Chili con Cashews and "Crazy Vegans"

Meetup.com is a wonderful thing.  The hubby and I attended our first vegan meetup event, a Harvest Dinner Potluck, yesterday.  Almost two dozen "crazy vegans" brought quiche, Italian meatballs, raw pesto and zucchini pasta, potatoes prepared with onions, molasses and paprika (OMG!), sweet potato casserole, and a couple of salads of course.  Soooo much food and the best part...I could eat every single dish.  These were an eclectic group of folks, artistic types and business types and hippie types and fitness types and charitable types.  We even had a professional clown trained by Ringling Brothers who treated us to some impromptu fire breathing/twirling/flinging.  The worst part....I did not get ANY pictures of this veggie laden feast.  Classic amateur blogger mistake I know.  So I will hopefully placate my two followers (I know who you are!) with a recipe and a little video clip of our fire breathing show (you will hear yours truly call out the blog title)!

Chili con Cashews

1 1/2 cups raw unsalted cashews
3 T. fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup salsa + 2 T
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 t chili powder
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 t Dijon mustard

half roasted red bell pepper (or a whole one if you love roasted red peppers!)

Soak cashews in water overnight (this is key to consistency) and rinse

Add all ingredients except 2 T salsa to your blender and go to town! 

Transfer to crock pot or medium sauce pan and heat if desired

Stir in 2 T salsa before serving

Would be good with some TVP or vegan sausage as well if you like your queso a little meatier and I personally like mine with a LOT more salsa, so I usually spoon out a couple of tablespoons of the finished queso and mix into a double serving of salsa.  Use in pasta for a spicy mac n cheese or as base sauce for chili mac.  Very versatile.

And now for the fire!