Here's How Long To Soak Cashews For The Perfect Vegan Cheese Sauce

For cheese-loving consumers trying to minimize dairy intake, the high cost and sometimes forgettable flavor of even the best vegan cheese brands cause many to turn to a homemade version instead. There's more than one way to make vegan cheese dip from scratch, but one of the most popular methods uses cashews as the foundation. Cashews can create a rich, creamy base, as long as they're soaked first.

Yet, incorrectly soaked cashews can result in an unpleasant texture that's gritty and coarse. Ideally, you'll soak your cashews overnight for at least 6 to 8 hours before using them in a vegan cheese recipe. However, you can get away with a shorter soak time if your water temperature is right.

Actually, you can still make a delicious cashew-based condiment even if you skip the soaking. This sweet ginger cashew butter, for example, doesn't even require the soaking step since the very lengthy spin in the food processor pulverizes the pieces to paste. But to achieve the creamiest texture possible (while minimizing wear and tear on your kitchen appliances), invest the extra few hours — or minutes — hydrating these guys first.

To soak your cashews, you have three basic options. The overnight soak of 7-ish hours is arguably the best method. The extended bath time allows the liquid to penetrate even the largest nut in the batch. This ensures consistent texture throughout. Well-hydrated cashews make for a perfectly creamy sauce that won't have graininess or grit resulting from a dry spot in the nut's interior.

The overnight soak works with room-temperature or even cold water, but if you want to speed up the process, you'll have to turn up the heat. The next fastest method involves filling your bowl of nuts with very hot water (as in, hand-scalding from the faucet) and letting it sit for 30 to 45 minutes. This method is just as easy as the cold, overnight soak, as long as your tap water gets very hot. If not, you may have to boil the water on the stovetop. 

If you're going to the trouble of boiling your pot of water, go ahead and boil the cashews while you're at it. That's because this third soaking method is even quicker and can shave 20 minutes off the hot-water soaking time. Bring a pot of cashews covered in water to a brisk boil, then turn off the heat and let soak for about 15 minutes. The hotter the water, the softer the cashew — and therefore the smoother the cheese sauce.

Bonus tip: Even if you didn't quite secure that superb soak to achieve a dip-worthy consistency, you can still use those under-soaked cashews in other ways. The nuts in this white cashew gazpacho, for example, get completely pulverized with lots of oil anyway, so they don't require as much softness. Or you can pivot from vegan cheese sauce to a more texturized option, like subbing your cashew paste into an easy 7-layer dip or a chunky casserole. By choosing a recipe that already boasts a conglomerate of consistencies, your less-than-creamy cashew cheese won't stand out.

And if you soaked a few too many cashews? One option is to make extra cheese sauce and freeze it for next time. Or use up the extra nuts in a different recipe, like these tart cherry cheesecake pops or this unique cashew-and-cardamom-fudge-soy-paneer spin on the classic Indian dessert kaju barfi. Soaking cashews is a nearly effortless way to add some serious richness (and heart-healthy nutrition) to your next dish.