Recipe: quick and easy homemade peanut butter
March 14, 2008 by Jul
Filed under Food & Nutrition
This recent blurb about the Sierra Club’s PB&J campaign gave me a hankering for some peanut butter. So I made some, and ate it with a banana for breakfast. It was yummy.
What you need to make homemade peanut butter:
- a food processor or blender that’s good at chopping
- a spatula
- peanuts (out of the shell)
- salt (optional)
Instructions:
Put peanuts (and salt, if desired) into food processor. Process, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container periodically, until a peanut-butter-like consistency has been reached. Depending on the power of your food processor, this should take no more than a couple minutes.
How’s that for an easy recipe? And not only is this tastier than the processed store-bought kind, but I’m much happier knowing it only has one ingredient.
Unfortunately, peanuts are one of the more inferior items to put in a nut butter. They often, due to inappropriate storage or warm and moist soil, contain a fungus that produces a carcinogen called aflatoxin. You should look for a source that tests for aflatoxin and has procedures in place to prevent its development. Wild jungle peanuts have been certified aflatoxin free (but more expensive).
Secondly, peanuts and soybeans are often crop rotated along with cotton, which uses some pretty strong pesticides. So, if they are chosen, organic is always better.
A better choice might be a true nut, like cashews, hazelnuts, sunflower seed, or almonds. But check your almond source, inorganic California almonds might be pasteurized with jet fuel, also a carcinogen.
So simple! So great! Thanks Jul.
I have also tried making peanut butter in my food processor, and it worked just fine. I don’t think it would work as well in a blender, but others can correct me if I’m wrong. You can also make other nut butters in your food processor, but sometimes adding a few drops of extra oil is necessary to get the right texture. (This is the case with almond butter.)
This sounds great. I buy fresh ground from the co-op, but I think I would like to try grinding it up myself. Thanks for the info!