Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce Recipe

While this recipe calls for soaking your cashews overnight, there is a way to soak them faster. All you have to do is put the cashews into a pot with enough water to cover them well and then bring them to a boil on your stovetop. Once the water reaches the boiling state, remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let sit for 20 minutes. Strain the water off, and you've got soaked cashews! You can also simply cover them with boiling water from a kettle and let them sit for 20 minutes. Whichever is easier. Discard the strained water.

There really isn't a lot of science or exact measurement here. All you have to do is ensure that the cashews are well covered. Note that they will expand to about twice their size and you still want them to be well covered in water. So eyeball it. Don't be stingy with the water and they'll be fine!

Soaked cashews are a wonderful snack on their own. But if you don't want to eat them as is, blend them into just about any sauce in place of diary for a creamy sauce. Note that you'll want to use broth of some sort (vegetable broth tastes best in most cases) to get a saucier consistency. If you try to blend them without liquid, you may burn out your blender!

Absolutely!! In fact, you can easily soak a large quantity of cashews for easy use whenever you need them! No need to thaw for more than 5-10 minutes. In fact, in most cases, I don't thaw them at all! I just pop them into my blender with some broth and whatever else I want to add and I get a delicious, creamy sauce every time!