Cashew cheese stuffed dates for a picnic

There are times I feel I could live without cheese.  Like when we have plenty of nice cheese in the fridge and I still want to just slather my bread with this cashew cheese spread.  I actually made the cheese because I decided to make a simple picnic lunch and wanted something a little fancy. 

Cadry's bacon wrapped cashew cheese stuffed dates sounded very fancy.  I didn't soak my cashews for as long as Cadry did.  Nor did I wrap facon around mine.  I was too busy baking Celia's overnight sourdough for our cheese sandwiches and making grubs.  My blender doesn't bother too much if I don't soak the cashews much but I did find I needed more water to compensate.

I'd love to recommend this cashew cheese to everyone but I suspect that nutritional yeast flakes and vegan cheese are an acquired taste.  I can hand on heart tell you how much I love it.  I wasn't quite sure how much to stuff the dates and was a bit stingy.  You need to stuff them as much as possible for the cheese to make its presence felt.  It is milder than the recent cashew cheese I made for a salad but equally good.

Sylvia and I had a lovely time arranging dried fruit in the top photo because I feel that the dates would work well on a platter at the end of the meal.  However we really put them in a plastic tub to take to the Botanic Gardens to see a performance of The Wind in the Willows.  We got there early and had time to explore the gardens and get grass stains on shorts (not mine).

The show was lots of fun.  Sylvia loved Toad falling out of his boat in the lake.  E like watching Weasel exploring picnic baskets when the kids ran off the The Wild Wood.  I loved the weasel fight at the end.  I also was amused by the mother beside us who gave her kids cheese sticks and the opened brie for the adults.  We all had cheese sandwiches (yes dairy cheese), dips, vegie sticks, BBQ shapes  but I was alone with the stuffed dates.  For dessert we had grubs, grapes, nectarines and cherries.

I made it towards the end of December for a picnic and thought how good cashew cheese stuffed dates would be to celebrate New Year's Eve.  But sadly I was too busy to share it.  However this is an everyday cheese.  It will dress up for a special occasion but is happy to be relaxing at home over breakfast or dinner with its pjs still on.  I loved having it for a sandwich filling as much as I loved it at the picnic.

I am sending these cashew cheese stuffed dates to:

• Cakeyboi for Treat Petite (and co-hosted by The Baking Explorer) with the theme of healthy treats.
• Healthy Vegan Fridays #30 hosted by Kimmy of Rock My Vegan Socks. (Sadly her co-host Robin of Vegan Dollhouse has retired so she is looking for a new co-host.)
• Gluten Free Fridays #124 which is run by Vegetarian Mama.

More vegan cheeses on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Balsamic garden salad with cashew cheese
Chickpea and hemp seed cheese
Pepper-crusted cashew goat cheese
Sharp vegan cheddar cheese with sauerkraut brine 
Vegan cheddar cheese

Cashew cheese 
Adapted from Cadry's Kitchen and Spabettie

1 1/4 cup raw cashews, soaked*
1 Tablespoon white miso paste
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 to 1/2 tsp french lavender salt
2-4 tbsp water*

Blend until you have a thick paste - but not so thick that your blender is struggling.  (*I added water as I assume soaking for 1/2 hour to use in a high speed blender meant the cashews took on less water than if I had soaked them overnight.)

Cashew cheese stuffed dates
Remove the stone from medjool dates and use a teaspoon to stuff a generous amount of cheese inside.  They last well in the fridge for a day or two.

Cashew cheese is also great in sandwiches or as a dip.  Ours lasted in the fridge for a few days.

On the Stereo:
A Cool Crazy Christmas: Homer and Jethro