Vegan Parsley & Walnut Dip with Nutritional Yeast

Pure flavour.

nutritional yeast – as good as cheese?

Nutritional yeast is a food condiment that is said to be nutty, savoury and even resemble the taste of cheese. This sounds very promising to vegetarians and vegans which is why nutritional yeast is widely used as cheese supplement. Does that sound good to you? Let’s find out what nutritional yeast truly is. It is a deactivated form of yeast, often of the type Saccharomyces cerevisae. The deactivation takes place through heating yeast that has been fed with a growth medium, mostly glucose or beet molassess. Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast can provide you with significant amounts of B vitamins (1&2) and iron as well as 9% complete protein (meaning that all essential amino acids are included – essential are those that the body cannot produce itself). People who do not consume meat need to be aware of getting alternative vitamin B12 sources. While yeast cannot produce B12, it is often fortified with B12 – so if you’d like to consume nutritional yeast as a source of vitamin B12, make sure that it has been added to the product you’re buying. So far, I’ve used nutritional yeast in soups, stews, spreads, dips and pestos and must say that I really like its smokey flavour.

Servings: 1 jar

Total time: 15 min

For this dip

Ingredients

100g roasted walnuts

3-4 cups fresh parsley

1 clove of garlic (to give more flavour: first roast the garlic) 

¼ cup olive oil

½ cup water

½ lime, juiced

1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

pepper and salt to taste

Instructions

1. In your blender, combine all ingredients but only half of the water so you can adjust the quantity. Blend until smooth and creamy and add liquid as needed. 

2. Serve in a bowl along with your favourite salad, as a bread spread, cracker dip, in a pasta dish or as a yummy pizza base! If you come up with more yummy uses, please do let me know.. Enjoy!