Today’s recipe is for nut butter, which is used everywhere in the vegan cuisine. To make your homemade nut butter is no witchcraft. Almond nut butter, cashew nut butter, hazelnut nut butter, pistachio nut butter sunflower seed nut butter, pumpkin seed nut butter, sesame nut butter and hemp nut butter belong to the wide variety of delicious nut butter family.
Just a few steps
The special thing about nut butter is that it is made only from nuts. You can take all kind of different nuts, which differ in taste and color. My proposal is to start with your favorite nuts to make your homemade nut butter.
The roasting step is very important because it allows the flavors of the nuts to develop. Each variety has a slightly different temperature or roasting time, which you need to test a bit. Should you use nuts already roasted, for example roasted peanuts, this step is omitted.
It is important that the nuts cool down a bit after roasting, but only slightly. To get the perfect smooth creaminess, use your food processor. Grinding squeezes the nuts, so to speak, releasing healthy fats and making the nut butter so creamy and fine. Start with just a few minutes of grinding and check how smooth our nut butter is. Nuts, as a natural product, are always a little different in terms of their oil content.
Because of the natural high fat content of the nuts, you do not get powder nor flour, but a nut butter. No oil, palm fat, sugar or salt need to be added to your homemade nut butter that can contribute a lot to your balanced vegan diet.
An ideal stock product
The high fat content of your homemade nut butter serves as a preservative. You can keep and store your nut butter for a long time. It is the ideal stock product that you can use in many vegan recipes. Don’t Waste Your Taste contains several recipes for various dishes, for example:
Spiced chai latte: Use your homemade nut butter and add water so that you don’t have to buy vegan milk. You save yourself the hauling of boxes, reduce your waste in the spirit of zero waste and spare your wallet. You can also use your nut butter for the delicious raw blueberry tartlets. For all lovers of chocolate spreads, hazelnut butter with dates and cocoa powder is pure indulgence!
Are you interested to learn more about nut butter and its many uses? How about booking a cooking class with me that will show you the endless variety of vegan recipes with nut butter? From nut milk to smoothie, for baking, for dips, as ingredient of a fine sauce to small sweets, homemade nut butter is simply ideal to have.
Homemade nut butter
Equipment
- Food Processor
Ingredients
- 400-500 g nuts of your choice (for example peanuts*, cashews, hazelnuts)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 150 °C (300 °F) fan heating.
- If nuts are not already roasted: Spread the nuts on a tray and roast them for 15 min (cashews for 10 min only) in the hot oven. Watch them whilst roasting.
- Let the nuts cool slightly. Put them in a food processor and mix for 2 to 5 minutes until they have the desired consistency. If necessary, stop 1 to 3 times so that the motor of the food processor does not overheat and to scrape the nut puree from the sides.
- Once finished, put the nut butter to a screw-top jar. If you have worked hygienically, the nut butter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks or even longer.
Notes
Keep it in your fridge in a clean and sealed jar. You can use the fresh nut butter time and again for several weeks. Visit Don’t Waste Your Taste for ideas where and how to use your delicious nut butter.
Check if you are roasting them too long. You want the natural oils to release, but not to evaporate. Roasting too long results in loosing the creamy and smooth consistency.
Nut butter is made from nuts only. Nut-based spreads additionally contain oil, salt, sugar and sometimes cacao.
