How to Make Almond Butter

Why would you need to know how to make almond butter?  After all, you can buy it very easily at the supermarket or even via amazon.  You can pick your pleasure — with a hint of sea salt, lightly sweetened with honey or maple syrup, laced with chocolate, raw or roasted.  But what if you have an intense craving for a spoonful of this creamy, heavenly spread and you enter the kitchen only to see your younger daughter scraping the last bits of it from the jar?  Nooooo!  Don’t panic.  You’re organized.  You have a well-stocked pantry.  Except today.  Drat.

This was my sad reality a few weeks ago.  As my daughter scooped up the last drop of almond butter with a crisp wedge of apple, she very nonchalantly suggested, “Why don’t you just make some?  It’s just almonds, right?”  She had a point.  So I took out my Vitamix which can basically grind rocks into flour (don’t take my word on that one), and threw in some beautiful raw almonds from Organic Pastures.  Didn’t work.  All the ground almonds got stuck on the bottom of the blender.  Shoot.  So I transferred everything into my Cuisinart and with a lot of patience and optimism, I made almond butter!  And it was fantastic!  And I almost ate the whole cup!

We go through a lot of almond butter in this house, more so than any other nut butter.  We like it slathered on toast with jam, sliced bananas or a drizzle of honey.  It makes a high quality breakfast or snack spread on cut apples or stirred into oatmeal.  Almond butter has even found its way into some unexpected places such as flourless chocolate cake or these delicious cookies.  Besides the fact that almond butter is so yummy, it is also pretty good for you, way better than peanut butter (which is high in inflammatory Omega-6 fatty acids and very often contains a toxic mold called aflatoxin – yikes!).  Like all nuts, almonds are high in protein and fiber.  But unlike all nuts, almonds are alkalizing to the blood and cells and contain lots of Vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant.

But here’s the deal with nuts, and I hope this doesn’t send you over the edge:  nuts which haven’t been soaked or lightly roasted (at home) contain enzyme inhibitors which makes these suckers really rough on the digestive system.  In a perfect world, you would either soak the almonds overnight and dry them out in an oven on its lowest setting or in a dehydrator, then process them into almond butter.  Or you can lightly roast them on a baking sheet at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes and then process them into almond butter.  I don’t advise buying already roasted almonds from the supermarket as generally they have been roasted at way too high a temperature, damaging the natural fatty acids and oftentimes cooked with nasty refined oils.  Yuck.  Roasted almond butter tastes different from raw and has a richer, nuttier flavor.  Which brings me to my next tidbit of info about raw almonds.  Guess what?  The USDA allows nut producers to label almonds as RAW even if they’ve been steamed and pasteurized.  So unless you buy your almonds DIRECTLY from the nut grower, like I do from Organic Pastures at the farmer’s market, you’re not getting raw nuts no matter how big the lettering on the package.  Call me crazy, but I think that should be illegal.

If you don’t eat nut butters frequently or if you don’t notice digestive problems after eating nut products, then feel free to do what’s easy for you.  Sometimes when I mention soaking or sprouting in my classes, I here a few sighs and a comment like, “Pamela, please don’t tell us we have to do one more thing.  Isn’t it enough that we’ve gone from Jif to natural, organic peanut butter?”  The answer, of course, is yes.  Yes, it is.  I’m just here to provide food for thought and inspiration to have fun in the kitchen, not cause undo stress over something as scrumptious as almond butter.   If any of you have good internet sources for raw almonds or have fun ways to enjoy almond butter, please share!!

How to Make Almond Butter

Pamela
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Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups almonds either raw, soaked and dehydrated or roasted
  • optional add-ins: a pinch of sea salt a spoonful of pure maple syrup or raw honey, ground flax seed, or a spoonful of raw cacao powder

Instructions
 

  • Place almonds and optional add-ins in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Turn motor on and process, scraping down the sides occasionally until desired consistency is achieved. This can take up to 15 minutes, although roasted almonds take a little less time than raw. Keep in a covered glass container in the refrigerator.
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Brussels sprout leaf salad recipe

I am a sucker for traditions most likely because I grew up with so many, most of which are still alive today.  In my family, Christmas Eve is the biggest night of the year.  Despite the fact that I moved from New York 20 years ago (gasp!), I have never missed it once.  And in all these years, it hasn’t changed much except for the fact that it has grown considerably from a sit-down dinner for 40 to a sit-down dinner for up to 80.  We’re so many people, that we even have a priest come to the house to perform mass in the living room.  Someone still dresses up as Santa and comes down the stairs after dinner to sit with the children who still believe.  There are a few hundred gifts to be given and carols to be sung.  It is truly a magical night.

As far as food goes, it’s the biggest potluck you have ever seen in your life.  Italian Christmas Eve dinners usually revolve around fish and ours is no different.  There are usually several versions of codfish, as well as eel, scallops, mussels, octopus and linguine with clam sauce.  Would it surprise you that my husband’s Christmas Eve tradition is to stop by Sal’s pizza before coming to dinner?  Thankfully I have a mother who loves vegetables as much as I do, but she’s usually the only one who makes any, except for salad.   The long-standing tradition on Christmas Eve is that if you are pregnant, you get a break.  You only need to bring a salad since that is much easier to make than almost anything else.  In years past, my aunts, and now my cousins and my sisters and I have announced our pregnancies by entering the dining room with a salad.  It’s always a very joyous moment.

Because I usually arrive on December 23rd and there are dozens of gifts from Amazon that need immediate wrapping, I usually make a pan of gingerbread to bring and call it a day.  But also my parents are usually monopolizing their small-ish kitchen with eel prepartion and that’s enough for me to stay the heck out of there.  This year I arrive on December 22nd and I have a whole extra 24 hours to play with, so I thought I would make something a little more interesting for Christmas Eve, something that showcases the kind of food I love to share.  I immediately thought of this Brussels sprout leaf salad, which is such a different and delicious way to eat this incredibly nutritious and tasty vegetable that seems to get roasted more than anything else.  I also think it’s just perfect for Christmastime because the green from the leaves and the red from the dried cherries are just so festive.  The blanched leaves do not taste much like brussels sprouts at all, but in fact very neutral.  The salad goes beautifully with turkey, pork, beef and fish.  I would normally not recommend making this salad for an enormous crowd since you have to core each sprout and separate all the leaves for blanching.  But I have it pretty well down to 30 seconds a sprout, with 2 pounds taking me about 20 minutes.  My sisters, my daughters and I can likely tackle 10 pounds of sprouts at the kitchen table and catch up on all the gossip.  We’ll do all the prep the day before, as well as make the vinaigrette and I’ll dress the salad just before serving on Christmas Eve.

So it looks like I’m starting a new tradition, which is that you can bring a salad if you want, especially if you are trying to get your family to eat more healthfully.  But for the record, I am absolutely, positively, most definitely NOT pregnant!

Brussels Sprout Leaf Salad

Pamela, adapted from La Grande Orange Cafe as printed in the Los Angeles Times
5 from 2 votes
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Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • 2 pounds Brussels sprouts washed, cored and leaves separated (discard the core)
  • 1 Tablespoon finely chopped shallot or 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest do not omit this – it makes the salad!
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 Tablespoon raw honey or maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon whole grain or Dijon mustard
  • ½ cup unrefined cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 Tablespoons dried cherries or cranberries
  • 6 Tablespoons whole raw almonds toasted and chopped or sliced

Instructions
 

  • Prepare a large bowl of ice water. In a large pot of salted (about 1 Tablespoon kosher salt) boiling water, blanch the brussels sprout leaves just until they are a vibrant green and barely tender (less than 2 minutes). Drain and immediately submerge in the ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and dry well. You can do this in a salad spinner.
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the shallot, lemon zest and juice, honey, mustard, sea salt and pepper. Continue whisking while slowly drizzling in the olive oil until the oil is emulsified or put everything in a screw-top jar and shake vigorously.
  • In a large serving bowl, toss the Brussels sprout leaves, dried cherries, almonds and just enough vinaigrette to lightly moisten. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Notes

Hazelnuts or pecans can be substituted for the almonds.
Dried blueberries can be substituted for the dried cherries, so can pomegranate seeds.
Diced, roasted beets are a complementary addition.
Shaved Manchego cheese can be added, as done in the original.
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Mixed Greens with Grapes, Gorgonzola (or Roquefort) and Almonds

Did you know that grapes have a season just like every other fruit?  Right now is peak grape season in California and they’re scrumptious.  In a few months, the season is over and the grapes in the supermarkets will have been flown in from all sorts of exotic locales that I would love to visit one day.  But for now, we are enjoying organic, locally-grown grapes while they last.  When the season’s over in a month or two, we’re moving on to pears and persimmons.  I always buy organic since grapes are one of the foods on the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list, which means they’re pretty heavily contaminated when grown conventionally.

My mother-in-law has a favorite salad that she eats regularly at a restaurant in Park City, Utah and she asked me to copy it at home.  The Grape and Gorgonzola Salad she likes is presented kind of fancy, like a tower with the mixed greens on top, definitely not how I arrange salads at home.  Salads are a dish that are usually the easiest to replicate because you know exactly what’s in there and dressings are generally a ratio of 1 part acid to 3-4 parts oil, plus salt and pepper.  Last year I served this for Rosh Hashana lunch instead of the salad with sauteed apples that I always do,  and we loved it so much it was a repeat this year.

I’m not normally a big cheese eater, but this salad is an example of how I do like to eat cheese.  I usually stick to goat or sheep dairy, which is way more digestible than pasteurized cow dairy for most people.  I will take raw cow dairy over pasteurized for the same reason.  And I like to use a cheese with a bold flavor so that you don’t need very much at all to make a statement.  A little goes a long way.  Gorgonzola is a type of blue cheese, more mild than most blues.  The only Gorgonzola I could find at Whole Foods was pasteurized cow, so I selected a piece of genuine Roquefort, a similar blue cheese made from sheep’s milk, which is also rich in lauric acid, a powerful immune boosting fatty acid.  It was a good thing I was in the kitchen this morning when my husband almost threw out the brand new wedge of Roquefort, thinking it was a science experiment gone bad.  All those blue veins kind of threw him off a bit.  He looked at me in disbelief when I told him the mold in the cheese was put there on purpose and it’s actually good for you.  The blue or blue-green mold running through it is called Penicillium roqueforti which is related to the antibiotic Penicillin and helps fight harmful bacteria in the body.  Not something I would recommend to someone who is allergic to mold or is pregnant however, but since I am neither (hooray!), the Roquefort stays.

You may look at this salad and think it seems so simple and boring, but I wouldn’t post it if it were.  You know what it tastes like?  Like all the flavors on a good cheese plate in a salad, which makes me think that you can substitute figs for the grapes and that would be very delicious.  Figs are in season right now, too, I might add.  The grapes are juicy and sweet and pair perfectly with the salty, strong Roquefort and you know how I feel about a little crunch in my salad — thank you, almonds!  But you know where I’m going here — pecans or walnuts for the almonds, any kind of mixed green especially arugula if you’re just cooking for grown ups.  I couldn’t resist a beautiful red-leaf lettuce from JR Organics at the farmer’s market, which I mixed with radicchio for extra color.  Mr. Picky and his younger cousins had their salads with grapes and almonds and got to try the moldy cheese if they wanted to, which they didn’t.  No problem.  I am an experienced mother, who by this point has learned that mold is an acquired taste, after all.

Mixed Greens with Grapes, Gorgonzola (or Roquefort) and Almonds

Pamela
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Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • Dressing: really similar to Everyday Salad Dressing #2
  • 1 small shallot minced
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons raw honey
  • 2 Tablespoons unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
  • 6 Tablespoons unrefined cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
  • 8 ounces of mixed greens
  • 1 cup red grapes halved
  • ¼ cup or less crumbled gorgonzola or other blue cheese
  • ¼ cup sliced almonds

Instructions
 

  • In a small bowl, whisk together shallot, salt, pepper to taste, honey and vinegar. Pour olive oil into the bowl in a steady stream, whisking until emulsified.
  • Mound greens onto a serving platter. Lightly dress the greens with some of the vinaigrette.
  • In a small bowl, lightly coat the grapes with some of the dressing and scatter on top of the greens (that way the grapes won't get buried.) Top the salad with the crumbled cheese and sliced almonds. Drizzle with any remaining dressing, if needed.
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mixed greens with grapes, gorgonzola (or roquefort) and almonds

serves 4

Dressing: (really similar to Everyday Salad Dressing #2)

1 small shallot, minced

½ teaspoon sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons raw honey

2 Tablespoons unpasteurized apple cider vinegar

6 Tablespoons unrefined, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil

 

8 ounces of mixed greens

1 cup red grapes, halved

¼ cup (or less) crumbled gorgonzola or other blue cheese

¼ cup sliced almonds

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together shallot, salt, pepper to taste, honey and vinegar.  Pour olive oil into the bowl in a steady stream, whisking until emulsified.
  2. Mound greens onto a serving platter.  Lightly dress the greens with some of the vinaigrette.
  3. In a small bowl, lightly coat the grapes with some of the dressing and scatter on top of the greens (that way the grapes won’t get buried.)   Top the salad with the crumbled cheese and sliced almonds.  Drizzle with any remaining dressing, if needed.

Do-it-yourself almond milk — 3 versions

You saw from my Alternative Milk Guide that these non-dairy beverages are basically nuts/seeds/grains pureed with water and strained.  Although Mr. Picky drinks raw milk regularly, the rest of us don’t and the non-dairy milk that is used most often in our house is almond milk.  Once I learned how easy it is to make your own extremely delicious, pure almond milk, I have never purchased it off the shelf again.  This is a great, non-messy activity to do with your kids since they can help with the process and it is also really cool for them to see how almonds become almond milk.  It was also really cool for my husband to see how to “milk” an almond because he was having a tough time visualizing it.

I made a basic almond milk from almonds and water the first time around and it was the kind I was familiar with.  But then my friends Baelyn and Shiva told me about The Mylk Man in Venice, California who makes and delivers fresh organic almond milk made from almonds and coconut water.  Genius!  Lastly, my friends at Pressed Juicery in Brentwood make an unbelievable almond milk from almonds, dates, vanilla, sea salt and water.  I had to give both of these a try at home since I’m not always in the city and voila!  Amazing!

We met our friends Jane, Matt and their daughters for dinner the other night at our local YMCA tennis club and Matt happened to mention that he is recently dairy-free and has discovered the joys of almond milk.  Where most couples might go out for an after-dinner drink, I knew where we were going — back to our house for an almond milk taste testing! Everyone was blown away by the coconut water and date-sweetened versions.  We even figured out what to do with the almond pulp I had saved from straining the milk.  Drinks and dessert!

Basic Almond Milk

Pamela
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Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup raw almonds

Instructions
 

  • Soak 1 cup raw almonds in bowl with plenty of room temperature water for 6-8 hours. (Soaking will make the almonds softer and more digestible.)
  • Drain the almonds in a colander and rinse with fresh water. Remove the skins from the almonds by pressing them through your thumb and forefinger.
  • Discard the skins and place the almonds in a blender or Vitamix. Add 3 cups fresh water and blend until the nuts are pulverized.
  • Strain through a fine mesh sieve, cheesecloth or a nut milk bag into a glass bowl. If using a sieve, use a spoon to scrape the almond meal around and allow as much liquid to drain through.
  • Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate, covered for up to 4 days. Add the remaining pulp, sweetened with honey or maple syrup, to hot cereal, granola or fruit.
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almond milk with coconut water

Soak almonds in regular water, but use coconut water to blend with the skinned almonds.

 

 

almond milk sweetened with dates

Follow directions for basic almond milk, but blend skinned almonds with water and 8 pitted dates.  You can add a drop of vanilla and sea salt, if you like, but it is delicious just like this.  You don’t need to sweeten the remaining pulp if you choose to eat it since it is already sweet from the dates.