Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Nandita iyer 5 min Read 04 Oct 2025, 04:00 IST Cashew Coconut Truffles; (Right) cashew and coconut rice. (Istockphoto & Nandita Iyer) Summary has a sense of nostalgia, the feeling of abundance, festivity and a touch of luxury. Enjoy them with joy and responsibility this season when I was a child, the scent of cashews in ghee was always a sign of something special. This can mean Kesari, Payasam, Chakkara Pongal or, at rare occasions, a savory dish like Venn Pongal. Upma will never see such treatment. A friend once told me that when his wife decorated Upma with cashews and even pushed it into neat cup forms on the board, he knew that important guests were expected – because the kind of effort was not for the family. My father, who liked cashews in food, would joke that all the Casheweers my mysterious way found their way to the board of one lucky person, while the rest of us have to do with one or two stray pieces. And then there were the Goa travels – when it was mandatory for anyone who returned to bring back a bag of cashews, often with their pink peels still clinging, because this luxury ingredient was once available for a fraction of the price. Of course, this is no longer the case, as Goa has grown into an expensive tourist destination and nothing is cheap anymore. For me, cashews carry this nostalgia – the feeling of abundance, festivity and a touch of luxury. But today they moved to another area: the world of vegetable cuisine. Cashew milk, cashewrome, cashew butter, cashew cheese are celebrated as virtuous swap for dairy. But as a global movement, a global movement with the aim of ensuring that everyone has access to good, clean, beautiful food, which is reported in cashew nuts in March 2020: a toxic industry, reality is more complicated. The global cashew value chain is full of social and environmental damage. Workers, often women, kick cashews by hand without protective equipment, and expose themselves to corrosive cashew dop oil that causes burns and injuries. Many earn minor wages and do not have labor protection. It is far from a simple moral upgrade, and to switch to cashew-based vegan foods, exploitation of labor and environmental damage can continue, unless provision chains are transparent, certified and accountable. It is not a plea to completely give in cashews, but a reminder that the switch to cashew-based dairy alternatives is not entirely problem-free. Awareness helps us to make more informed, ethical choices. It also reminds us to respect the ingredient itself by appreciating each nut and avoiding waste. As the festive season approaches and boxes of cashews find their way in our homes, you need to be more aware of its consumption. Share, reuse and make it shine. Pour entire cashews into a few drops of ghee or olive oil with smoked paprika, fried or air fry until bright, and watch them disappear at the moment they hit the table. Broken Cashews pieces can be mixed in a rich tomato-one base, cooked with spices and frozen for immediate gravies. Or fold it into a homemade granola with oats, seeds, cocoa, cinnamon and honey. Another favorite way to handle cashews is to cover it in a honey or maple pull with chilli powder and salt, and bake it until crispy. It makes a wonderful addition to salads. Both granola and fried honey-chilli nuts are easy ways to turn festive excess into thoughtful gourmet gifts. Cashews may no longer be the rare leniency of my childhood, but they remain a reminder that ingredients are never just food on our plate. They carry stories of labor, land and memory together. The least we can do is respect and enjoy them with joy and responsibility. Here are two dishes on Cashew-based to try during the festive season. Cashew-Klapper truffles Make 12-14 ingredients 14 medium-sized dates, 3 tablespoon coconut milk 1 cup lightly roasted cashews quarter cups dried coconut + extra for covering one lemon 1 tablespoons honey 1 breeding vanilla extract Method The dates rough and sobak in hot coconut milk for 20 minutes. Add it with the remaining ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until the ingredients clump into a ball. Refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes. Divide into 12-14 servings and roll each into a ball. If you find the mixture too wet, then add more dehydrated coconut. Lubricate some dried coconut in a dish. Roll the balls in this to lightly cover with coconut. Refrigerate and consume within three-four days. Cashew and Coconut Rice serves 4 ingredients One-and-a-half cup of fragrant rice such as jerigige samba 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoon of coconut oil 1 breeding moard seeds 1 tablespoon split Urad Dal 3 dried red chew, broken into pieces 2 twigs of 2 twigs of curry leaves. Place it in a pressure cooker with double the water, salt and a few drops of coconut oil. Press cook for one whistle and then on the lowest flame for 5 minutes. Open the forhouse with cooling and spread the rice on a dish so it can cool off. Preparing such rice dishes while the rice is warm increases the chance that the grains break and the rice becomes porridge. Heat coconut oil in a pan. Fry the mustard seeds, Urad Dal, red chilli and curry leaves. Wait until the mustard seed pop and Urad Dal turn golden brown. Add the cashews and fry on a low flame until they turn golden brown. Finally add the grated coconut and stir on a low flame for 3-4 minutes. Make sure the coconut does not change color or brown. At this point, add the cooked and cooled rice to the pan. Gently toss to combine all the ingredients. Serve warm with a curry of choice. Double test is a bi -weekly column over vegetarian cuisine, which prepares a single ingredient in two ways. Nandita Iyer’s latest book is the Great Indian Thali. She posts @safftrail on Instagram and X. Catch all the business news, market news, news events and latest news updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #Features Read Next Story
How to share cashews, use and make it shine again
