This Cream is Completely Nuts

Borrowed from Tal Ronnen, author of The Conscious Cook - talronnen.com.

Cashew cream is a vegan-chef staple that stands in for dairy in a variety of ways. In the raw food world, where it originated, it's used in lots of desserts. When you cook with it, though, it can be so much more - from cheese filling in ravioli to heavy cream in soups. It can be stored 2 t0 3 days in the refrigerator and can be frozen for up to 6 months (although after it's defrosted it can be a bit lumpy so it's good to give it a spin in the blender to smooth it out before using it).

The trick when making cashew cream is to use raw cashews. They have no flavor of their own; they're just a vessel for fat and creaminess. (It's the roasting that brings out the familiar sweetness in cashews.) Because it has a nice fat content, cashew cream reduces in a pan even faster than heavy cream. Soy milk, which some people use in vegan cooking, has no fat, so it doesn't reduce into a thick sauce - it's really not an alternative.

Cashew Cream
2 cups whole raw cashews rinsed well under cold water.
Put the cashews in a bowl and add cold water to cover them. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.
Drain the cashews and rinse under cold water. Place them in a blender with enough cold water to cover them by 1 inch.
Blend on high for several minutes until very smooth. (A high speed mixer works best - Ronnen uses a VitaMix, I use a Living Well HealthMaster, but a regular blender should work ok). To make a thicker cashew cream, reduce the amount of water when they are placed in the blender so that the water just slightly covers the cashews. I make a batch and then freeze it into several small containers & defrost as needed.

The bottom line in a nutshell:
Nuts, when pulverized, rather than whole, are easier to digest for those with IBS.
Nuts are mostly a monounsaturated fat; "good fat".
Milk, cream, cheese & butter (dairy), used to make cream sauces, are saturated fats; "bad fats".
Cashew cream is non-dairy.