Rosemary and Cheddar Breakfast Sausage Dip

December 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment

A incredibly delicious recipe I made for brunch one weekend was this Rosemary and Cheddar Breakfast Sausage dip.
Rosemary and Cheddar Breakfast Sausage dip paired with Food Should Taste Good gluten free GMO free Multigrain Chips

The original inspiration that I only did minor tweaks came from the Food Should Taste Good website recipe for Brunch that users breakfast sausage, maple syrup, cheddar cheese and fresh rosemary. They got the recipe courtesy of Amanda Paa of heartbeetkitchen.com. My minor change as that I used sage breakfast sausage and removed the use of salt as I’m not a huge fan of too much salt and I also had some leftover sage that I minced and added as well to help highlight the sage in the sausage I used.

I’ve written about Food Should Taste Good chips before based on an event I attended and made a Mexican Street Corn dip with their Blue Corn Chips, and then again with a Caramelized Onion Jam and Goat Cheese with Sweet Potato Chips.

These  are the Food Should Taste Good multigrain tortilla chips that are paired with this dip are gluten free, GMO free, and include healthy ingredients such as brown rice flour, flax, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, quinoa, and stone ground corn as well as rosemary extract, which will echo the bit of rosemary in the dip.

And, it was a great way to use some of the leftover grated cheddar cheese I had grated (I grated 36 ounces of it for the cheddar fondue recipe I posted earlier on Monday!)

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces of breakfast sausage
  • 1/4 cup minced onion
  • 3 cups freshly grated cheddar cheese (9 ounces)
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
  •  bag of Food Should Taste Good Multigrain Chips for serving

Directions:

  1. In a medium sized skillet over medium high heat, add the 8 ounces of breakfast sausage. Crumble it as much as you can as you add it to the plain skillet, and as you cook the sausage crumble it some more to break it up and stir.
  2. When sausage has just a little pink remaining, add the 1/4 cup of minced onion and continue cooking, until meat is no longer pink and onions are translucent. Drain meat (separate it from the oil that emerged – I save the oil in a container to use for fried rice or something else) and set aside to cool.
    Crumble and cook breakfast sausage with minced onion
  3. In a bowl, toss together the 3 cups of freshly grated cheddar cheese, 2 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 1/2 teaspoons of rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. If you use pre-grated packaged cheddar cheese it already has cornstarch and other preservatives in it – I recommend grating the cheese fresh!
  4. In a medium sized saucepan, combine the 1 1/2 cups of milk and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup. Turn the heat to medium and stir constantly while it warms to steaming but not burning. Once it starts steaming, add your cheese rosemary dry mix and continue stirring as the cheese melts.
    Adding the cheese to the warmed milk and maple syrup
  5. Once the cheese is melted and smooth, add the sausage and stir is to distribute the sausage evenly. Pour into a container and serve with the chips!
    Combining the pre cooked breakfast sausage with the melted cheese

This dip is so good I can imagine folding a few spoonfuls into an omelette as well. This feeds 6 people and refrigerated well – I just warmed it up before serving again. I served mine in mini-ramekins with the chips. It’s great for if you have guests staying over for a little fancy extra breakfast side, or just to treat yourself on a cold morning – I justified the healthy multi grain chips as making this cheese and mat dip totally balanced.
Rosemary and Cheddar Breakfast Sausage dip paired with Food Should Taste Good gluten free GMO free Multigrain Chips

If it looks sorta fondue-y… you’re right I thought the same thing! Obviously this isn’t vegetarian, which I wanted for my party, but for brunch for myself, sausage and bacon are fair game right?

What’s your favorite breakfast?

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Recipe: Cashew Cheese on Cucumbers

July 6, 2015 by 15 Comments

With the heat wave in the past couple weeks,  I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that you might want to keep things simple when making food. I have been mostly doing quick sautés or dishes that require no cooking at all.

This recipe for Cashew Cheese on Cucumber does require a little forethought to soak the cashews in water for a few hours. Otherwise you only need a processor and a knife plus the ingredients to put together appetizers for a potluck or picnic, or just a healthy snack at home.
Cucumber with cashew ricotta and pesto

I like this combination for the refreshing cool crunch of the cucumber,  creamy but cheesy flavors with hint of garlic of the cashew cheese, and touch of salty herb from the pesto. I eyeballed a lot of these so make sure you taste to see what amounts fit your taste levels. The more nutritional yeast you use, the cheesier the flavor while being dairy free. Nutritional yeast is also a great topper to sprinkle on popcorn to have cheese popcorn with your movie!

Ingredients:

For the Cashew Cheese

  • 1 1/2 cups raw cashews soaked in water for 2 hours
  • 1/4 cup – 1/2 cup water; the more water used, the thinner and creamier the cashew cheese will be, so you want to add to your liking for consistentcy a bit at a time
  • 3 or so tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, more to taste if you’d like
  • 1-2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, or more to taste if you’d like
  • 1 clove of minced garlic, or more to taste if you’d like
  • Dash of onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt or more to taste
  • 1 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper or more to taste

For the Pesto – this is more of a rough guideline as I often just eye it after grabbing handfuls from my plant

  • 2 cups fresh basil
  • 1/4 cup or so of olive oil
  • 1/8 cup or so of pine nuts (for more flavor, toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet for a few moments until aromatic, but be careful it doesn’t burn)
  • 1/2 tablespoon of minced fresh garlic
  • pinch or so of salt
  • a few grounds of freshly ground pepper

Directions:

For the Cashew Cheese

  1. First, you will need to soak the raw, unsalted cashews in water for about 2 hours. The water level should cover the tops of your cashews.
    1 1/2 cups of unsalted cashews Soak 1 1/2 cups of unsalted cashews in water for 2 hours
  2. Then, drain the water. Place the cashews, nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, the minced garlic and onion powder and salt in the food processor and pulse until roughly blended.
    After 2 hours of soaking, drain the water from the cashews To make the cashew cheese, place the drained pre-soaked cashews, nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, the minced garlic and salt in the food processor and pulse until roughly blended
  3. Now as you continue to taste, add in the remainder of the water to get the consistency you would like. If you’d like, you can choose to add more lemon juice, or more nutritional yeast, or more minced garlic or salt to your preference depending on how garlicky, cheesy (from the nutritional yeast), lemony, etc you enjoy.
    To make the cashew cheese, place the drained pre-soaked cashews, nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, the minced garlic and salt in the food processor and pulse until roughly blended. Add more water if you want it to be creamier, or leave it rustic and more dense To make the cashew cheese, place the drained pre-soaked cashews, nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, the minced garlic and salt in the food processor and pulse until roughly blended. Add more water if you want it to be creamier, or leave it rustic and more dense
  4. Add a few grounds of freshly ground pepper. You can serve as is immediately, but if you refrigerate it for a couple hours the flavors will develop more and texture get a bit thicker so  it will be even more tasty the next day – put it in a container to be used as a dip for a picnic with veggies, or spread on a sandwich, so many possibilities!

For the Pesto

Blend all the ingredients for pesto together – you may want to add a little bit more olive oil, salt, or pepper to taste. Puree until the mixture is smooth. Make sure you pause once in a while to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed to make sure it all gets mixed well, as well as to taste and adjust to your liking.

For the final Cucumber Cashew Cheese appetizers

Slice the cucumbers and slather on a bit of the cashew cheese. With a spoon, add on a bit of the pesto. Serve!

Cucumber with cashew ricotta and pesto Cucumber with cashew ricotta and pesto

I put this combo on cucumbers buy it’s also great in sandwiches and the cashew cheese can be substituted in pasta like Ricotta in pasta shells or lasagna too.

What have you been making in the kitchen during this extended heat wave in Portland (or wherever you may be when it’s hot in the summer!)?

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