though I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t. It may depend on the recipe as well. If you try it, please let me know!

  5. Stella says

    A couple of considerations: many recipes call for the cashews to be soaked for several hours first, and they soak up quite a bit of water. Cashew butter, then, is much denser and has a stronger nut flavor with less water content. Would love to see what you find in the optimal ratios to adjust this for predominantly cashew based foods (like vegan cheese).

    • Britt says

      This is an interesting point. I do mention that this probably has it’s limitations. The additional water should be fairly minimal, though, and you could likely add a bit at a time until you reach your preferred consistency.

      Anecdotally, I occasionally make recipes for which I typically soak the cashews with unsoaked if I’m pressed for time, and the results have never been noticeably different. But yeah, for things like vegan cheese (not of the sauce variety), where you may want a bit more body/heft, I don’t know that this sub would hold up. Would be interesting to try!

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