I’ve had this obssession with nut butters for as long as I can remember. You see, what Nutella crêpes are to my children today (the story), peanut butter jelly-laden toasted bread was to me as a child. I have fond memories of my best friend and I gorging ourselves on triple decker PB&Js sandwiches and tall glasses of milk watching after-school movies, wondering how we had almost emptied the jar…and this love affair continued well into my 20s and 30s.
Needless to say, when I quit sugar, I was relieved to see a good variety of organic, sugar free peanut butters in most supermarkets. A few years later, I began reading labels a little more carefully and became mindful of vegetable oils (read this article, you’ll understand) and that (greatly) reduced the number of peanut butter brands I considered to be “healthy”. Then….it happened: I tested positive for peanut intolerance. Since, I’ve scoured the city for good almond, pistachio and cashew butters but ultimately found that making it them myself was the best option. Cheaper, tastier, fairly quick and easy to prepare – and so satisfying. So today, I share my well-honed, tried and tested, go-to recipe. But before we begin….
A few tips and some theory
- You can make nut butter with raw or roasted nuts:
- Healthwise, your best bet is to soak raw nuts for a couple of hours, dry them in a dehydrator or very low temperature oven and then blend. Soaking them takes away the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, making them easier to digest. The issue with this method is that I don’t own a dehydrator and don’t like the idea of leaving the oven on for 24 hours.
- Taste-wise, in my opinion, roasting wins hands down. While it does take away a bit of the nutrients, some people find roasted nuts easier to digest. However I strongly suggest you buy raw unsalted nuts and roast them yourself. Store-bought ones usually have added oils and you don’t know how they have been processed. Unsaturated oils found in nuts are highly unstable and can produce free radicals and acrylamide when heated at high temperatures and for long periods. By roasting them yourself, like in the below recipe, you can control both these factors.
- Avoid adding any vegetable oil, there is no need for it and most vegetable oils aren’t good for you anyway
- When roasting, use an oven – pan roasting is totally sub-optimal, trust me
- I tried making nut butter with a Vitamix blender but it wasn’t practical at all and ended up having to scrape the sides a million times before I finally gave up. I much prefer using a small grinder/chopper type of blender.
- The sky’s the limit when it comes to the nuts you can use – I like mixing almonds with a bit of cashews but hazelnuts, walnuts, pistachios, macademia and pecans can work well too, you just need to experiment and see what combination of texture and flavor you prefer. You can also try adding pumpkin or sunflower seeds if you like.
- Nut butter is a great spread on toast, but also delicious as a topping for over night soaked oats or blended into a smoothie. Cashew butter is especially popular in vegan desserts to replace dairy.
Ingredients
- 1 cup almonds, raw and unsalted
- 1/2 cup cashews, raw and unsalted
- 1/2 – 1 tsp Himalayan sea salt
- Optional: a tsp of natural sweetener (coconut nectar, maple syrup, honey or simply one or two pitted dates)
- Optional: 1/2 tsp powdered cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cacao or other spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200F
- Toss the nuts together and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for about 10-15 minutes, tossing them regularly
- Remove from the oven and let cool
- Put half the nuts in the blender and blend at high speed until it becomes powdery. Add the rest of the nuts and do the same.
- Continue blending for until the mixture starts to become somewhat creamy, scraping it down the sides once in a while. At this point, you may want to taste and add a little bit more salt. Then, you can add the optional sweetener or spice. Blend for another 30 seconds – 1 minute until it reaches your desired consistency.