When you think about it it’s surprising the number of cupboard and fridge staples you can actually make yourself. The benefit is they’re nearly always healthier, tastier, cheaper and better for the planet. I started in 2021 with 15g of kefir grains. I now have about 300g producing way more than I can drink in a week. I make my own elderflower cordial during summer, jam (of course!) and kimchi. And last year I stopped buying mayonnaise after discovering how easy it is to make; I recommend Jamie Oliver’s recipe if you’re wondering.
Recently I’ve been experimenting with nut butters. Nuts are a good source of healthy fats, protein and fibre, and nutrients such as iron and manganese, and are recommended for a healthy diet. According to Tim Spector, the well known authority on gut health, (Guru Tim as I call him) “there is now strong evidence that high-fat nuts and seeds are good for our hearts, and for avoiding cancer and living longer… Eating a handful every day [about 40-50grams] or a larger portion three to four times a week looks ideal (Tim Spector, Food for Life, 2022).
While it’s recommended to eat nuts in their raw form, nut butters still provide you with most of their nutritional benefits, especially if you include their skin, and of course they’re spoonable and spreadable.
So far I’ve made my own peanut butter, almond butter and macadamia nut butter. It is literally as easy as popping them in a food processor and waiting until they go smooth, though you’ll want to roast them beforehand to improve the flavour. Unless you have an industrial strength food processor you will need to leave your machine to cool down for 15 minutes or so for every 1 minute of processing time (or whatever the instructions recommend) else you will shorten its life significantly, so you do need to set aside about 90 minutes depending on the quantity you’re making.
Interesting fact: Peanuts are not a nut but a type of pea that grows in the ground, hence it’s other name – groundnut.
So here are my recipes for peanut butter and almond butter. I will update with a recipe for cashew butter in due course. I’ve not included one for macadamia nut butter since I personally found it a little too rich on its own. It is actually the easiest nut butter to make since macadamia nuts are softer than other nuts and very high in oil. If making it again I would blend them 50/50 with another nut such as peanuts. As always adjust these recipes to your own taste and let me know how you get on in the comments below.
Easy Peanut Butter
Ingredients
400g peanuts made up of 200g regular salted peanuts and 200g redskin peanuts.
Half a teaspoon of salt.
1 tablespoon of peanut oil.
Method
Roast the nuts in an oven or air fryer. I used an air fryer set at 180 degrees C and 6 minutes was enough.
Before roasting them I washed the salt off the salted nuts, then allowed them to dry, but seeing as I had to add about half a teaspoon of salt to the finished butter I don’t think this is necessary, not least because the redskin peanuts you’re mixing them with are unsalted. It washes away some of their natural oil too. You can off course use just one type of nut or the other but bear in mind that if you only use salted nuts you lose out on the skins.
Blend in a food processor until smooth. It’s likely to take about 5 minutes in total but you’ll need to be patient if blending for 1 minute at a time, as your machine will need to cool down between workouts. Scrape the forming nut butter down the sides to distribute it evenly and when it’s starting to come together add about 1 tablespoon of oil (or more) if it’s not at your desired consistency, as well as up to half a teaspoon of salt to taste.
If you want to make crunchy peanut butter simply process a handful of nuts in advance until they’re granular and add them to the final product.
400g of nuts yielded me one and a half jars, for a cost of about £1.60, an approximate 80p saving compared to buying a jar of peanut butter for £2, say.
Canadian style almond butter
Ingredients
340g (12 oz) of toasted flaked almonds
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tbl spn of maple syrup
1 tbl spn rapeseed (or peanut) oil
Method
To save the hassle of toasting the almonds first and to reduce blending time I bought a 500g bag of toasted flaked almonds from Grape Tree, however I will be trying whole almonds next time since you do lose the skin and fibre this provides when using them this way.
Blend them until they begin to start turning into a paste (about 4 minutes, in 15 minute intervals) and add the other ingredients mid-way through which will help loosen up the mix due to the extra liquid content. Keep blending until smooth and season to taste, adding more oil as needed until it’s your desired consistency. Be easy on the cinnamon because you don’t want to over-power the almond flavour.
I found this recipe on the web and have modified it for my own taste. It is delicious as you’d expect with maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla extract(!) but you can of course omit these flavourings to make it healthier. A thin spread of this transforms a rich tea biscuit into a delectable moreish treat you won’t be able to resist!
This yielded about 45 per cent more than if buying it from a shop such as Lidl which sells 170g jars for £1.65.
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Mark Wilkinson
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