Sunday, July 18, 2010

Casa de Luz' Sun Cheese

Or would that be Sun Cheeze? Not cheese by any stretch of the imagination, just a really awesome topping for veggies (especially greens), grains, enchiladas, pasta...etc. Easy to make and easier to eat! A great healthful condiment to have stashed in your fridge.
I fell in love with this stuff long ago at Casa de Luz' Sunday brunch (CdL serves wonderful macrobiotic meals here in Austin), and had never thought of searching for the recipe til yesterday. Sure enough there it was, right there in the innertubes.

Sun Cheese:
(Casa de Luz Community Cookbook)

1 1/4 cup hulled organic sunflower seeds, soaked 4-6 hours or overnight
1 clove garlic
2 Tbs umeboshi vinegar (Central Market has this if you're in Austin)
2 Tbs lemon juice
1+ cup filtered water

Place seeds in bowl and cover with water to soak. Allow seeds to soak 4-6 hours or overnight (I just soaked for about 6 hrs.)

Rub seeds between hands to loosen skins. Skins will float to the top of the soaking water (so they said!). Pour out skins and soaking water. Rinse seeds, cover with water and repeat the process until most of the skins have been removed and poured out. The more skins you remove, the whiter the sauce will be.

Place seeds in a blender with garlic, lemon juice and umeboshi vinegar and add 1 cup of water.
Blend until desired consistency. I just let mixture blend until it was as smooth as I could get it.
For a thinner consistency, add up to 1/2 cup more water.
I just used the 1 cup for a thicker sauce, figuring I'd be using it for different things and could always add more water later.

Place sauce in a bowl and refrigerate. I like to think it got better in the fridge...after the flavors had a chance to marry.

Baked sweet potato, our homemade raw sauerkraut, quinoa, steamed kale topped with Sun Cheese

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

do you know how long this would last in the fridge?

Erndog said...

Wow, good question Anon...I know I've used it a good 4 days, but honestly we like it so much it doesn't usually last that long. :-)
You could always make a half batch it you're concerned you wouldn't eat it quickly enough. Hope you like it!
~erin