Almond butter can be pricey, but when you buy bulk almonds on sale and blend it up at home, the cost drops significantly.
My main motivation for making almond butter is my decision to try a paleo diet for the next 4 weeks.
Before I go any further, let me say that my decision to try paleo has nothing to do with wanting to lose weight or anything like that. The reason is much more internal. If you know me, then you know that I have a lot of stomach issues. My goal these next four weeks is to cut out anything that may be irritating me digestive system. When I’m done, I plan to journal and track what foods cause discomfort when they are reintroduced into my diet.
For the most part, I don’t think I’ll have a problem with paleo. I don’t eat bread often, I can do without alcohol, and aside from sweets found naturally in fruit, I’m not big on dessert. But then there’s peanut butter. Because a peanut is technically a legume, not a nut. Crazy right? You would think that something with “-nut” in the name would definitely be one, but guess again.
Paleo diets cut out legumes because the lectin coating is shown to cause irritation for many people. Hopefully peanut butter isn’t where my stomach issues are coming from (I’m pretty confident it’s not). Just to be sure, I’ll be replacing peanut butter with almond butter for the next four weeks.
Making almond butter at home is simple, as long as you have a powerful food processor.
I use my Cuisinart food processor ALL THE TIME. The attachment to slice up vegetables is such a time saver. Using the whirly blade ( probably not the right term but pretend for me will ya?) to grind up these almonds was a breeze. I just added almonds, a tiny bit of oil, and the spices to the processor and anxiously waiting for it to blend down into butter.
The spices you add are totally up to you. In fact, even without any spice added this almond butter would be delicious. Just like fresh ground peanut butter is delicious with nothing added to it. I chose to add pumpkin spice to mine. I’m imagining drizzling it over smoothie bowls and dreaming up some great combos to share with you soon!
I hope you’ll give this recipe a try! It really is so easy and cost effective. You can’t go wrong.
Easy Homemade Pumpkin Spice Almond Butter
Ingredients:
- 2 cupsalmonds
- 1 teaspoon oil (I used olive oil)
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin spice
Directions:
- Add all the ingredients to your food processor.
- Turn on low and start to pulse the almonds down.
- Once coarse, add in oil and spices.
- Continue mixing into you see the almonds go from a crumby texture, to bigger crumbs, and finally one large ball.
- Keep going past this ball form, and as the oils release from the oils everything will start to smooth out, shine, and turn into the most delicious almond butter you’ve ever had.
- Your homemade almond butter will stay fresh in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 6 weeks! (but good luck letting it last that long)
