Our family has a lifelong craving for the lip-smacking lemon cashew dressing that is reminiscent of a zesty Caesar. It hits the spot (and the anchovies, oil and egg go unmissed).

Makes: 1 - 1/4 cups

Time: 20 minutes idle soak time + 10 minutes prep + 10 minutes idle rest time

How to Enjoy: as a dressing, dip

Ingredients

½ cup raw cashews, soaked 20 minutes in hot water

6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Zest of one organic lemon (microplane zester for purchase)

4 garlic cloves pressed into the lemon juice, let sit 10 minutes

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Ume plum vinegar (or ½ teaspoon tamari sauce)

½ to ¾ cup aquafaba (chickpea cooking liquid) to desired consistency

1 tablespoon freshly ground flax seed

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper (or freshly ground black cumin seed)

¼ teaspoon herbed sea salt

Dash cayenne

Instructions

Drain cashews. Add all ingredients to a small high-speed blender, such as nutribullet, and blend on high until smooth. Let rest ten minutes for the flax to fully absorb. Taste, adjust, then blend again on high until smooth and creamy.

This recipe qualifies for the whole-food plant-based (WFPB) designation, meaning that it is made of only of whole plant foods and does not contain any extracted ingredients, such as sugar or oil, that would damage the body’s endothelium (the inner most lining of the arteries).