Creamy Lemon Pepper Sauce

Sometimes, you want a thick sauce, but you still want delicate flavor. This recipe is super easy, super light, and super perfect for seasonal vegetables.

Makes about 1 cup. You’ll want that much. Trust me.

1/2 cup raw cashews (generous) (garbanzo beans work nicely too)

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

6-8 tablespoons water, as needed

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1. Boil the cashews in water for 20 minutes. Drain and rinse the nuts and put them into a blender or food processor.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and whirl until completely smooth. You’ll need to scrape the sides a couple of times during blending and it might take a couple of minutes. Taste and adjust the spices if necessary.
3. I like it just barely warm from the boiled cashews, but you could heat it in the pan you boiled the nuts in, or microwave it a little, if you want a heated sauce.

• This sauce makes a great salad dressing and is good on faux burgers, noodles, rice—just about anything that needs a sauce.
• The sauce will thicken the longer it sits and especially after being stored in the fridge. Just thin it out with a tiny amount of water. You can heat it in the microwave, too.

 (That's rice underneath the asparagus, not more sauce. I'm not a crazy person, after all!)

Variations:

• Like making hummus with various beans, this is good with a variety of nuts. Try them all!