These puff pastry wrapped asparagus spears make perfect appetizers for all kinds of celebrations! They're easy to make and absolutely scrumptious. You'd never guess they were vegan!
- 2 cups raw cashews, soaked in water 4 to 8 hours, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup water, plus more as needed
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- 2 sheets (about 1.1 pounds or 490 grams total) frozen vegan puff pastry, thawed
- 2 pounds fresh asparagus spears, trimmed (Note 1)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
-
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
-
To make the cashew cheese, place the cashews, water, lemon juice, garlic, and salt into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. You can add a bit of extra water to the mixture if needed for blending, but don't go overboard or it will become runny.
-
Add the parsley and chives. Pulse the machine to incorproate them into the mixture.
-
Give the mixture a taste-test and add more salt if you'd like.
-
Roll your puff pastry sheets into 12 x 12 inch squares, then cut each square into 9 smaller (4 x 4 inch) squares. You should have 18 squares total.
-
Spread about 1 ½ tablespoons of cashew cheese onto the center of each square. Reserve any extra cheese for serving.
-
Arrange a few asparagus spears over each puff pastry square, extending diagonally from corner to corner.
-
Pinch opposite corners on either side of the asparagus together tightly, so that the pastry wrapps over the asparagus and cheese.
-
Arrange the asparagus wraps on baking sheets, leaving at least 1 inch between them. (Note 2) Brush or mist the pastry and aspargus with olive oil, and bake until the pastry is puffy and golden, about 15 minutes.
-
Serve.
- To trim your asparagus spears, simply grab both ends of a spear and bend it until it breaks. It should break in just the right spot to remove all of the woody fibers at the bottom. Full details and photos on this process can be found in this article on how to trim asparagus.
- You'll probably need to bake these in batches, unless you've got a very large oven.
- This recipe makes a nice big batch (18 pieces!). You can cut it in half, but I don't recommend reducing the cashew cheese portion of the recipe. Unless you have a very small blending device, you'll probably have trouble blending less than 2 cups of cashews at a time. Instead, I recommend saving the extra cheese for another use (like crackers, bagels, or sandwiches), or sealing it up and freezing it for next time you make these.