Top-down shot of silver bowl with Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce against a black background.
February 23, 2024

Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce

February 23, 2024

Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce

Top-down shot of silver bowl with Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce against a black background.

This Indian-inspired cashew sauce smells and tastes delicious! Featuring a mix of warm Indian spices, cashews, and cream or coconut milk, this is a versatile sauce. Pair it with crispy roasted cauliflower as a side – super delicious with the optional toasted coconut topping, or sauce up a Buddha Bowl of brown rice and warm root veggies or chicken.

Ingredients

Top-down view of ingredients for Indian-inspired cashew sauce: onion, fresh ginger, garlic, garam masala, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, and cashews

Ingredients for Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce

You can make this cashew sauce vegan, with coconut milk or vegetarian, using cream. The rest of the ingredients are identical for both versions: onion, fresh ginger, garlic, garam masala, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, and cashews.

About Garam Masala

An Indian-derived word, masala means spices or mixture of spices. Garam means hot, so the literal translation of garam masala is “hot spices” — however, it’s not hot in the sense of burn your tongue, but warming to the body. There also isn’t one definitive recipe for garam masala; there may be as many recipes as there are cooks, but for this recipe, we used a store-bought mix that consisted cumin, black pepper, black mustard seed, fenugreek, dill seeds, and coriander.

Infographic with definition of garam masala: An Indian spice blend consisting of warm spices. Ingredients change by region and chef but usually include a complex mix of sweet, hot, earthy, and fragrant spices.

Choosing Cream or Coconut Milk

If you’re vegan, you’ll want to use coconut milk. If you’re vegetarian, you can use either cream or coconut milk – the choice is up to you. The coconut milk impart a richers, more coconut flavour to the Cashew Sauce, but either way it’s going to be good.

Cashews

We used roasted unsalted cashews. If you have raw cashews, you can toast them in the oven for about 10 minutes or so before adding to the sauce. If you have salted cashews, omit the salt from the recipe, adding it as needed after blending the sauce.

The Process

The overall process of this recipe is pretty straightforward: fry the onions until golden, add the fresh ginger, garlic, and powdered spices and fry until the flavours are mingled together, and then add the cream or coconut cream and cashews and simmer. The final stage is just blending it all together.

This process is very similar to making our Indian-Spiced Spinach (Saag) recipe, where you fry the onions, ginger, garlic and spices for a relatively long time to get a nice deep flavour. Although it does take about 40 minutes total for all the stages, the result is certainly worth it! These two recipes also work really well together if you feel like making an Indian feast. You can make both of them ahead and reheat later, too.

Visual Overview: Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce

Step 1: Fry the onions.

Fry the onions until golden brown, about 15 minutes./. 

Top-down view of onions in a frying pan. Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce

Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce

Step 2: Add spices and water.

Add the ginger, garlic, spices, and water. Turn the heat down to low and fry for about 10 minutes. 

Top-down view of spices added to fried onions. Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce.

Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce.

After about 10 minutes, the mixture will look like this. 

Top-down view of fried onions and spices. Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce.

Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce.

Step 3: Add coconut milk (or cream) and cashews and simmer.

Add the coconut milk or cream and the cashews and simmer on low for about 15 minutes. 

Top-down view of coconut milk and cashews added to the fried onions and spice mixture. Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce.

Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce.

After 15 minutes, the mixture will look like this: 

Top-down view of frying pan with coconut milk, cashews, fried onions and spices, after simmering for 15 minutes. Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce.

Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce.

Step 4: Blend

Transfer the sauce mixture to the blender and blend until creamy. 

Top-down view of blender with Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce.

Making Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce


Tips: Cooking for mixed groups 

You can make this vegan, using coconut milk, or vegetarian, using cream. 

For an Indian-inspired dinner suitable for mixed groups: Make this cashew sauce and serve over roasted cauliflower (see Recipe Notes) or chicken. Serve with Indian-spiced Spinach (Saag) and  1-Pot Indian Red Lentils (Dal) along with rice, and naan. 

Pin for Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce, with top-down view of sauce in a serving bowl topped with optional coconut topping.

Recipe Card

Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce

5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 22 minutes
This Indian-inspired cashew sauce smells and tastes delicious! Featuring a mix of warm Indian spices, cashews, and cream or coconut milk, this sauce pairs beautifully with roasted cauliflower. Also awesome drizzled over a Buddha Bowl with roasted veggies and brown rice. If you have meat-eaters at the table it also goes well with chicken.
Servings 8 1/4 servings
Calories 274 kcal
Author Sylvia

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1.5 cups onion, diced
  • 1/3 cup ginger, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2 tablespoons garam masala
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1.5 cups cream or coconut milk (We used 12% milk fat cream for the vegetarian version)
  • 2/3 cup roasted cashews, unsalted

Toasted Coconut Topping

  • .5 cup coconut flakes
  • 1/4 cup dates, chopped
  • 1/3 cup roasted cashews, chopped
  • 1 pinch cardamom
  • 1 pinch pepper

Instructions

  • In a large heavy pan, heat the oil and then add the diced onions. Fry over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until ovens are medium brown, about 15 minutes.
  • Add the ginger, garlic, spices, and water. Turn the heat down to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
  • Add the cream or coconut milk and cashews. Turn the heat up a bit until on a low simmer, and simmer, stirring occasionally for another 15 minutes.
  • Transfer mixture to blender and blend until creamy.

Optional Toasted Coconut Topping

  • Preheat the oven to 350F.
  • Spread the coconut on a baking sheet and bake for about 6 minutes, until browning.
  • Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.

Notes

For a Thinner Sauce

his makes a thick sauce. You can thin the sauce out with your milk of choice. We used cashew milk for our vegan version, and 2% for our non-vegan version.

Storage and Reheating

You can make this ahead and store in the fridge for 2-3 days in a well-sealed container. Reheat over low heat, adding milk if necessary to thin out. 

Nutritional Information

Nutritional information is an estimate only, based on using cream, and not including the Toasted Coconut Topping.  

Nutrition

Calories: 274kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 61mg | Sodium: 94mg | Potassium: 163mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 656IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 43mg | Iron: 1mg

Courses, Cuisines, and Keywords

Course
dinner
|
dinner, lunch, side
Cuisine
Indian
Keywords
cashew sauce
|
indian cashew sauce

Comments 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

Recipe Rating




  1. 5 stars
    This is a staple in our kitchen, with coconut milk. last one over roasted beets, with cod and cilantro. Also made it thicker as veggie dip. Like playing with the spice variations. great recipe. Thank you!

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Hello!


We're creating a course: Baby Steps to Plant-Based Eating

Yes, seriously. Trying a plant-based diet can be overwhelming and we'd like to help. 

This course is for you if: 

  • you're curious about plant-based eating, but don't know where to start 
  • you have family or friends who eat plant-based and you'd like to be able to cook for them
  • you've dabbled with plant-based cooking, but would like to expand your repertoire

Baby Steps to Plant-Based Eating will: 

  • answer your pressing questions 
  • cultivate your confidence
  • arm you with recipes

Want to learn more?  

Join our email list for updates about the course launch. You'll also get priority access to new recipes, and other subscriber privileges.

Hello!


We're creating a course: Baby Steps to Plant-Based Eating

Yes, seriously. Trying a plant-based diet can be overwhelming and we'd like to help. 

This course is for you if: 

  • you're curious about plant-based eating, but don't know where to start 
  • you have family or friends who eat plant-based and you'd like to be able to cook for them
  • you've dabbled with plant-based cooking, but would like to expand your repertoire 

Baby Steps to Plant-Based Eating will: 

  • answer your pressing questions
  • cultivate your confidence 
  • arm you with recipes

Want to learn more?  

Join our email list for updates about the course launch. You'll also get priority access to new recipes, and other subscriber privileges.