UNEXPECTED & TASTY
Plant-based 'Queso' & Texas BBQ in Europe??
Elizabeth is cooking up Texas BBQ in Europe of all places, and Anthony is breaking all the Tex-Mex rules by making an entirely dairy-free “queso” that even die-hard queso heads will love!
Programming note: We’re taking next week off for a little R&R.
HOMEMADE CASHEW “QUESO” IS DAIRY-FREE DELICIOUS
AU: I know what you’re thinking: WHY would anyone want to make a queso (which literally means “cheese”) WITHOUT cheese?? Well, a couple of reasons…
I have a ton of friends who are lactose-intolerant. Not just the “oh, I can’t eat that” type, but the OHMYGOD THE VERY PRESENCE OF A BOWL OF MELTED CHEESE IS OFFENSIVE TO ME type. And I have some friends who don’t eat animal products. So this is for all of my NO-DAIRY QUEENS!
Now that I’m a lady of certain age, my cholesterol and blood pressure are getting higher. Isn’t that fun? So I’m looking to find healthier alternatives to the foods I love. I don’t want to claim this recipe is healthy per se, but it’s definitely healthier than a (delicious) bowl of saturated fat. Plus it’s packed with protein between the cashews and the nutritional yeast.
I’ve seen tiny tubs of plant-based “cheese” dips in every grocery store. They’re prolific and they’re expensive! Eight bucks for a tiny little tub (7oz!) of plant-based queso?!? Babe, get real. I can make a whole quart for less. And it’s not filled with stabilizers, food coloring, and weird preservatives.
EK: There are so many ways to make things delicious, and I can’t wait to try this one! I had one of the best creamy pastas of my life at Lake Austin Spa and tasting it you wouldn’t know that it was a “healthy” version. When I asked the chef how he made the cheesy no-cheese pasta, he said “puréed-and-steamed cauliflower with nutritional yeast.” It was on rotation at my house for the next year. And this one is even better, because it is loaded with cashews!
AU: Being a Texas native, queso has been in my bloodstream since birth. It might as well be called “Texas Baby Food,” because I don’t know a child in Texas who hasn’t had it as one of their first bites of solid food. Point is: I know good queso when I see it.
When I first moved to Los Angeles, I was super excited to try a great Tex-Mex restaurant in DTLA called Bar Amá. The chef/owner, Josef Centeno, is from San Antonio, TX and the restaurant features his California spin on the Tex-Mex favorites he grew up eating (think: Puffy Tacos, Queso, Enchiladas, Chile Rellenos, etc).
Since this is LA, he made a vegan version of queso that I tried out of curiosity… it hit the spot! A little on the thinner side, in terms of consistency, but packed with chilies and slightly cheesy. After delving into his cookbook, I discovered he make a tomatillo salsa base, and blends it with almond milk and nutritional yeast (in place of cheese) to create the plant-based queso concoction.
I decided to go home and create my version right away. I started throwing things into the blender, and y’all… I dare say it’s closer to the queso I grew up eating. I mean, nothing will compare to a can of RoTel tomatoes and a brick of Velveeta cheese, but this is pretty darn close!
In lieu of almond milk, and making a salsa from scratch (like Bar Amá’s), I decided to go with toasted cashews as a base. Cashews, when blended, become super creamy, which is why they’re the main ingredient in some of the best vegan ice creams. Toasting the cashews really makes a difference in the final product (yes, I tried doing it without), so don’t skip this important step.
I wasn’t going to make queso with out my Texas staple of RoTel Tomatoes & Chilies, so I threw half a can into the blender (keeping the rest to stir in after blending). I added some nutritional yeast to stand in for the cheese, chipotles in adobo, garlic and chili powders, salt, a little oil to help emulsify everything, etc. Whirred it all up in a blender, and BING BANG BOOM… QUESO! While it’s not necessary, I think the flavors meld/intensify after some time in the fridge. I also… oddly… prefer this dip slightly chilled or at room temp.
Truth be told—I’ve purchased and made about 9 versions of this stuff—adding/subtracting ingredients to get it right. I do think this is the best version I’ve tasted, so I hope you’ll try it!
Cashew “Queso”
I know what you’re thinking: WHY would anyone want to make a queso without cheese? Don’t turn your nose up at something just because it’s different. This is a great dip alternative for those who are dairy-adverse or wanting a healthier version of their favorite foods. Blending some of the RoTel tomatoes lends a signature queso-color to the dish, and stirring some whole ones in at the end adds texture.
Makes about 3 cups
Ingredients:
1 cup toasted cashews
1 (10oz) can Ro-Tel Original tomatoes & green chilies, divided
1 (4oz) can diced green chilies⅓ cup water
⅓ cup grapeseed oil
⅓ cup nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, or lemon juice
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 whole chipotle in adobo (or ~1 tablespoon chopped chipotles in adobo)
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
Method:
Spoon approximately half the can of Ro-Tel tomatoes (with the liquid) into a blender, along with all the other ingredients. Blend until smooth.
Transfer to a bowl and stir in remaining Ro-Tel tomatoes and chilies. Serve chilled, warm or at room temperature.
*Note
Letting the finished queso sit in the fridge for an hour (or overnight) helps develop the flavor, so this is a great make-ahead recipe. Queso will keep up to a week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
TEXAS BARBECUE IN… EUROPE??
FOOD POSTCARDS FROM SLOVENIA
Wish You Were Here…
EK: I am in sitting in my hotel room, a stone’s throw away from the main square in Ljubljana thinking about the past five days. It’s been a whirlwind of Slovene food, culture, barbecue and country music. That’s right, barbecue, country music and serious line dancing. Not the freestyle Texas honky-tonk line dancing, but instead a huge group of semi-professional line dancers—watching them have fun dancing was like watching a performance.
AU: First of all, I’m gonna need a pronouncer for Ljubljana (PRON: loo-blee-aa-nuh). Secondly, it’s wild to me how fish-out-of-water your whole experience seems! It’s like an American BBQ Festival in the middle of Europe!
EK: It’s wild! On Saturday, the main event was meeting Madame Ambassador Jamie Harpootlian. You can see us in the photo below. Madame Ambassador was gracious and a lot of fun, just what you would expect from a fellow Carolina girl! When she isn’t in residence in Slovenia, she is living in South Carolina. You can also see my friend and compatriot, Bob Blumer, in the far left side talking to the Nashville band, Six One Five Collective who happened to be on fire!
I am visiting Slovenia at the invitation of the US Embassy and the very passionate founders of a KCBS-sanctioned BBQ Fest called The Wild West Fest (Thank you Mickey, Ales, and Peter!). It reminded me of the early days of the Big Apple BBQ Block Party in NYC and Memphis in May.
AU: Both of those events bring back such fond memories… and serious “meat sweats!” If you have never been to a big BBQ festival or competition, you really must. It’s a culture all of its own, and it’s a lot of fun. Like a giant tailgate but everyone’s a professional pitmaster!
EK: I came here with Bob Blumer to teach some American barbecue and grilling techniques and to learn some Slovenian dishes. We’ve ended up having the time of our lives! To say that we are burning the BBQ fires at both ends is an understatement!
I have never visited a country where the reception was as exuberant! Bob and I have met so many people who we can truly now call friends. The Slovenes love their food and drink and we have never eaten so well.
The first night we met restaurateur and pig champion, Jakob Franc. He has become our friend and culinary guide to the city. Not only does he have an exceptional restaurant, but he raises a very special indigenous pig: the Krskopolje pig. His farm has 200 pigs and they are all free-range, and what that means is that they eat whatever is outside—right now they are eating chestnuts! The end result is a pig with a clean, delicate, slightly nutty meat and snow-white fat. (You can see his “Majal” cold cuts in the photo above.)
The cold cuts and the prosciutto were exceptional, but the real reason that we went back to the restaurant twice was the traditional Jota, or cabbage stew (seen in the photo below). The recipe was based on Jakob’s family recipe but made by the restaurant cook.
The cabbage cooks in the snow-white pork fat until it literally falls apart and a small amount of soft potato adds to the texture of the soup, eliminating the need to use any flour to thicken it. Slovenian brown beans are also cooked separately and added to the broth, the cabbage and the potatoes. A bit of smoked ham is added for flavor and crunchy pink “peppercorns” are the garnish that add both texture and flavor to this soup. I look forward to trying to recreate it with country ham once I get home. But first, Jakob has to “pry” the recipe from his cook!
I would have been happy just to eat Jakob’s pigs, but he also let me cook at the barbecue with them. Our American butcher cuts are different from Slovenian cuts, but one of the founders of The Wild West Fest cut a rack of Spareribs and a rack of Baby Backs for me to use for my demo. You can see the beautiful Spareribs he gave me above.
After the demo, Jakob joined Bob and me for some of the ribs (someone in the crowd took our picture below, so I lifted it from IG!).
For more on the festival—and the trip, check out the fabulous videos on instagram that Bob made—they really have captured the spirit of the trip!
On the other end of the spectrum, we hung out in the first fine-dining restaurant in Slovenia with one of the very few Slovenian Michelin-awarded chefs, Mojmir Siftar. Chef Mojmir and the Kaval Group took over from the original family just before Covid and renovated the restaurant in the old mansion that houses the PEN KLUB.
He made his version of two traditional dishes, one gorgeous version of red-wine doused calves liver and onions set on rich buttery creamy potatoes with greens and a blackberry dressing that would make a liver lover out of anyone!
He also served us the most delectable version of the traditional Gibanica that we’ve tasted on the trip. His Gibanica was made with a shortbread crust and eight layers of poppyseeds, apples, cottage cheese and walnuts. The pastry is similar to filo dough, but softer and hand-pulled. The young star chef created both the savory and sweet recipes, and they will be ones that I will also try at home!
In 5 days, we’ve been able to exchange my favorite American recipes with both home-style and fine-dining versions of Slovenian cuisine—and we squeezed in their favorite street food—Burek—and about 50 double macchiatos. The coffee culture here is real!
Needless to say, this is one delicious business trip, and I can’t wait to return and see more of this small but dazzling country! And now, I am off to dinner—AGAIN!
That’s it for this week! As always, if you make our recipes, tag us on the ‘gram (@kitchensitch & @elizabethkarmel), and use the hashtag #whats4dinner. Happy cooking!!