I’ve been creating my own superfood-infused nut butter for a while now. I got the idea from Trader Joe’s. They sell a really yummy peanut butter with chia and flax seeds. So what I’ve been doing is mixing almond butter with natural peanut butter (ratio of 1:1) and adding hemp seeds, chia seeds, ground flax seeds and sometimes even cacao nibs. It’s really easy to make and makes me feel not as guilty about eating “peanut butter.” It’s what I eat with my apples because, for some reason, when I eat an apple alone it makes me hungrier.
Then I came across a recipe for Power Seed Butter in Julie Morris’s cookbook Superfood Snacks, which has been my food bible recently. Julie’s recipe looked slightly more complicated but still easy enough and even healthier than my hastily slapped together recipe so I thought I would give it a go.
Immediately after making this nut butter I threw it on some whole wheat toast, added some sliced banana and a drizzle of honey. It was heaven. I liked this recipe so much that I wish I would have started out making a double recipe. Not that it would be hard to make a second batch but obviously it would have been easier to do it all at once. This is something that can last a long time in your refrigerator – if you let it!
ingredients.
- 1 c. roasted almonds
- ⅓ c. raw pumpkin seeds, de-shelled
- ⅓ c. sunflower seeds
- ¼ c. flax seeds
- 2 T. chia seeds
- 2 T. hemp hearts
- 2 T. grapeseed oil
- pinch of salt (optional)
directions.
- In a food processor, process almonds until coarsely ground.
- Add remaining dry ingredients and, with the processor still running, slowly drizzle in the grapeseed oil.
- Process for about 10 to 12 minutes stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
I should have started out reading Julie’s Do’s and Don’ts of making nut butter before attempting this recipe. Had I done so I wouldn’t have been so skeptical about the process. When I first started blending up the batch I didn’t think the ingredients would turn into anything resembling a creamy texture. I didn’t think two tablespoons of oil would be enough. But it did, and it was. And it didn’t take all that long either. Only a couple of minutes. I kept the food processor going for about 10 minutes because that’s what the recipe recommended, but I wasn’t sure if the last 4 to 5 minutes made that much of a difference. The liquidity of this nut butter is similar to what would you find at Trader Joe’s.
I added a few pinches of salt and found my batch perfectly salty. You may not need to add any salt at all. The roasted almonds I used were salted to start out with, too; though you can find low sodium roasted almonds if that’s your preference.
One serving of this nut butter is just under 150 calories (compared to the 190 to 210 that other nut butters weigh in at) and has 3.5 grams of fiber (and 5.3 grams of protein which is a bit less than your standard almond butter – 7 grams).
Food Snob 