Cashew Cream & Inspiration from Anupy Singla

Photo courtesy of Anupy Singla/Indian As Apple Pie

The bday love has been raining down all month long, and we couldn't be happier. This final guest blog post in our bday series is from our longtime friend, Anupy Singla - former reporter, mom and fellow food entrepreneur. We share a common passion - to spread our love of good food with children and families, and make healthy eating a reality even in the midst of the crazy we call life. Anupy's recipe for Cashew Cream makes us wish we could use nuts at The Kids' Table!

I was the morning reporter for CLTV News when the urge hit. I yearned to do more for my young girls. They were four years old and two, and I was sitting in the a live truck covering an accident, an assault, a political scandal? I can’t even remember the story now. But, I remember crying to my then photographers and reporters around me – to anyone that would listen.

I just felt so guilty for not being able to do it all. Work outside the house AND give my girls an appreciation for good food, while my husband continued his consulting career that required him to be on the road most of the week. I just felt like I could not do it all.

My mother raised us on delicious Indian food, but with my crazy schedule that required me up by 1 a.m. to cover the morning news, we were resorting to anything I could get my hands on to get my young girls fed. And, to me, that just did not feel right.

It’s when I decided to take a little break. I started working on writing the cookbook I’d always dreamed about – my mom’s recipes for Indian food in a slow cooker. It’s also about the time that I met Elena Marre and The Kids’ Table.

It was love at first class. She and I share the same philosophy – that if you surround kids with good, wholesome foods, if you get them in the kitchen and make it fun, if you give them some ownership of their meals, and are prepared to work at it, they will indeed eat real food.

And, the human blogging experiment that I started seven years ago; to make Indian food, feed it to my girls, and blog about it to see if they would indeed love it as much as I did as a young girl growing up outside Philadelphia, has been a huge success.

Instead of french fries and chicken fingers, my girls crave kale salads and Indian dal. That’s right. I did it, and you can, too, with a little help from places like The Kids’ Table.

Happy Birthday to The Kids’ Table. I truly hope you celebrate many more years growing and prospering teaching parents, kids, and families that good food should be and can be every child’s legacy.

To help celebrate, I thought I’d share my recipe for Indian-spiced Cashew Cream.

Cashew Cream

Ingredients

1 cup raw, unsalted cashews
1 ½ cups water, divided
1 tablespoon garam masala*

Directions
Soak the cashews in 1 cup water overnight. Add soaked cashews and any remaining water to a high power blender along with ½ cup water and garam masala. Blend until smooth, frothy, and creamy. Use in place of dairy cream in any curry or add to pasta. I even add this to my smoothies for a little kick.

Cashew Cream will last 2-3 days in the refrigerator. If you have extra, pour it into an ice-cube tray and freeze. Pull out a cube as needed whenever you are cooking. I especially love this idea when I want to throw a cube or two into my slow cooker along with a bean or lentil dish that I’m cooking up.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

*Garam Masala is a spice blend that is commonly found now on many grocery shelves. If you don’t have any, just replace the garam masala with any spice blend you have on hand, or even leave it out.

Many thanks to Anupy Singla for this delectable recipe and her warm and fuzzy bday wishes. For more from Anupy, from recipes to info about her cookbooks and product lines, check out www.www.IndianAsApplePie.com. And look for her on Facebook (Indian As Apple Pie), Twitter (@indianapplepie) and Instagram (Anupy Singla).