The idea was intriguing, the process a cinch, and I had all the ingredients in my pantry. The recipe was for cashew cheese, a sort of vegan alternative to the dairy kind.

Once home, I picked up the book again and, leafing through it with a fresh eye (that was after I’d recovered from the jetlag), noticed a recipe that propelled me from couch to kitchen - a phenomenon every cookbook reader lives for. I had a lovely meal there (a Ciao Bella sandwich and a glass of juice) and because I was flying out that night, I also ordered a wrap to go, which I ate placidly on the plane, as the passenger seated next to me considered her in-flight meal with palpable despair. When I was in Los Angeles last spring promoting my Paris book, I was excited to finally visit Real Food Daily, a long-established vegan restaurant I had first heard of through its same-name cookbook a few years ago.Īnd because I was flying out that night, I also ordered a wrap to go, which I ate placidly on the plane, as the passenger seated next to me considered her in-flight meal with palpable despair. The reason why I’m so interested is that cooking and eating under constraints such as these encourages those who do to think out of the box, seek out new ingredients or look at old ones in a different light, and invent techniques, recipes, and dishes that come to enrich the general pool of foods that everyone else can enjoy, if they’re curious enough to try them.

I am about as omnivorous as they come, but I have a keen interest in the diet of those who decide to - or must - walk an alternate path, be it vegetarian, vegan, raw, or allergen-free.

Cashew cheese sauce raw vegan