Queso dip, enchiladas and food processor

It's good bye to my old cracked and cranky food processor and hello to a shiny bright new one! This was a birthday present from my parents and siblings. I suspect it may take a little time to adjust. My old food processor only had one blade so the idea of a whole selection of blades and gadgets is quite overwhelming but exciting too!

The new food processor has something for everyone. Fun cooking for me, good food for E, and Sylvia and Zinc loved the box. I wasn't able to take a photo of Zinc lying in the box and playing with Sylvia's new strings of beads (bought from the op shop on the weekend) but it was priceless to watch. We are glad to see Sylvia learning to stay away from Zinc's playful claws.

Meanwhile, I gave the new food processor a burl with a batch of Sarah's Queso Dip. It is a vegan cheeze dip that requires soaking and blending raw cashews. I have tried such dips with my old food processor and just got a gritty watery mess. Finally I understand why people use raw cashews in vegan cheeze. With my new toy, they made a creamy rich base for the dip. There is no looking back now!

E and I loved the dip. I served it with lots of vegies and it was delicious. The dip is quite light on the calories but high in flavour. I omitted a lot of the fiery bite because I don't like much chilli. Then I added some white miso and nutritional yeast flakes to give a more cheesy taste. Sylvia was curious but not impressed. She has decided that "dip" means her favourite pink beetroot, cashew and parmesan dip. Nothing else will do!

I loved the cheese dip so much that I was keen to experiment. I tried it in some enchiladas which were good but not great. I think my mistake was to bake them with the tomato sauce on them. If I made them again I would serve them with tomato salsa on the side. However I am not sure what I would put on top. I have written out the recipe below but it is still work in progress.

You can see below a picture of the spread at my mum's that we had for my birthday lunch. I was inspired by her bean and corn enchiladas. You can see that she served them with lots of side dishes - including tacos, Mexican rice and tortilla chip salad.

I am curious to try this dip in other ways. I loved Sarah's Games Day Chilli Buffet and her photos of how her friends served their dip in different ways. I want to try spreading it on puff pastry, rolling it up and baking it (inspiration for this to be posted soon), stirring it into a tofu scrambles (like this one), or using it to top nachos. However, the rest of this batch of queso dip was great on rice crackers. Sometimes simple is best!

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Pizza for the Working Woman
This time two years ago: Birthday treats, heat and intrigue
This time three years ago: Perfect Purple Potato Bread

Alicia's Vegan Queso Dip
from Vegan Epicurean via the Ordinary Vegetarian
Makes approximately 7½ x ½ cup servings

1/2 cup raw cashews, (soaked for at least 1 hour)
1/2 cup oatmeal, ground into flour (I used rolled oats and forgot to grind it)
1, 1/2 cups water
2 teaspoon onion flakes, dried
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 clove garlic, peeled
400g (14oz) tin of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tablespoon white miso
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

Drain the cashews and blend in the food processor (or blender) with oats, water, onion flakes, turmeric, diced tomatoes and garlic. Puree until the mixture is smooth. (It will be quite thin but will thicken with heating.) Pour into a medium saucepan and add sweet and smoked paprika, salt and chilli powder. Check seasoning and adjust to taste. Gently heat, stirring frequently, until mixture has thickened. It will thicken more as it cools so it may need a little liquid to thin it if you reheat it. Keep in the fridge. Mine lasted 4 days.

Cheezy bean and corn enchiladas - work in progress
serves 4

1, 1/2 cups queso sauce (or any cheese sauce)
400g tin kidney beans, rinsed and drained
400g tin corn, rinsed and drained
1 -2 spring onions, finely sliced
1/2 large red capsicum, finely chopped
9 small corn tortillas
oil spray

Mix 1 cup of queso sauce, kidney beans, corn, spring onions and red capsicum. Heat gently in the microwave or a saucepan. Heat a non stick frypan and spray with oil. Warm tortillas in frypan, one at a time, spraying the frypan with more oil as needed. Once each tortilla is warm, spoon a couple of dessertspoons into the middle and roll up, then transfer to a greased rectangular lasagna dish. Spray oil on tops of quesos. Bake for about 20-30 minutes at about 200 C. I think I might try spreading a bit more queso on the tortillas towards the end of baking but am not sure. Serve with salsa of chopped tomatoes, spring onions, chilli paste, ground cumin, smoked paprika, lemon juice and avocado.

On the stereo:
Love: The Beatles