Recipe Haiku

Golden Cashew Sauce

Like squirrels scurrying to build their cache, you might find yourself making a double batch of this versatile, savory recipe

This series celebrates intuitive cooking. Each entry is intended to spark contemplation, allowing your imagination to fill in the gaps and guide you into your kitchen. Drawing on the inherently minimal quality in Japanese haiku poetry, these recipes are easy to commit to memory, simple, nourishing, and, of course, vegan!

Photo & drawings by Sarah Ridgeway

Squirrels and I stash nuts,

theirs in trees. Mine transform:

a gold, velvet sauce.

• One cup cashews, soak 2–3 hours
• ¾ cup water
• One clove garlic
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• One tablespoon lemon
• Two teaspoons mustard
• Pinch salt

Soak cashews. Drain. Blend:

water, garlic, yeast, lemon,

squirt mustard, pinch salt.

In October we start to see warm color tones in changing trees, plants, and in harvests of produce like squashes and pumpkins. Carefree feelings of summer have turned into reflection and preparation for the cooler months ahead. Just like the squirrels scurrying to build their cache this time of year, you might find yourself making a double batch of this versatile, savory recipe.