"Ronis" - A Nut-Based Cream Sauce

Call it vegan, call it plant-based, call it healthy! Whatever you call it, this recipe is really yummy.
It has been in our family for years and adapted from a recipe my mom found. It was lovingly called "Ronis" when my brother was little and this was his way of saying "macaroni".

Ronis

• 12-16oz of prepared pasta or spaghetti squash
• 3 cups water
• 3/4 cup raw cashews (Update! I have use whole raw almonds to replace all or part of these. Amazing! For best results soak them for an hour, or at least 5 min in hot water.)
• 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• dash of garlic powder
• 1/4 cup real lemon juice -many times I up this to 1/3 to make it even tastier!
• 2 teaspoons salt
• black pepper to taste

Prepare your pasta or spaghetti squash.
In a blender, combine the water and nuts, blend until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend.

You have a few options at this point.

• You can put the noodles and sauce in a baking dish, cover with bread crumbs (opt. butter) and bake until thickened and bubbly.
• You can combine the sauce and pasta in a pot on the stove top and heat until the sauce thickens a little. It will thicken when cooled even more.
• Or you can put the sauce in a saucepan and heat it on the stove top to a simmer, until it is thickened. Then serve it over your pasta or squash.

We love this recipe and many guest have as well. I hope you will too!