Take your love for peanut butter to the next level with these nine recipes. Home-made nut butters are surprisingly easy to make. As they will be free of preservatives and chemicals, they are a great alternative to the store-bought kind – and much more yummy too!
Before you start, soak nuts and seeds. It will make them easier to digest and improves their flavor.
How to Soak Nuts and Seeds
- Place the nuts in a bowl or jar.
- Cover with water completely.
- Leave it in a cool spot or refrigerator for a specific time (see bellow).
- Drain and rinse with water.
Soaking time:
[table]| Peanut | 8 hours |
| Almond | 8-12 hours |
| Brazil | None |
| Cashew | 2 hours |
| Flax Seed | 8 hours |
| Hazelnut | 8 hours |
| Macadamia | 8 hours |
| Pecan | 4-6 hours |
| Petita | 8 hours |
| Pine nut | 8 hours |
| Pistachio | None |
| Sesame | 8 hours |
| Sunflower | 2 hours |
| Walnut | 4 hours |
If soaking isn’t important to you, go ahead and roast the raw nuts and use those.
1) Honey Roasted Peanut Butter
Total time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of roasted peanuts
- honey
Directions:
- Add peanuts to a food processor.
- Process until the peanuts resemble a thick and relatively smooth peanut butter. Or you can leave it crunchy.
- Add honey and process for another minute.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to one month.
2) Chocolate Peanut Butter
Total time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of roasted, unsalted peanuts
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
Directions:
- Add the peanuts to a food processor and pulse for about 2-3 minutes depending on your food processor.
- Add the cocoa powder and pulse for another minute until well incorporated.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.
3) Cinnamon-Raisin Peanut Butter
Total time: 5-10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of roasted, unsalted peanuts
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup raisins
Directions:
- Add the peanuts to a food processor and pulse for about 2-3 minutes depending on your food processor. Or use your ready homemade butter.
- Add cinnamon and raisins to the butter. Pulse until the cinnamon is thoroughly mixed in and the raisins are chopped. You can also mix in the cinnamon first and then stir the raisins in by hand to keep them whole.
4) Classic Homemade Almond Butter
Total time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of roasted unsalted almonds
- ½-1 teaspoon of sea salt
Directions:
- Add almonds to a food processor.
- Process until almonds resemble a thick and relatively smooth butter.
- Scrape the sides and process for another minute.
- Add sea salt and continue to process.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to one month.
5) Vanilla Cashew Butter
Total time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups roasted cashews
- 2 tablespoons coconut or vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Directions:
- In a food processor, add all of the ingredients and process for 1 minute.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and process the cashews again. You will need to repeat this step quite a few times until the cashews are very smooth.
- Once the cashew butter is done, put it in the jar with a lid and store for about 1 week.
6) Raw Pecan Pumpkin Butter
Total time: 5-10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup raw pecans, soaked
- 1 cup almond milk
- 3/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2-3 tbsp maple syrup or other liquid sweetener, to taste
Directions:
- Place pecans in a bowl and cover with water completely. Let pecans soak for soak for 4-6 hours. Drain and rinse the pecans well and then place in the blender.
- Add the rest of the ingredients into the blender and blend on highest speed until the dip is smooth.
- Add sweetener to taste.
- Store in an air-tight jar or container in the fridge for 1 to 2 weeks.
7) Sunflower Seed Butter
Total time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2-4 cups soaked raw sunflower seeds (see above on how to do this).
- 1-2 tablespoons neutral, light tasting or flavor-complimenting oil.
- fine sea salt if needed.
- sweetener to your taste (maple syrup, honey, raw cane sugar, coconut sugar, coconut nectar, etc).
Directions:
- Roast the sunflower seeds for 10-15 minutes, watching very closely, you don’t want them to burn.
- Add the toasted sunflower seeds and process.
- Continue processing until it becomes smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl every minute or two.
- It may take up to 15-20 minutes until it is totally creamy, this depends on the strength and size of your food processor
- Total Time: 4 minutes
8) Homemade Vegan Nutella
Total time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups soaked raw hazelnuts (see above on how to do this).
- 1/4 cup raw cacao or cocoa powder.
- 1-2 tablespoons neutral, light tasting or flavor-complimenting oil.
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste from one vanilla bean (I went with both)
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar or other granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Directions:
- Roast the hazelnuts for 10-15 minutes
- Add the nuts to the middle of a damp kitchen towel. Close the towel up and rub the nuts vigorously to loosen their skins. Take the nuts without their skins out of the towel and place into the bowl of the processor. Continue rubbing until you get the skins off the rest of the nuts. There will always be a few stubborn ones that just won’t release their skins.
- Add all of the nuts to your food processor. Grind to a fine powder until it becomes smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl every minute or two. This may take 12-15 minutes (possibly longer) depending on the strength of your food processor.
- At around 15-20 minutes once the hazelnut butter is ready, now you can add in the remaining ingredients slowly and keep processing and scraping down the bowl for another 5-10 minutes, or until silky smooth.
- Total Time: 4 minutes
9) Homemade Macadamia Nut Butter
Total time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of roasted unsalted macadamia nuts
- ½-1 teaspoon of sea salt
Directions:
- Combine toasted nuts, salt, and oil in a food processor.
- Pulse, scraping the sides as needed, until you reach a smooth consistency, depending on how creamy you want the final product.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several weeks. Makes about 1 cup, or 8 servings.
Be creative and add:
- honey
- cinnamon
- vanilla extract
- cocoa powder
- instant coffee
- shredded coconut
- other nuts, or any combination of these
How to Store Nut and Seed Butter
Nut butters can be kept for several weeks in a glass jar with a cover in the fridge. You can also freeze nut butters for up to 4 months.
If you are looking for some other protein sources check out more here.