I’m the youngest of three, with my siblings being 10 years older. By the time Mum got to me she was kind of ‘over’ cooking. She had just a few recipes which rotated every week (which might actually explain my love for cooking now?). One of those recipes was cream of chicken, which was a béchamel sauce with a few chicken stock cubes and shredded rotisserie chicken served over rice. If it sounds boring, thats because it is (sorry Mum!). She also used to make a béchamel cheese sauce over steamed veggies.
So safe to say in adulthood I have never craved anything with béchamel sauce. But, it’s a very necessary component of lasagna which in my pre-gluten free vegetarian days I made quite a few times with success.
Since then, I’ve tried a few different dairy and gluten free béchamel sauces, one was made with tofu and was one made with white beans (cannelloni, I think). Both were okay, but tasted very much like either tofu or beans and not very much like the classic béchamel sauce. I didn’t even think it was possible to recreate this to taste like the real thing! I should have learnt by now, it’s always possible.
When I came across spabettie’s recipe I was intrigued at making a sauce similar to the classic version, but I really don’t like to cook with butter (even the vegan kind) or gluten free flour blends. So I set out to create my own version keeping the base of cashews and almond milk. I can’t cook with garlic at the moment since my Mum is allergic and we are staying with her, so I opted to use onion instead – but I’m sure the garlic version is much better.
What I love about this recipe is you don’t have to make a roux (melting the butter and mixing with flour), which I remember screwing up once or twice. I love anything that I can make mostly in my Vitamix.
Are you noticing a trend with recipes this week? First the Marinara Pasta Sauce, and now a béchamel sauce. Guess what I made with them both (you can see it in the corner of the photo above)? Keep an eye out for the recipe next week (make sure your signed up for free newsletter updates to get the recipe).
- ½ cup cashews, soaked overnight (or at least 2 hours)
- 3 cups almond milk (or other nut milk)
- 2 cloves garlic OR ¼ brown onion
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 Tbsp arrowroot flour (use 3 Tbsp if you want it thicker than normal)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 1 tsp salt
- Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender (I use a Vitamix).
- In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, add in the cream sauce.
- Whisk for about 5-10 minutes until thickened to béchamel sauce consistency.