This Roasted Salsa Ranchera Cream is spicy, full of flavor and totally vegan and oil-free. The roasted serrano peppers, roasted garlic and roasted red onion really make for an exceptional sauce and get their creamy texture from cashews.
First, THANK YOU. I released my Cookbook pre-order reveal a few days ago on this post and I was beyond overwhelmed by all of your support, comments and so many amazing emails. Your kind words totally warmed my heart. I never expected that day to go as exciting as it did. I know those who are on social media already saw the announcement, but for all of you readers that don’t see my posts on FB/IG, I wanted to thank you. Due to all of you awesome readers ordering my book that first day, my book hit #2 in the most sales in all Vegan Books and, as of this morning, hit #2 in all Gluten-free books for new releases!! That is insanity because of how many other books are sold on there. So again, thank you. And if you missed the post, you can order here!
But ordering now secures your copy before the release date, which is always a good idea. You also get 5 FREE BONUS Recipes sent to you now when you place your order. See the details on that post.
So, let’s move on and talk about today’s new recipe.
As the saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. In other words, if you don’t like spicy food, then you probably should sit this one out or see my suggestions below on reducing the heat. Get ready to make your taste buds dance.
If you’ve ever had Salsa Ranchera, then you know how spicy and dang delicious that stuff is. Well, I decided to turn it into a cream. Um, amazing. We start out by making the Salsa Ranchera and then add cashews to turn it into cream.
It’s rich, creamy, and full of incredible flavor thanks to roasting the serrano peppers, garlic, onion and also using fire-roasted tomatoes. It is spicy and downright addicting.
Whenever I wing a recipe, they often turn out to be some of my favorite ones. Some examples include my 20 Minute Alfredo, Cheesy Mexican Tortilla Bake, Lazy Day Tomato Bisque and now this Vegan Salsa Ranchera Cream.
Other ways to use this Roasted Salsa Ranchera Cream is over a bowl of rice, sweet potatoes and veggies.
Or, the avocado toast that everybody flipped over on Instagram about. Who knew a piece of toast could garner over 5k likes??
Hope you all love this recipe as much I do!
Roasted Salsa Ranchera Cream
Ingredients
- ¼ cup 45g raw cashews (soak your cashews overnight if you don’t have a Vitamix)
- ½ packed cup 80g diced red onion
- 4 large garlic cloves with skins on
- 1-2 serrano peppers Roast 2 but only add 1 to the blender to taste before adding the 2nd since peppers vary so much. I used 2.
- One 14.5 oz can fire-roasted tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon 15g fresh lime juice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
Note: Serrano peppers are HOT. Very hot. If you are worried about their heat level, you can try doing jalapeno peppers instead but they are much, much less spicy than serrano peppers, so you may need 2 or 3 to reach your desired heat level.
Instructions
- If you don’t have a Vitamix, soak your cashews overnight in a bowl of warm water, drain, rinse and use a food processor to make the cream. The longer the better for a smooth sauce. You don't want it gritty. I find soaked cashews work better in a food processor than a standard blender. Alternatively, you can use raw cashew butter if you have that and don’t have a Vitamix. Use the same weight amount (45g), which is about 3 tablespoons.
- Preheat the oven to 450°F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Add the Serrano peppers to the pan. Place the garlic cloves (with skins on) inside foil and wrap it up and place on the same pan. Add the onions to a piece of parchment paper and wrap it up and fold over the top. Place on the pan as well (see photo). Roast for 10 minutes.
- The peppers should be beginning to have a lovely char to their edges. Remove and let cool a few minutes. Carefully remove the stem and scrape out the seeds. I use a fork to hold down the stem as I scrape out the seeds so that my fingers don’t touch the seeds. These are very, very spicy and you don’t want that on your fingers. Peel the garlic as well.
- Place the cashews, roasted onion, peeled garlic, start with just 1 Serrano pepper, tomatoes, lime juice, cumin, oregano and salt to a high-powered blender. I used my Vitamix. If using soaked cashews, use a food processor. Blend until super smooth, thick and creamy. I like to blend in my Vitamix until it gets super hot. This is where you really get that full taste of the amazingggg flavor. Taste and if you want it spicier, add the 2nd pepper. This will greatly vary according to your pepper. I nearly cried with how yummy it was. Otherwise, add to a pot and heat over low until hot. Taste and tell me that isn’t fantastic, spicy, creamy and amazing. At first bite, it doesn’t taste so spicy, but within about 3 seconds it hits you and you’re like “ooooh yeahhhh”. This cream is amazing on pretty much everything. I’ve had it on roasted Buddha bowls, avocado toast, burritos and as a dip for chips!
Notes
Please provide some ideas for how to use this cream. I’ve never ventured into Mexican cooking, but my husband loves hot. Thank you. I will be ordering your book today And look forward to it very much. Best of luck and I wish you every success.
Hi Angela! I’ve shared pics in the post of ways I’ve used it as well as in the directions in step 3! Hope that helps. It would work on anything you would like to jazz up with a spicy sauce with. Thank you so much for ordering my book, I appreciate the support so much!!
I feel the need to mention again how much I am loving the turquoise around here, seeing it in the recipe card I’m just like YES. Okay so even though I fall into that category you told to get OUT of the kitchen for this one I’m still here lol. Because a sauce this creamy and insta-popular I gotta know what’s going into it. Cashews are amazing! Maybe this is a bad idea, but for my own palate I imagine just using regular old salsa as the tomato/pepper part with the same cashew base and lime + herbs would be really yummy as a bowl/taco condiment. Like salsa made creamy. Mmmm that lusciousness. I totally envy your ability to just throw this sort of sauce together on a whim, AND still bust out killer butter free snickerdoodles too (oh yes, you know i am already eyeing those beauties…and that ice cream😍) So you go ahead and sweat it out with your serranos and I’ll just be over here munching my ice cream snickerdoodle sandwiches, kay?😂 Congrats again on the book preorder too!
Hi Natalie! Aww, thank you so much! I’m so glad you love the teal so much, I do too and I can thank you my publisher for the brilliant idea, haha! I laughed out loud at your get out of the kitchen comment, bahaha. I know you aren’t a spicy fan but like you said, you could totoally lower the heat. I would just make it as is and omit the peppers and use like half or 1 jalapeno and that would be super yummy and not as hot! Oh girl, I can’t wait to hear what you think of those Snickerdoodles! They took a few trials to get the exact result I wanted, but damn they are so good, haha! Thank you Natalie! xx
LOVE this idea and will be making tonight! How long does it keep in the refrigerator? Vegan cheeses always vary for me. Thank you for getting creative!
I was about to make your ranch dressing for a make-you-own-bowl, but may need to rethink that because that sound fabulous. Or maybe I can still make the ranch for a salad dressing and make this for a bowl. But then again, the sauce on top of avocado toast is pretty tempting. I don’t eat a lot of bread, but a don’t think a couple slices now and then will hurt me..
Thank you Ellen! That sounds delicious and yes, avocado toast is so worth that bread! There are healthy quality breads out there too. I make my homemade spelt bread and also like Dave’s killer bread! Trader Joes is the one in the photo. It was the first time I tried this one. The only ingredients were wheat, water and yeast, so a great list!
This definitely hit the spicy/flavorful spot in our family. I do warn against starting with 1 (ONE) SERANO. Mine were excruciatingly HOT , but man the flavor was fantastic in the finished sauce and we are now squeezing it on literally EVERYTHING.. I bet hubby would even put it on dessert if I let him 🤔😱😳. Thanks again Brandi..it’s a keeper.
So glad it was such a hit! Yes, it will greatly vary on the peppers because I used 2 and it was not too hot at all, just right. In fact, I almost put 3, lol. Definitely will vary!
I’m here to report that this is indeed fantastic, spicy, creamy, and amazing!!!!! And I will put it on everything! It has such a deep, full flavor that makes my taste buds dance!! I did sweat a little while eating it (hahaha!), but SO dang goooooood!! My mouth was really sore from my dentist visit today so I needed something soft and comforting…so I made a batch of mashed potatoes, poured some of this incredible cream on top, and called it dinner. And I went back for seconds! Josh tried some with noodles and wanted me to tell you it was delicious! I didn’t have Serrano peppers on hand, so I used jalapeños…I will definitely try making this again as written! Excellent recipe, Brandi!! xoxo
Oh wow, thank you so much Mandy for making this! SO THRILLED you loved it so much! Hahaha, sweating, lmao! That is hilarious! So happy you and Josh loved it. Thank you my friend for making it and leaving this awesome feedback! xx
Made this for Mother’s Day dinner. Nice and spicy. A great addition to our Mexican fiesta meal. Even the omnivores loved it.
So awesome to hear everybody loved it Liz, thank you so much for the review!
So happy to hear that Liz, wonderful review!
Yay! I just noticed you added “Jump to recipe” at the top – thank you thank you!!!
I had some jalapeños from my garden, and I know that and only having regular canned tomatoes made the sauce I ended up with a much different sauce than intended with this recipe, but I thought I would write anyway to say that even with those substitutions (and a little more salt and only having bottled lime juice) it’s still worth making this sauce. Just because you don’t have every single ingredient perfectly, it’s still worth trying out recipes with what you have! On the other hand, I will definitely revisit this recipe later on with the correct ingredients!
Thank you so much Paige, so glad you enjoyed it!
This sauce is amazing! We used it in tacos, then just used it as a dip for tortilla chips. I used lemon juice rather than lime since I had lemons. I even put a lemon in the oven with all items in the foil just to make them all lemon steam. Thank you for this. I love my Vitamix and get a kick out of using it for such tasty tasty foods. Thanks for making a non-soaking cashew recipe too, that made for a quick sauce.