Grain-Free Cashew Sandwich Bread

When my health care team recommended I go off of grains while I was healing from Lyme Disease, I was, quite honestly, devastated. It seemed like it’d be absolutely impossible to structure my diet without grains.

But in the end, I was sick enough that I would have literally done anything (including giving up bread!) to try to get better. So I dove into the grain-free lifestyle face-first, and I’m happy to report—a year later—I’ve found that eating a grain-free diet can be just as fulfilling and delicious as one packed with grains. I’ve found grain-free alternatives for most of my favorite carb-tastic treats (like bagels and pancakes and oatmeal), and I rarely feel like I miss grains anymore.

Thankfully, as I’ve crept into remission from Lyme, I’ve been able to release some of my dietary restrictions. I no longer have to be quite as vigilant with my diet as I was before—I’ve been known to enjoy a fully-loaded brownie on date night occasionally—but my day-to-day diet is still mostly grain-free. And a big staple of that grain-free eating? This Blender Cashew Grain-Free Sandwich Bread!

Landing on the right grain-free sandwich bread took a lot of trial-and-error hours in my kitchen. There are a billion recipes for grain-free bread out there, but I found the vast majority of them to be wayyyy too fussy for my liking. Whipping egg whites and nut butter that had to be the exact right consistency and steaming the oven and 30,000 dishes to clean.

I wanted a sandwich bread recipe that could easily be made on a whim—and this recipe is that. I literally make this bread every single week in my house. It takes me about two minutes worth of hands-on time, it’s all made in the blender, and it turns out perfectly tender and fluffy every time.

This version is also way cheaper to make than any grain-free sandwich bread you see made with premade nut butter. Have you ever gone and picked up a jar of cashew butter? That ish is pricier than gold. By cutting out the nut-grinding middle man and just throwing whole, raw cashews into the blender, you save a boatload of money.

Now, if you’ve never made or eaten a grain-free bread before, you might be a bit surprised about the end texture. This is not and will never be the doughy gluten-filled sandwich bread you’re used to. You just can’t replicate that texture exactly.

This bread does slice beautifully, it has a great taste and texture (very soft and tender, but a touch egg-y), and is absolutely wonderful toasted. It’s different from gluten-bread, but it’s not worse. In fact, my whole family likes this bread better than the store-bought stuff we used to keep in the house.

I will warn you that this recipe takes a lot of eggs to get the right rise. I’ve tried to take some of the eggs out, with varying degrees of success. For the best results every time, I recommend going with the full number of eggs in the recipe as listed.

Even with all those eggs, gluten-free breads (and especially grain-free breads) just don’t get the sky-high loft that normal bread does. One way to hack this is to use a narrow loaf pan. I use a 7” x 3” loaf pan for single batches of this bread, and a 10” x 4” loaf pan for double batches.

But if you don’t have access to those? No worries. You’ll just have vertically-challenged bread. It’ll still be delicious, you might just want to make yourself two slices of avocado toast instead of your typical one.

This mixture also works beautifully for hamburger buns (I use this pan) and hot dog buns (I use these molds). I’ve also poured the bread into a jelly roll pan and covered it in garlic salt and Italian seasoning to make focaccia.