Cashews are nuts that people love to eat in any shape or form because their taste is so delicious. Some people like it raw, others like it roasted, and those willing to try something unique use cashew nuts as an ingredient and craft a tasty course.
God bless Portuguese sailors who came to India between 1560 and 1565 in the quest for pepper and left the land planted with the cashew seeds originally taken from Brazil. From India, the cashews were spread throughout Southeast Asia and Africa, and now the whole world loves this nut for its amazing taste and surprising health benefits.
Cashews are originally grown as a fruit-and-nut. The apple-like fruit is grown on trees, while the nut is grown below the hanging fruit. Cultivators take the nut and extract the cashew out of it, while the fruit, known as false fruit, is thrown away or left to rot. In some parts of the world, people eat false fruit or use it to make drinks. However, the false fruit of cashews has a quickly perishable life.
Cultivators mainly focus on cashew nuts because it is one of the most demanded dry fruit globally and is a delicacy enjoyed by billions of people from around the globe. People buy and use cashews to eat them any way they want, whether raw, roasted, or an ingredient in a good dish.
Since you are here, I suppose you are willing to make some effort for an incredible taste. If so, I have three recipes for cashew-involved dishes that will practically blow your mind when you take the first bite.
Without further delay, let’s check them out.
RECIPE 1: Cashew Pesto
You might have heard about regular pesto. Now, take one step ahead and be ready to experience cashew pesto—equally delicious to Italy-bred pesto sauce, but better. Some people think it’s taking too much risk to involve cashews with a garlic sauce. Still, for people like me who take absolute joy in experiencing unconventional recipes.
Ingredients:
- One tablespoon cashew nuts
- Curry leaves (50gm)
- Two garlic
- 150 ml olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- Two tablespoons pecorino cheese
- One tablespoon sea salt
How to Make
First, start pounding the garlic and sea salt with a wooden pestle until it becomes a paste. Then, add curry leaves and keep grinding the paste in a circular motion until the leaves are mixed in the paste. Don’t be too rough with the leaves, and it’s important to keep them in their natural shape to make sure the essential oils are preserved. Next, add cashew nuts and grind more.
You can also use cashew powder instead of raw cashew nuts.
Add both the cheeses while continuing mixing. Then, add olive oil little by little, so it doesn’t make too much taste in one place and spreads all over the paste. Finally, add olive oil up to the level where pesto has the right and preferable consistency.
And just like that, it’s done. Enjoy the delicious cashew pesto with potato chips or spaghetti and meatballs.
RECIPE 2: Cashew Nokkal
Cashew (Munthiri) Nokkal is an Indian dessert snack that is easy to make and too delicious. This unbelievably addictive sweet dish used to be served at weddings in southern India. People used to take it home with them as a sweet snack packed in goodie bags. Sadly, it’s disappearing now, so this is my attempt to make sure this sweet cashew snack doesn’t go extinct. But beware, this is a sweet addiction. But the good thing is, it is very easy to make.
Ingredients
- A cup of raw cashew nuts
- A cup of sugar
- ½ tablespoon Cardamom powder
- Two tablespoon oil or ghee
How to Make
First of all, take raw cashews and fry them in the oil or ghee until they are golden brown. If you want to skip this step, you can buy roasted cashews instead of raw. Then, let the cashews cool down for a bit.
Next, take a cup of sugar and boil it with just enough water for sugar to immerse in it. Keep it boiling till it reaches one-string consistency—that is, when you take the sugar on your finger, it creates a string, like honey.
At this point, add cardamom powder in boiling sugar, then add cashew nuts and stir the mixture. Turn the heat off. But keep stirring the mixture until all the cashews are coated with the sugar syrup.
If the cashews aren’t coated properly, and the mixture cools down, the sugar will solidify, leaving the cashews uncoated, which wouldn’t taste as good. Therefore, stirring the mixture until all the cashews are evenly covered in sugar syrup is very important.
Give it more or less 10 minutes, and all the nuts will be properly coated. Now, pour the syrup-coated nuts into a separate bowl and let them cool down.
Once they are cool, they will be crunchy and amazingly delicious on the tongue. Save it in an airtight container and enjoy it whenever you want.
RECIPE 3: Cashew Curry (Sri Lanka Style)
The third recipe we have is probably the best one. You might have heard of curry before, but now you’ll get to experience cashew curry, that too in a Sri Lankan style. Kaju Malawa is a Sri Lankan curry-like dish made with cashews and green peas. So we can call it Cashew and Green Peas Curry.
The list of ingredients in this recipe is a bit long, but trust me, it’s pretty easy to make. And the final taste will show that it was worth it.
Ingredients
- 150 gm cashew nuts
- Two tablespoons cooking oil
- A finely-chopped onion
- A cinnamon stick
- A cup of green peas
- A teaspoon of chili powder
- A teaspoon of turmeric powder
- Sprigs curry leaves
- A teaspoon of curry powder
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- Salt (to taste)
- Sprigs pandanus leaves (optional)
- Water
How to Make
In the first step, soak the cashews in water for an hour. Alternate to soaking the cashews is boiling them for a few minutes.
Next, take a saucepan and fry the chopped onion in a suitable amount of oil. Add the curry leaves and all the spices to the onions and keep the pan stirring. As the onion starts to get brown, add cashews and 2 cups of water. Cook the mixture for ten more minutes.
Conclusion:
After 10 minutes of cooking, add green peas and coconut milk to the pan, and keep it stirring on a medium-to-high flame. Keep cooking it until the sauce thickens—the thickness will ensure that it’s ready to enjoy.
If the sauce is thick, serve it in a bowl and let it cool for a while. Then, take the Cashew and Green Peas Curry with steamy rice or spaghetti. Enjoy the Sri Lankan fusion in the most amazing way possible.
These three recipes are rare and underrated, and if you try them just once, you will realize what you’ve been missing out on.
