Vegan Labane (or Carrot Top, take 2)

Now that I had sourced my carrot tops, it was on to making a vegan labane. My vegan daughter always cautions me about making dishes that try to mimic non-vegan originals. I wasn’t really sure how to categorize this one. I was equally skeptical about the technique I had chosen, way too close to the dairy-based version.

The idea was to soak raw cashews for a day, heat them up, blend them, then mix with lemon juice and vinegar, pour into a colander lined with cheesecloth (I use cotton diapers and they work great), and let the concoction sit in the fridge for another 12 hours or so until all the so-called “whey” had be drained away. Like I said, I had my doubts.

I had my doubts until I watched the vinegar and lemon juice do their magic, immediately starting to “set” the strange brew. It was definitely going to get gelatinous. The question was, to what extent? And with what taste?

Actually, the whole thing came out pretty damn well. Consistency was thick and smooth, color a bit off-white in my opinion, the taste more lemony than truly sour, but still pretty good. The windfall for our soul food kitchen is not so much having a go-to labane on hand, since labane as a stand-alone is not something I make tremendous use of. But rather as a base for so many of our sauces that now had a non-dairy version without having to resort to those erstaz mayonnaise things: Vegan remoulade, a vegan lime and “labane” perfect for roasted vegetables, a lovely based for dressings for coleslaw and celeriac salad.

In short, the wisdom of my daughter holds true once again: something entirely new (and unexpected) coming off an ostensible copy-cat vegan dish.