Vegan Caprese Sandwiches with Garlic Cashew Cheese
A crusty baguette smeared with creamy garlic cashew cheese then filled with juicy tomatoes, crunchy sprouts, fresh basil, and a sweet balsamic reduction. We're nuts for this sandwich!
Place cashews and garlic into blender or food processor. Blend to a paste, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. This can take up to a few minutes, depending on what type of device you're using.
Add lemon juice, milk, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Blend again until everything is completely mixed and smooth.
To assemble the sandwiches:
Heat the balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the vinegar is syrupy and reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Remove from heat. (Note that you can also use un-reduced balsamic vinegar—use 2 tablespoons.)
Spread a layer of cheese on each side of each baguette section. Distribute a layer of sprouts over the cheese.
On the bottom half of each of your sandwiches, top the sprouts with tomato slices, and then drizzle your tomato slices with balsamic vinegar. Arrange the basil leaves over tomato slices, then place the top half of your baguette section over your tomato-basil layer and serve.
Notes
If you're using a larger blending device, like a Vitamix, you may want to consider doubling the batch size for the cheese, as you might not be able to keep enough of your mixture around the blades to get a thorough blending. Two cups is a rather big batch size, but the good news is that you can freeze it! If you don't freeze it, you can get away with storing it in the fridge for up to a week.On a similar note, feel free to freeze a portion of the cheese from a recipe-size batch if you want fewer than four sandwiches. I wouldn't suggest going with a smaller batch size than this recipe specifies, because you might run into the problem of it splattering away from the blades too much for good blending, regardless of what type of blending device you're using.
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