 My journey to dairy-free:
A couple of years ago I gave up dairy. However, that wasn’t the original plan. . . My youngest was having some issues with her bowels and I thought I’d try taking her off of dairy for a couple of months to see what difference it made. Needless to say, she was not exactly overjoyed at the idea so I decided to join her. I turned it into a fun thing just for her and mummy, eating all the “special” dairy-free alternatives.
By the end of the two months, her bowels had dramatically improved. which I was very grateful for but what I hadn’t expected was for my autoimmune issues to also ease. Much to my despair, when I tried reintroducing my beloved cheese. I was left with crippling fatigue, muscle pain, and a sinus headache that had me tempted to pull my own teeth out just to get some kind of relief! How would I ever survive without my precious dairy??? Seriously, I put cheese on everything and had followed the low-carb diet for some time meaning lots of cheese, cream, and milk. (No wonder I was still struggling with my fatigue so much!)
That was about 2 years ago now and thankfully it’s become second nature. . . In fact, the couple of times I have fallen off the wagon, I’ve not really enjoyed the taste and the side effects were just not worth it at all. I’ve also gone a step further since then and joined the autoimmune paleo wagon.
Anyway, sour cream. . .Oh, how I have missed you! For a while I was making a cauliflower version which is nice, however, you just don’t get the creamy richness you can get from using cashews. Therefore, I was over the moon when I successfully reintroduced nuts last month!!! I went on a shopping spree, cashews, pecans, almond flour, almond butter, salted roasted pistachios . . . Food of the gods!!
Tonight the kids and I wanted something to dip our vegetable crisps in. I just so happened to have some cashew sour cream soaking in the fridge and some fresh coriander left over. This is a super easy recipe and most importantly, the end result is creamy, tangy goodness that in the words of my 9yr old “is way too yummy to be healthy!”. So that’s score 1 to mummy!! ????
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups cashew nuts, soaked overnight
1.5 cups lime juice
2tsp nutritional yeast
A small handful of fresh coriander
1-2Â cups of water
Mix all ingredients in a blender on high, starting with 1 cup of water and adding more until smooth. This is delicious as a dip or as a topping for wraps or on chili or tacos …..or just with a spoon.