WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email below and we’ll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week!
The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.
I was really happy with the choice this month because so many bloggers have posted about how easy and delicious making your own nut butters is and I’d been wanting to give it a try. Nutrition research suggests that nuts are good for your health. Nut butters add complex & interesting flavors to dishes, provide body & thickness to sauces, and can be used to replace the dairy fats or other oils in recipes.
We were provided several recipes from which to choose, Chicken with Pecan Cream & Mushroom, Asian Noodle Salad, and Chicken with Curried Tomato Almond Sauce. They all looked delicious and I hope to try them all one day, but the Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew dressing was getting rave reviews on the Daring Bakers forum. It sounded like the perfect summer meal and it was! The cashew dressing added so much creamy, delicious flavor. It would be fabulous on any number of Asian dishes.
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email below and we will send it straight to your inbox. Plus you will get great new recipes from us every week!
Asian Salad with Cashew Dressing
Ingredients
Cashew Butter
- 1 cup cashews*
Cashew Dressing
- ½ inch slice of fresh ginger chopped
- 8 cloves garlic more or less to taste, chopped
- ½ cup cashew butter
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 3 Tablespoons sugar
- 3 Tablespoons vinegar
- 3 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- ¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon water
- Hot sauce to taste optional
Noodle Salad
- ½ pound linguine or thin rice noodles
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 large chicken breasts grilled and diced
- 1 small zucchini halved and sliced
- 1 small yellow squash halved and slice
- ½ cup shredded carrots
- ¼ cup sliced green onions
- 1 small cucumber peeled, seeded, sliced
- 1 tablespoon chopped cashews optional garnish
- Make cashew butter: Grind cashews in food processor for about 2 minutes until smooth. *Or start with ½ cup prepared cashew butter.
Instructions
- Make cashew butter: Grind cashews in food processor for about 2 minutes until smooth. (*Or start with ½ cup prepared cashew butter.)
- Prepare cashew dressing: Combine ginger, garlic, cashew butter, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and water in food processor or blender. Process/blend until smooth. Be sure to process long enough to puree the ginger and garlic. The dressing should be pourable, about the same thickness as cream. Adjust consistency – thinner or thicker — to your liking by adding more water or cashew butter. Taste and add your favorite hot sauce if desired. (If the cashew butter was unsalted, you may want to add salt to taste.) Makes about 1 ½ cups dressing. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator.
- Prepare noodles according to package instructions in salted water. Rinse and drain noodles. Set aside.
- Combine noodles, squash, carrots, cucumber, onions, and chicken in a large bowl. Add about 1 cup cashew dressing; toss gently to coat. Add more cashew dressing as desired, using as much or as little as you’d like. Sprinkle with chopped cashews if desired.
Notes
Visit the Daring Kitchen Recipe Achieve for all three challenge recipes and visit the Daring Cooks Blogroll to see other great nut butter recipes/ideas. Thanks Margie and Natashya for an easy and delicious challenge.
An extra but optional challenge this month was to use a homemade nut butter in a sweet recipe. My son is a cashew lover and we love Martha Stewart Peanut Butter cookie recipe, so I turned to her for a Cashew Butter Cookie recipe. We were not disappointed. These have the same sandy texture as a peanut butter cookie, but a much lighter flavor. More reminiscent of a pecan sandie. Definitely scrumptious. I underbaked mine a bit because I like a softer cookie, but they still had that yummy crumbly peanut butter cookie texture.
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email below and we will send it straight to your inbox. Plus you will get great new recipes from us every week!
Cashew Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups roasted unsalted cashews divided
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Turbinado sugar Sugar in the raw
Instructions
- Coarsely chop ¼ cup cashew nuts, and reserve for garnish. In the bowl of a food processor, combine 1 ¾ cups cashews with canola oil, and process until smooth, 5 to 7 minutes. (You should have about ¾ cup puree.) Set aside until completely cool.
- In a medium mixing bowl, sift the flour and salt together; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, cashew puree, and both sugars, and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix until well combined, about 30 seconds. Add the flour mixture, and mix on low speed, just until combined, about 20 seconds. Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and set aside. Scoop 2 tablespoons of dough and shape into a ball. Roll ball in Turbinado sugar. Place dough balls 3 inches apart on baking sheets. Press tines of a fork into the dough balls to make vertical and horizontal indentations. Sprinkle reserved cashew nuts on top.
- Bake 16 to 18 minutes, depending on whether a soft or crisp cookie is desired. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.
Cyndy
Oh My Goodness! The salad sounds so refreshing and a meal in itself even without the protein! Those cookies took my breath away. I love cashews. Both recipes copied. Thanks Barbara I like your version of the salad.
Tasty Eats At Home
This looks so delicious! I stumbled. I love that salad.
Carol
Hi Barbara-everything looks wonderful, as always.
I've never tried making cashew butter nor have I eaten it……and we love cashews too. I do believe after looking at these wonderful treats you've shared that I'll be trying my hand at making some soon. All I need to do is hunt down some roasted unsalted cashews.
Thank you! 🙂
Megan
This looks like a wonderful meal and perfect for these hot days we've been getting.
I'm off to catch up with what I missed around here while I was gone. I saw some good lookin' macs upon my arrival! 😉
Amanda
Hi Barbara, these both look fabulous! Gave you a stumble!
Anula
Also made the Asian salad – yours looks very good. And I also made cookies – but peanut butter ones. Have to try your version one day.
Cheers! Anula.
Lisa Michelle
Barb, your Asian Noodle Salad looks beautiful but those cashew butter cookies caught my eye in the DK forum and haven't let go yet! I must make them!
Monkeyshines in the Kitchen
Great summery-looking salad, and your cookies are inspiring me to start the weekend early with a batch of my own. Congratulations on this month's challenge!
Gera @ Sweets Foods Blog
Anything with cashew catch my attention! Beautiful salad and the buttery cookies are ideal for tea – time…lot of them 🙂
Cheers,
Gera
chef_d
The cashew nut butter cookies look sooooo yummy! Great job on the Asian Salad, everything looks great 🙂
Jo
Barbara, the asian salad looks so delicious and the cookie equally as good! Great job on this month's challenge.
Kim
This is such a fun challenge and I have really enjoyed reading about it. I imagine the cashew butter was absolutely wonderful and addictive. Both recipes look amazing.
Foodessa
Barbara…there's no need for too much convincing…because, for one, I love cashews and secondly you also got dessert made too.
You're my kind of gal ;o)
These will certainly find a place in my tummy at some point…bookmarked!
Have a great weekend and flavourful wishes,
Claudia
Juliana
Oh Barbara…both look fantastic…the pasta and the cookies…I am not a big fan cashew, but would love to try these ones 🙂
Cinnamon-Girl
This is such a delicious sounding salad! So perfect for summer with all those vegetables. And the cookies sound scrumptious!
Cook of the House
Mmmm Cashew Cookies sound so good. I didn't have a chance to make anything sweet for this challenge but I will definitely have to try those in the near future.
Lori
I made the salad too but it wasnt nearly as pretty as yours Barbara.
I love, love, love these cookies. I could definitely see them on my Holiday Cookie list!
Margie
Your noodle salad looks so delicious with the summer squash! But those cashew cookies take the cake. With an endorsement from Martha & Barbara, I know they'll be fabulous.
shelley c.
Yum – both your noodle salad and cookies look delicious… I may just give those cookies a try with my leftover cashew-butter! Excellent job on both dishes for this challenge.
Barbara
Your salad looks light and summer, Barbara. And the cashew cookies are the perfect ending to your meal!
A fun Daring Cook challenge!