Kale "flowers" and Cashew Cream Alfredo Sauce

Searching for something green tonight among the meager supply of veggies in the 'fridge, I was most uninspired.
I looked wistfully out at my weed-choked, rain-soaked, moss covered garden space and wished for warm summer weather and fresh grown veggies.

But wait, what do I see? My Lacinato (or Dinosaur) kale is still around, but tall and straggly - what's left has started to flower and gone to seed. Sad. I went out and looked at it closely though - the 'flowers' looked a LOT like little broccoli heads. All sorta the same family, right? I tasted it, expecting that strong, over-grown bitterness you get with the old, tough leaves... Amazingly, these little kale "heads" were tender and SO SWEET!
I picked several large handfuls and steam-sauteed them with a few drops lemon juice and olive oil. Wow. They cooked super-quickly and wilted down quite a bit... but still... Insanely deLISH! I've discovered a new favorite green!

I paired the kale flowers with some caramelized onions and red-peppers, and whole wheat rigatoni with our family's absolute favorite pasta sauce - Cashew Garlic Alfredo (which I somehow got MUCH too thick tonight).

I threw some kalamata olives in the pasta sauce, maybe a bit too salty but they went well with the kale and peppers.

Cashew Garlic Alfredo Sauce:

1/2 cup raw cashews (not roasted)
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice (I don't measure, just a good squeeze)
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 clove garlic (or more to taste)
1 Tbsp. extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tb. nutritional yeast (optional)

Pulverize raw cashews in the food processor until very fine. Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water. (*The BEST way to do this, is to make the sauce while the pasta cooks - scoop out 1 1/2 cups of lightly salted pasta-cooking water and use it - the starch from the pasta-cooking water thickens the sauce PERFECTLY!) Add water to cashews and process until smooth... this will take several minutes.
Add nutritional yeast (optional - my kids prefer it without), garlic clove, olive oil and squeeze of lemon juice. Process again until smooth, another couple minutes, it'll start to thicken a bit too! Makes a decadently creamy sauce. Serve over cooked pasta.

This stuff is wonderfully simple and tastes SO very good. I often add sauteed mushrooms, chives, chopped olives or sundried tomatoes, depending on my mood.

NOTE: Recipe has been edited, I forgot to add the olive oil!

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Thanks for all the kind thoughts while my Sprout is off traveling the world (or Ecuador). She e-mailed this AM and they all arrived safely and everyone was fine. So far, so good. Yay.