Cashew Butter Recipe

The past few days have been pretty stressful with school and work and life in general, so I haven't been able to make anything new and exciting in a while and it's been bringing me down! HOWEVER, I just made the most freaking delicious homemade nut-butter and I'm in love and eating it with everything!! It truly has taken all of my will power not to eat it all at once.

I'm now a week into the Whole30 diet, and my over eating habits really have not changed that much. I don't normally eat that much dairy, and I rarely go out of my way to eat gluten or soy. I confess that I have a sweet tooth, and usually towards the end of the day I choose a sweet snack that my Instagram followers would frown upon (LOL). But I've been pretty strict because I am determined to get clear skin! So if the cause of my acne is something that I'm eating, this 30 day "elimination diet" should determine that. Because this diet is so so strict, homemade foods are usually the best options for me. Also, legumes are a no-go on Whole30, so that means that peanut butter (one of my fav foods) is out of the picture right now. It's been rough! Some of my goals this week were to make almond milk and a nut butter. I still have to get around to posting about my almond milk, but wow wow wow do I have to run to the grocery store soon to get more cashews because this cashew butter I made is so so delightful and I couldn't wait to share! The Whole30 program discusses foods that are technically compliant with their standards, but they suggest not eating because it may tempt you eat less healthfully and makes it harder to stick to the plan (they call these foods swypo foods- look it up if you're curious haha). My intentions for this diet is really to just clear my skin, so I'm being more lenient with "swypo" foods. One of the "swypo" foods is vanilla extract, and I did add this ingredient to my cashew butter to make it a little more jazzy. So this technically wouldn't be a Whole30 recipe, but it does qualify as paleo and vegan!

So without further ado, I'll share my dEATS :-)

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Add salted cashews to your Vitamix/food processor

I LOVE my Vitamix (yes you need one) and I use it every. single. day. whether it be for smoothies, soups, sauces, or in this case- nut butter! So I started with four cups of salted cashews and added them to my Vitamix. On a medium/high setting within 60 seconds, the cashews grind up into a flour-like texture, pictured below!

Cashews are easily destroyed by the power of my Vitamix!

You could definitely stop at this step and make something delicious with the cashew flour. With probably just a few more seconds of blending you could make tons of different things with such a nutritious, soft flour. But if you blend the cashews for too long, their oils come out which start to turn it to a butter- and there's no going back after that! I stopped blending here and gave it a quick mix with a spoon to get the cashews off the sides and then proceeded to blend, repeating this several times.

This blending and mixing took less than five minutes!

I was so amazed how beautiful the butter was in such a short amount of time! With only cashews and no other ingredients!! I will never go back to eating Jif or any other store-bought nut butter that has processed, harmful, unhealthy ingredients like corn syrup solids, vegetable oils, and added sugars. Ew.

Though I could have stopped there, I wanted to add more flavor to my cashew butter and make it a little less thick, so I added three tablespoons of melted coconut oil, one fourth teaspoon vanilla extract, and one forth teaspoon cinnamon.

YUM. After another quick blend, I scooped it into a mason jar to store!

SOOOOO MUCH YUMMM.

One of the easiest recipes, that taste so so amazing. This will forever be on hand in my kitchen, ready to eat at all times now!

I tried keeping this in my refrigerator (which isn't necessary), and I found that it slightly hardens when chilled. So prior to using your cashew butter, I would take it out of the fridge (if you are keeping it in there) at least twenty minutes beforehand. FUN FACT THOUGH- this is like an alternative to cookie dough when it's fresh out of the fridge! Easily scooped and it's just as tasty, if not more!

I hope you try this recipe out for yourself because it has quite the return on investment. Just try not to drool all over the place.

That's it for me. Have a lovely week, everyone!

XXXXX

Lucy