31 Cashew Recipes That Go Beyond the Snack Bowl

Cashews serve multiple culinary roles beyond snack mixes. When soaked and blended, cashews create a creamy, dairy-free substitute suitable for stuffed shells, soups, pasta sauces, and desserts. When toasted and roughly chopped, cashews add crunch and texture to salads, curries, stir-fries, and other savory dishes. Cashews are seeds that grow outside the fruit rather than inside a hard shell, making the term "cashew nut" technically inaccurate. A variety of recipes can showcase cashew techniques, enabling both plant-based cream alternatives and crunchy toppings across sweet and savory preparations.

"Soaked and blended, cashews become a stand-in for heavy cream, keeping stuffed shells, soups, pasta sauces, and desserts luxuriously dairy-free. Toasted and roughly chopped, they add crunch to salads, curries, stir-fries, and more. There are so many reasons to love cooking with these seeds-that's right, "cashew nut" is technically a misnomer, since they grow outside the fruit rather than inside a hard shell like true nuts."

"Everyone loves a sweet-and-savory nut mix, but there are far more cashew recipes beyond the classic cocktail-party snack. Below, find our favorite cashew recipes to get you started."

Read at Epicurious