vegan spinach artichoke dip

Whaaaaaaaaaa?I love comfort food in the winter. But I don't love feeling like 100 pounds, no energy, afterwards. So I'm ALL ABOUT testing new recipes to lighten up, lighten up. lighten up. What do I mean by that?Pretty much just removing as many inflammatory foods as I can. (sugar, gluten, and dairy especially)MANY THANKS to my fab intern Renee Prince for her help in testing this bad boy. It's bomb.

Ingredients:

• 5 oz bag of spinach (roughly 2 packed cups)
• 2 6 oz jars of artichokes
• 2 tsp avocado or grapeseed oil (or olive)
• ½ yellow or white onion
• ¾ cup cashews
• 1 cup almond milk
• 3 Tbsp tapioca starch/ flour
• 4 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• ½ Tbsp lemon juice
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Tortilla chips, GF bread, crackers, or veggies for dipping

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Heat 2 tsp oil in saute pan over medium high heat. Dice onion and saute until soft (about 4-5 min).
3. Drain marinated artichokes and roughly chop. Add hearts and spinach to pan with onion. Continue to saute until spinach is wilted but still bright green. Remove pan from heat.
4. Soak cashews in water for at least 2 hours or soak in boiling water for at least 10 min. Drain and add to blender with almond milk, tapioca flour, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and some salt and pepper to taste.
5. Pour mixture in saute pan and mix everything together (will have soupy consistency, but will thicken after baking). Add mixture to a 2 qt oven safe dish and bake for 20 min.
6. Serve WARM with veggies (preferred) or chips or GF bread and enjoy!