The Peruvian dish, Papa a la Huancaína, is spicy creamy cheese sauce over boiled potatoes. In this recreated version I will be making a spicy raw vegan cheese sauce made from seeds, veggies and spice.
This is a recipe remake to answer Ivania’s question on my Vegan Sesame Cheese post. I love trying to recreate your favorite meals, so if you have a recipe that you want to remake healthier or with allergy restrictions, let me know. 🙂
Question:
How would you do the cheese used on Papa a la Huancaina using sesame seeds?
I don’t know much about this dish, but I decided to give it go anyways. I read that the dish is basically known for it’s spicy cheese sauce. So getting that spicy full flavor was my goal intertwined with getting a creamy texture.
Creamy raw vegan cheese is my favorite, I use it for so many things like cheesy kale chips, layered taco dip, chili cheese fries, or whatever else cheese sauce is good on. But my go to ingredient has always been cashews as a base, until now.
I learned sesame seeds can be used to replace cashews cup for cup, and it’s hard to tell the difference between the two. Perhaps you’ll notice the sesame seeds have a nuttier taste than cashews, but most likely the other flavors will take over. Sesame seeds are the perfect substitute for those who are allergic to cashews, or can’t get ahold of them, or maybe they’re too expensive in your area.
The red bell peppers, hot peppers, garlic, onion, nutritional yeast, tomatoes and salt take center stage giving depth of flavor and creamy texture.
It has been brought to my attention that aji amarillo peppers are the most important ingredient, so if you can find them, use them! I found them online and will definitely soak one and add it to the sauce.
I do want to note, I could have blended the cheese a bit better to get rid of the grainy appearance. We were making 20 pounds of kale chips simultaneously so I cut corners, but this time it worked out fine. We both didn’t feel it was grainy, in fact it still felt creamy. I blended everything up all together for only 20 seconds in the Vitamix. I normally blend the sesame seeds separately adding a little tomatoes, water, or non-dairy milk at a time, and then adding in the rest of the ingredients once the sesame seeds were completely smooth. I recommend it especially if you have a standard blender.
The potatoes are easy to make, peel them and boil them whole until soft, or you can steam them like I did already sliced 1 inch thick for about 10-15 minutes.
Either way this is an incredibly easy vegan recipe that only takes about 15 minutes to make. It’s healthy, full of flavor, and so different from our regular meals that I’ll definitely be adding it to the rotation of quick and easy lunches or appetizers!
Thanks for the challenge Ivania, let me know what you think!
Vegan Papa a la Huancaina
INGREDIENTS
- 2 potatoes; yukon gold
Sesame Cheese Sauce
- 1/2 cup sesame seeds
- 1/2 cup red bell pepper
- 1/4 cup tomatoes
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 hot pepper; serrano
- 1 slice of onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Peel potatoes.
- Boil them whole until soft, or slice them 1 inch thick and steam until soft about 10-15 minutes.
Sesame Cheese Sauce
- Blend sesame seeds until fine, add in the tomato and blend again until smooth.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients and blend until creamy. Add a little water if needed.
Comments 6
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How many people does this serve?
Hi Christina! This serves 2 people. Hope you enjoy!
It was good but salty. I think it would have been better if I added more lemon juice and no salt. Not very spicy. Needs more than one pepper. Texture was good overall.
I’m Peruvian and that’s recipe it’s absolutely NOT Huancaina’s creamy
Thank you!!! im a vegan Peruvian and this actually looks so amazing, im going to try it for sure 🙂