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Here’s how to make nut butter at home! It’s easy to make, saves money, and comes out creamy and delicious. You can use any nuts you have on hand!

Toast with almond butter
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Ever made your own nut butter? Because wow, is it tasty! It’s so easy to make and saves money versus buying it at the store. Even better: you can use this recipe to use up any combination of leftover nuts in your pantry! Anyone else have a pantry problem with little containers of different almonds and cashews or varying ages? (Yep, we do.) Here’s our solution: make homemade nut butter! It comes out seriously creamy and it’s full of plant based protein. Here’s how to make it!

Nut butter

What nuts to use in nut butter?

This nut butter came to be as an idea from my mother in law as a solution to our pantry overflow. Yes, Alex’s mom was cleaning out our pantry (she is a saint!) and found a million different containers and bags with leftover nuts. Slivered almonds, unsalted pecans, salted cashews, pistachios… You two need to make a nut butter with all of these! she laughed. Well, we finally took her seriously: and we’re so glad we did!

You can use really any nut in this nut butter recipe. Here are some ideas of nuts to use:

  • Almonds
  • Pecans
  • Walnuts
  • Cashews (add a nice sweetness)
  • Pistachios
  • Hazelnuts
  • Macadamia nuts
  • Peanuts

Using a mix of nuts adds complexity!

In our nut butter, we used a mix of ⅓ each almonds, walnuts, and cashews! To add complexity to the flavor, it’s nice to have a mix of at least two types of nuts. But of course, you could use just one nut to make 100% almond butter, cashew butter or pecan butter. Cashews add a lovely sweetness to the butter, so we like having them in the mixture if at all possible. (We always have them on hand for making our favorite cashew recipes...)

Another way to add complexity? Add a few handfuls of toasted coconut! Alex and I tried this and it adds an irresistible wow factor.

Pecans, almonds and cashews

How to make nut butter

There are literally two steps to making this creamy spread! Here’s how to make nut butter (with any sort of nuts you’d like):

  • Roast! Roasting the nuts serves two purposes: it brings out the flavor, and heating the nuts helps them to break down when blending. Roast the nuts on a baking sheet at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes.
  • Blend! Then, blend the nuts in a food processor until smooth and creamy! The exact timing depends on the specific types of nuts, how long you’ve had them, and the strength of your food processor. It should take between 5 and 10 minutes!
how to make nut butter

Need a food processor?

You’ll need a food processor for this recipe! If you don’t have one already, here’s the one we recommend. You can use it for anything from homemade hummus to basil pesto to veggie meatballs. We use ours all the time!

Customizing the flavor!

Once you’ve blended up your nut butter, all it will need is a little salt for flavor. If you’re using already salted nuts that you’ve found in your pantry, salt it to taste. If you’re using raw nuts, a guideline for a starting point is we used ¼ teaspoon kosher salt. You want the flavor to pop but not taste salty!

The combination we used of nuts (almonds, cashews and walnuts) was so flavorful that it didn’t need anything more! If you’d like you can add a bit of cinnamon or other spice and blend again. But be careful: don’t add maple syrup or honey or the nut butter will seize up and become very thick!

nut butter recipe

How to serve it!

You probably have lots of ideas on how to serve nut butter! Honestly, one of the very best taste treats in the world is nut butter with a honey drizzle and a little sea salt. (Right?) Here are all our best ideas:

Nut butter

More nut butter recipes

Let’s not stop at here! There are lots of other nut butter recipes to try. Here are our favorites that we make on the regular:

  • Peanut Butter The classic! It comes out ultra creamy and has no added sugar or oils.
  • Almond Butter Thick and creamy, it’s perfect for adding protein to smoothies and toast.
  • Cashew Butter Homemade cashew butter is creamy, sweet and delicious! All you need is cashews and salt.
  • Pistachio Butter A fun alternative nut butter, it’s creamy and green.
  • Walnut Butter Cinnamon scented, it’s creamy with a hint of sweet.

This nut butter recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, vegan, and dairy-free.

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Nut butter

Nut Butter (How to Make it Homemade!)


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5 from 2 reviews

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 1 cup 1x
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Description

Here’s how to make nut butter at home! It’s easy to make, saves money, and comes out creamy and delicious. You can use any nuts you have on hand!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cups raw nuts of any kind (or 1/3 each almonds, cashews and walnuts)*
  • Kosher salt to taste**
  • Grapeseed or canola oil, as necessary (1 tablespoon)
  • Optional add in: Toasted coconut

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Spread the nuts out onto a rimmed baking sheet. Toast for 20 to 25 minutes, until fragrant and toasted. Allow to cool 2 to 3 minutes on tray.
  3. Add to food processor while warm and process 4 to 12 minutes until creamy, scraping down the sides as necessary (the exact timing depends on your food processor and the age and type of the nuts). If at several minutes the nuts are very dry and crumbly, add up to a tablespoon of oil while processing.
  4. When creamy, add kosher salt to taste (we add ¼ teaspoon for unsalted nuts). Move the nut butter to a jar and store refrigerated for up to 4 weeks.

Notes

*You can use any nuts; we used about ⅓ each raw walnuts, almonds and cashews. If some of the nuts you have on hand are already roasted, add them to the baking sheet in the last few minutes (or bake them just a few minutes), since heating them helps with the blending. **The amount of salt will add based on the nuts you have on hand. If you use salted nuts, taste and add enough so the flavor pops. We use ¼ teaspoon kosher salt with unsalted nuts.

  • Category: Essentials
  • Method: Blended
  • Cuisine: Vegan

About the authors

Sonja & Alex

Hi, we’re Alex and Sonja Overhiser, married cookbook authors, food bloggers, and recipe developers. We founded A Couple Cooks to share fresh, seasonal recipes and the joy of cooking! Our recipes are made by two real people and work every time.

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9 Comments

  1. Shawn W says:

    Hi! Do you think this would work in place of hazelnut spread in baked pastries?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      I’m not sure, we’ve never tried baking it.

  2. Rachel says:

    Hi there, thanks for this ~ it looks fabulous and I’m going to try it out today! Is refrigeration going to solidify the nut butter?? What’s the unrefrigerated shelf life?

    1. Sonja Overhiser says:

      Refrigeration does make it more solid! If you’d like, you can store in a cool dark place (pantry) for 1 month.

  3. Ella says:

    Honey is not vegan!!! Using honey on this would defeat the purpose of it being vegan, but other than that seems like a simple and good recipe!

    1. Roger says:

      they don’t suggest using honey, they actually say DON’T use honey or maple syrup, it’s the only reference in the recipe.

      1. William nutmeg says:

        They actually do recommend using this spread with honey on their homemade bread recipe. THATS NOT VEGAN! What about the poor bees, slaving away just so some fat human can eat ALL THEIR HONEY?!?!






        1. Earle says:

          😴😴😴

    2. Rachel says:

      Find something productive to do with your time, Ella, rather than make yourself look stupid here. (A.k.a. Get a Life) Have a beautiful day!