Easy Blender Cashew Nut Butter

Easy Blender Cashew Butter

The new alternative to Peanut Butter…

Notes:

Any roasted cashews will work!

I highly recommend using unsalted raw

cashews so you can roast them and  better

control the amount of salt,

but you must roast the cashews to make

cashew butter.

How To Make Easy Blender Cashew Butter

Yields: about 1 cup + 2 tablespoons

This thick and creamy nut butter is a great alternative

for peanut butter! Try Cashew Butter and Fruit spread!

Use as an alternative in recipes that call for any nut

butter, almond butter or  peanut butter!

INGREDIENTS

2 cups (240g) roasted cashews, lightly salted

½ tsp salt, or to taste

See How to Roast Cashews (below)

Add the roasted cashews to a high-speed blender, and blend

on low for 8-10 minutes or until creamy, scraping down the

sides with a spatula as necessary. Add the salt, and

blend for 20-30 seconds. Transfer to a jar or airtight

container, and store in the refrigerator.

Store the jar in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.

How to roast your own nuts

Roasting nuts is a step that some cooks skip,

which is unfortunate because this simple effort

can really bump a dish (or a cookie!) from good

to amazing.

Roasting nuts deepens their flavor, making them

even more nutty and complex.

It also gives them a crisper texture.

Preheat oven and spread nuts on trays. Preheat

oven to 350°F. Spread the nuts

in an even layer on the baking sheet. I often use a

cake tin for smaller amounts as

the higher sides allow me to shake the the pan to evenly distribute them.

Place pan in oven. Remove after 5 minutes and stir so that the outer nuts are moved

towards the middle and the middle nuts towards the edges. If you are using a cake

tin, you can gently shake it to redistribute the nuts.

Return to the oven.

Check for doneness again after 3 minutes. You are

looking for the color to be a

few shades darker. They should start to smell nutty and you might hear them

crackling. Return to the oven if needed and check

again after another 3 minutes.

If they need longer, give another stir.

Nuts rarely take longer than 15 minutes to roast,

usually 8 to 12 minutes.

Check and Stir. It is important to check the nuts

frequently while they roast and to stir them often.

Most ovens have hot spots, so you want to move

the nuts around for even roasting. I often focus

on moving the nuts from the edges,

which can brown sooner than the nuts in the

middle.

Roasting nuts can be a little tricky as they can

go from almost done to overdone in less than

a minute.

You are also dealing with several diverse pieces, some which

seem to be roasting faster than others. And they don’t

spend a lot of time in the oven — usually not more than 15 minutes

Dry Roasting vs Roasting with Oil: Roasting nuts with a

touch of oil is a really nice way to add flavor and

crispness. I especially like to match the nut with the oil and have

small jars of almond and walnut oil in my refrigerator for that

purpose. A neutral oil such as grapeseed oil is fine, too. .

But it’s not always appropriate to roast nuts with oil, especially

when they are being used in a baking as the oil does increase

their oiliness and can throw off the recipe. I roast nuts in oil when

I am adding them to a salad, for instance, when

they will be used as a garnish, or when I want

to serve them with an aperitif.  In the

photos above, I roast the walnuts dry.

Add cashew butter to breakfast

in soy or rice milk shakes to up their protein.

content (a quarter-cup of cashews provides over 5 grams of protein) and
give them a creamy nutty taste.

Make a wonderful cashew sauce
In a saucepan over low-medium heat, mix cashew butter with some soy sauce,
a pinch of cayenne pepper, garlic, ginger and water to make a wonderful sauce
for fish, vegetables, tofu or rice.