Healthy Homemade Nut Butter

The nut butter that’ll save you a small fortune

Any guesses how much you’ve spent on nut butter this past year? If you’re anything like me, probably enough to fund a small weekend getaway.

The nut butter aisle these days blows my mind. Gone are the days where peanut butter in an ETA jar was the only option available. Now we’ve got almond butter, cashew butter, ABC butter, chocolate peanut butter, The nut butter aisle these days blows my mind. Gone are the days where peanut butter in an ETA jar was the only option available. Now we’ve got almond butter, cashew butter, ABC butter, chocolate peanut butter, and every-nut-and-seed-on-the-planet butters. All delicious, but which can set you back a good $17 for a single jar.

As a Nutritionist and Naturopath, I love adding nut and seeds into people’s diets thanks to their unsaturated fats which can help reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and support hormone production, as well as their vitamin E content which supports glowing skin. But I also can’t help noticing how in many countries nut butters still contain unnecessary extras like refined sugar, vegetable oils, emulsifiers, and stabilisers. Here’s an example of one popular supermarket brand:

Roasted peanuts (90%), sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil (rapeseed oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil), mono and diglycerides (emulsifiers), molasses, salt

Other than the peanuts and salt, the rest are ingredients I’d rather you not put in your body. Which is exactly why homemade nut butter is such a game changer.

Making your own is ridiculously simple too – all you need are some nuts, salt, a food processor, and 5 minutes of patience. The result is creamy, drizzly, healthy nut butter that tastes infinitely better than most store-bought versions, costs significantly less, and can be customised exactly how you like. Once you realise how easy homemade almond or cashew butter actually is, it’s hard to look back.

If you have a penchant for making your own cost-effective, additive-free nut butters, don’t wash the processor after and make this Coconut Butter at the same time. Or browse my full healthy staples recipe collection for more easy whole food basics.

How to make your own Homemade Nut Butter

What you’ll need

• Nuts. Pretty important in a nut butter recipe. Almonds, peanuts, cashews, macadamias, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds – all work beautifully. Homemade almond butter is probably the easiest place to start, but I personally love making blends for more interesting flavours and nutrition diversity.
• Sea salt. You can go salt free, but a pinch helps amplify flavour and balance the natural richness of the nuts.
• Heat. Not technically an ingredient, but absolutely part of the magic. Lightly roasting your nuts first helps release their oils, makes blending much easier, and also improves flavour dramatically.

Step-by-step: Homemade Nut Butter

Kitchen notes

• Roast first. Roasting your nuts helps to bring out their flavour (try eating a raw peanut vs roasted – no competition there). It also reduces the protective nutrients on the outside of the nut, which can inhibit digestion and absorption. Just make sure you only lightly roast at a low temperature, to minimise oxidation of the nuts’ omega essential fatty acids. Roasting also heats the nuts, making it much easier for them to then release their oils and become a drizzly butter. Can you buy pre-roasted nuts? Yes, you just won’t get that heat factor which helps with blending.
• Or dehydrate. If you’re ready for next-level nut butter, you might like to experiment with dehydrating instead of roasting. Why? Dehydrating (or activating) removes hard-to-digest nutrients such as phytic acid, making the vitamins and minerals inside more bio-available easy to absorb. It also initiates the sprouting process, which changes the nut from a dormant entity to a living food – like watering a seed to grow it into a tree. Furthermore, it retains a number of vitamins and enzymes which are destroyed by roasting at high temperatures. To dehydrate – soak your nuts in a bowl of water overnight, rinse and drain, then dry them in a dehydrator for 24-48 hours at 41-48°C. A dehydrator heats food at a low temperature while allowing moisture to escape, which helps get things crispy. If you don’t have one, use your oven at 50-80°C with the door slightly ajar (put a wooden spoon in there) for a few hours until the nuts are hard and crunchy. The oven method isn’t as energy-friendly, so i recommend doing a big batch and filling all your trays before you start.
• Minimum 2 cups. You need critical mass and weight to release the nuts’ oils – a large quantity also helps the chopped nuts to fall back down on the blades and turn to butter quicker.
• Be patient. Depending on the strength of your food processor/blender, it may take anywhere from 2 minutes to 5. It will go through four stages as seen in the photos above – whole, crumbly chunks, grainy paste, then finally a creamy smooth butter. Don’t be tempted to stop at stage 3, keep going until stage 4.
• Blender option. A blender flicks ingredients up more than keeping them down like a food processor, so if you’re using one, use the tamper stick to push the nuts down into the blades as you go.
• Add a dash of oil. If your butter is struggling, you can add a dash of neutral oil (rapeseed, sunflower, light olive – not coconut) to get things moving.

Blend ideas for your nut butters

Homemade almond butter is a great one to start with, but I also love making blends. Here are a few of my favourites:

• ABC – almonds, brazil nuts and cashews (which I’ve made in the video here)
• Cashew & Coconut – 1 cup cashews + 3 cups desiccated coconut (creamy & sweet)
• Almond & Sunflower – 2 cups almonds + 1 cup sunflower seeds (cheaper than using all almonds)
• Maple Cinnamon Almond – add 1 tsp cinnamon and a dash of maple syrup after blending

Serving & storage

Out of the jar, or on toast, I’m sure you know what to do with your drizzly 5-minute nut butter. But here are some of my quirkier ways I love to use them too:

• Spread on toast with sliced banana and cinnamon
• Drizzled over fruit salad, cake, or dessert
• Spooned into dates, dried apricots, or figs then popped in the freezer for a quick sweet treat
• Use to make an easy satay sauce with some soy sauce, salt, maple syrup, and water or milk
• Blend 2-3 tablespoons with 1 cup of water for a quick and easy nut milk
• Add 1 tablespoon + 1 cup water to your smoothie, instead of adding milk
• Use in baking instead of butter and eggs (it adds richness and helps things bind)

Your butters will keep in a sealed jar in the pantry for a couple of months. You might see some places recommending storing your nut butter in the fridge, to make sure the oils don’t go rancid. But I don’t recommend this as it’s make them go hard and ruins their drizzle-worthy appeal. If it takes you a year to get through a jar of nut butter then sure. But you and I both know that’s never going to be us.

Before you eat all your delicious drizzly nut butter straight from the jar, put some to good use in these chewy Nut Butter Cookies.

V GF NF SF OF

Homemade Nut Butter

This homemade nut butter is creamy, drizzly, naturally dairy-free, and ridiculously easy to make with just nuts and salt. Learn how to make homemade almond butter, peanut butter, or your own custom blend in under 15 minutes.

5 from 8 votes

AuthorBuffy Ellen Gill

Servings 20

Pin Recipe Print Recipe

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Blend Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 15 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 2 c nuts
• pinch sea salt

Instructions

• Prepare your nuts. Either roast for 10 minutes at 150°C fan bake, shaking once during roasting. Or soak overnight, rinse and drain, then dehydrate for 24-36 hours. Or low-roast in the oven at 50-80°C fan bake with the door slightly ajar (put a wooden spoon in there) until crunchy.
• Blend warm nuts (at least two cups worth) in a food processor or blender with a tamper for 2-5 minutes until smooth and creamy. It will go through four stages as seen in the photos above – whole, crumbly chunks, grainy paste, then finally smooth butter. Don't stop at stage 3, keep going until stage 4! Scrape down the sides and blend again to get it super drizzly.
• Pour into a glass jar and keep in the pantry for up to two months. 2 cups nuts makes just over 1 cup nut butter.

Equipment

• Food processor / blender

Recipe Notes

• Nut free: Use hemp, sunflower, pumpkin or sesame seeds, or a combination. Roast the sunflower/pumpkin/sesame seeds first for the best flavour.

Nutrition Disclaimer

As a Registered Naturopath and Nutritionist, I create nutritionally-balanced recipes using whole food ingredients designed to support optimal health and wellbeing. While I encourage an intuitive approach to eating, I also recognise the value of understanding calories and macronutrients as tools to build awareness around your intake. This awareness can be helpful in aligning your nutrition with your personal health goals.

Please note: all nutritional information provided is an estimate only. Variations will occur depending on the specific brands used, recipe adjustments, and portion sizes consumed. If you have individual dietary needs or health conditions, I recommend booking a personalised consultation for tailored advice.

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