Spicy Cashew & Basil Curry

This is the first vegan dish that I’ve made… well, intentionally made vegan, anyway. So I didn’t use fish or oyster sauce. An inspiration for it is the whole basil curry at a local restaurant.

One unusual ingredient I used was tahini in the sauce; since tahini paste is just mashed sesame seed, I figured this is an alternative to sesame oil for flavor and may add substance to the sauce.

Ingredients: peanut oil, raw cashews, minced ginger, scallions, green cabbage, red bell pepper, baby bella mushrooms and whole basil leaves.

Sauce: orange juice, water, black bean paste, soy sauce (substitute tamari to be gluten-free), rice vinegar, palm sugar, tahini, chili garlic sauce, and cornstarch slurry to thicken slightly at the end.
(A similar sauce with coconut milk would be nice too.)

Here are some related recipes you might like:
“Spicy Beef with Thai Basil”
http://prettypeasrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/08/spicy-beef-with-thai-basil.html
http://thefoodaddicts.com/spicy-beef-with-thai-basil/
(I don’t know why they say the basil will turn black if you cook it… mine didn’t when I added it last with the mushrooms, and I wanted it wilted.)