I got a food processor for Christmas. This is my first attempt at a nut butter. I used walnuts, almonds, a little stevia extract, and coconut oil. Of course, I then spread it on a banana!
Almond and walnut butter
Justin Tadlock
Life, Blogging, and WordPress
I like the idea to use multiple types of nuts. Looks good.
By the way, your outlet exploded.
Yeah, we’ve been meaning to fix that. 🙂
The food you have been posting about looks a lot like a Paleo style diet….
I suppose it’s pretty close to a paleo-style diet. I have read Loren Cordain’s book before. He has done a lot of useful research on nutrition.
I’m not entirely on board with all of his ideas though. I don’t completely give up bread, dairy, and saturated fats. Butter (real butter) and eggs are something I eat regularly. The biggest thing I do is cut out sugar-laden, non-natural food nearly all of the time. I also cut out bread, legumes, and other starchy carbs during the week. I’ll usually save those for “fun food” on the weekends (though I do have sweet potatoes on occasion).
I read a rule someone lived by the other day that was interesting: If there’s more than five ingredients on the label, don’t buy it. I think that’s an interesting approach that I might consider taking.
For me, it’s all about eating and enjoying natural foods like meat, vegetables, and fruits.
“If there’s more than five ingredients on the label, don’t buy it.”
I like that. Because if there’s more than five ingredients, you know they’re gonna be 15 letters long and unknown to any regular person.
Just look at the different peanut butter labels. It’s hard to find one made with just nuts and salt. Most add hydrogenated oil, refined sugar and sometimes even other unnatural ingredients. Same story with nearly any food that comes in a container – and that’s the kind of stuff ruining peoples’ health.
looks yummy… never tried it before
I thought that was a mango! 🙂 People actually put peanut butter on bananas and it’s actually delicious!
Peanut butter on bananas..hmm, are you sure that goes?
I guess if you deployed the rule of not buying food with more than five ingredients, you’re going to be making pretty much all your own stuff, including sauces.
I do read the labels more now than I used to, if it has salt near the top of the ingredients (excluding when I’m buying salt of course :P) I don’t buy it.
I’m not using peanut butter on bananas. I’m using almond and walnut butter I made at home. Peanuts are legumes anyway, which is something I cut back on.
As far as sauces go, I rarely eat sauces on anything anyway. Most of the time, I only need sauces on bread, which is also something I rarely eat.
I’m not a fan of peanut butter at all and that for me look terrible. How good did it taste?
You new diet sound a little strict. I’m trying a high protein diet at the minute. I’m not finding it completely appetizing but I’m aloud to eat anything I want one day a week. This normally controls my sugar cravings. Cutting the sugar is my biggest problem I think I’m hooked.
Also I’ve not heard of not eating anything with more than 5 ingredients but a similar one and probably just as hard to follow is nothing eating anything with ingredients that you cannot read or understand.
I like it better than peanut butter. I like almonds and walnuts better than peanuts anyway, so it tasted great to me.
I don’t have a new diet though. I’ve eaten like this for pretty much a year. It’s definitely not strict or limiting, especially if you know how to cook. Just throw a piece of meat, some veggies, and fat in a skillet. Cook until done. That’s pretty much what I do for most of my meals. There’s 1,000s upon 1,000s of options by just doing that.
As for the five ingredients thing, it’s just something I read someone doing. It’s not a diet or anything. I just thought it was interesting.
Is your high-protein diet also high in good fats and carb sources such as veggies and fruits? I eat quiet a bit of protein myself.
Going to try and make this kind of nut butter myself and put on a Krakerbrot or something like that. Looks delicious!
I can’t help but see this and remember the Curb Your Enthusiasm scene with Shaq and Larry and the argument about peanut butter. It IS dairy right?
You must be pretty excited by all the nut based butters that could be made. I imagine Brazil and hazelnut butter would be rather awesome.
Could you post a bit more in depth information about the quantities and ingredients you used? I’m a bit of a kitchen newbie but in our house we’ve an excellent food processor and i’m getting a taste now for a delicious nut butter.
It seems delicious! I never tried to do my own and spread it on a banana, and I will definitively try. On apples it is pretty lovely too.
It looks great. I can’t believe those are the only ingredients. Did you not even add water?
You’re right about your peanut comments, they aren’t real nuts and are full of molds. I’m following the Paleo Diet and it has increased my stamina to levels I couldn’t imagine before!
Nope, not even water. A food processor can pretty much make a liquid out of nuts on its own if you leave them in long enough. The coconut oil made it a little too hard in the fridge though. I’ve been experimenting with avocado and macadamia nut oil though, which work much better. Honestly, you could probably do it without oil at all. You can definitely do without the stevia extract.
After eating different types of nut butter, peanut butter tastes pretty bad now. I tried a little over the weekend and wanted to spit it out.
I lean a little more toward the Primal diet rather than Paleo, but they’re pretty similar. It just makes sense to eat real food, so I’m a big fan of what both camps are doing.
Almond butter is awesome for trying to lose weight as well. Way more healthy than peanut butter.
Excellent site you have here but I was curious if you knew of any message boards that cover the same topics discussed in this article? I’d really love to be a part of online community where I can get feedback from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thank you!
That looks yummy ! I’ve got to try it somedays. Keep cooking !
Wow looks great!! of course it must be yummy in taste. i have never tried it. !!!
Hey, the nutbutter looks great!
Less than five ingredients sounds like a great rule of thumb.
It probably means no presevatives, flavour enhancers or whatever else it is they put in highly process food. I think additives themselves are responsible for the increase in allergies over the last few years…
I try to keep it as natural as possible but of course that means buying fresh..shopping regularly..something that is sometimes a challenge!
This looks yummy. Will try this one on bread. Have you tried spreading it on a loaf too?
Looks so good, my grandma use to make this! If you can get the texture a bit more firm by adding more of the nuts its amazing to roll them into tiny balls and dip in chocolate. It is like a chocolate walnut / almond butter cup. 🙂
Looks good. Made it never before with coconuts and banana =) but i will try it.
It was only about 16 oz., so it wasn’t too much. From what I understand, it’ll last at least a few weeks in the fridge. It didn’t last a week in my house. 🙂
Yum, looks good! Justin I have a quick question. What would would something like this cost? I mean do you use name brand ingredients or more off brand?
Hi guys, Justin 🙂
I am increadibly pleased to find out that you are not only a genius in developing wordpress/web scripts and tools but also you are heading to a healthier direction. I am happy because living a healthy life and eating healthy food you prepare yourself when possible you will live much longer and tease us with more tutorials, plugins, themes, childthemes etc 😉
Just one thought I would like to share with you based on my experience with food for more than 10-12 years already. If you are keen on preparing the butter yourself it is more than perfect to avoid the legumes like peanuts except in the case of the wild peanuts that are something different. All the rest of the butters are healthy when not overeaten and would help your body keep the perfect body structure and shape.
One thing that I would suggest is to cut off the coconut fat if possible and to have that type of a treat on its own. It is not a good idea to mix different types of fats in one meal because that can lead to a harder digestion and some discomfort. If we are talking about 1-2 tablespoons to help the food processor to keep going – than it is OK, but not more than that.
One of the keys to the best homemade butter is to NEVER FORGET TO SOAK the nuts and seeds before turning them in a creamy or crunchy butter. Usually the soaking time is around 6 hours and is enough to let the inhibitors to leave the nuts/seeds and to make the final product way more easier to properly digest.
If your intentions are to keep the butter longer than 4-5 days, than I would suggest to leave the nuts/seeds in a dry and sunny place or dehydrate them before buttering.
Try this simple tricks and you will be amazed of the results. Take care and live a long and healthy life. Thank you for every minute you share with us!
That looks delicious! And the fact that it’s butter makes it even better. I think you’ve just found me a replacement to homemade jam. Thanks!
Hi, add some little honey in that food , it will bring awesome taste 🙂 daily morning i will take this kind of food,it takes your body good and healthy
Every time I buy peanut butter I end up buying the most expensive one on the shelf for the same simple idea that it shouldn’t have so many ingredients! It never even crossed my mind to make my own! Great idea! How’d it turn out? I want to do this for the next “jar” of pb in our pantry!