A delicious and creamy homemade cashew butter with only two ingredients in around 20-minutes. Make it from scratch and you can have it as smooth, salty or plain as you like.
Serve your cashew butter on bread, simple sweet potato toast with berries, or drizzle over homemade granola.
Things To Love About This Recipe
Why make your own nut butter? Sure, you can pop down the street and buy a jar but homemade nut butter is just so much tastier. If you're not sure how to make it, let me tell you; it's dead easy and so worth the time. This dreamy butter is:
- cheaper than store bought
- adaptable to your taste
- quick and easy with only 2-ingredients
- naturally gluten-free and
- so delicious and creamy.
Are you convinced? Great. Let's do this.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Raw cashews. This recipe uses raw cashews but you can skip a step and buy roasted cashews. These will often be salted so you won't need to add salt. I prefer to roast my own cashews so I can control the salt levels.
Salt. totally optional!
Coconut oil. A teaspoon of coconut oil helps create a smoother cashew butter. I've substituted in sunflower oil too and it worked fine. Any neutral oil will work.
How To Make Cashew Butter
You'll find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
To prepare. Add the cashews to a lined baking tray and pop them in the oven for 10-minutes. Keep an eye on them to ensure they don't burn. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool for another 10-minutes.
Step 1. Add the cooled cashews to a food processor and process for 5-minutes.
Step 2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue processing for another 3 to 5 minutes until the mixture is beginning to become fluid (see image 3).
Step 3. Add the softened coconut oil or sunflower oil and salt and continue processing.
Step 4. Process for another 5-minutes (scraping down the sides as needed) until the butter is smooth and thick.
So, there you have it. Homemade cashew butter in around under 20-minutes. It's super simple and less fuss than running up to the store. Enjoy, x
Recipe Tips
Tip 1. While you can make cashew butter in a blender, a processor is easier. You don't have to stop to scrape the bowl down as often and a processor just seems to make shorter work of the process.
Tip 2. You can totally make homemade cashew butter without adding oil but it does help the processing along a little and creates an extra creamy nut butter.
Tip 3. This recipe uses raw cashews but you can save time by simply using store-bought pre-roasted, salted cashews. While you can't control how salty your end butter will be, it will save you some time.
FAQs
Homemade cashew butter will keep in a sealed container in a cool pantry for up to 2 months. You can also store it in the fridge for 4 to 6 months. See this article from HuffPost Australia about storing nut butters.
It can, yes. Nut butter that has gone rancid will change colour to a deeper shade and the butter portion will harden up and separate from the oil. The true test is to smell it. Rancid nuts and nut butter has a metallic smell.
Nuts are a great source of protein and good fats but like most things, cashew butter is best served in moderation. While it doesn’t contain omega-3 fatty acids, cashew butter is a great source of monounsaturated fatty acids, essential amino acids, and magnesium. Cashew butter is lower in protein than both peanut and almond butter but it is also slightly lower in fat than other nut butters.
Not only is cashew butter Whole30 compliant, it is also one of the best nut butters for Whole30 devotees. Source: Life Health HQ
Use your homemade nut butter with these recipes!
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Make This Recipe
How To Make Cashew Butter
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 3 cups raw cashews
- 1 tablespoon softened coconut oil or sunflower oil optional
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 177°C (350°F).
- Add the cashews to a lined baking tray and pop them in the oven for 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them to ensure they don't burn, giving the tray a shake as needed.
- Remove the cashews from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes.
- Add the roasted cashews to a food processor and process for 5 minutes before stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Continue processing until the butter is beginning to liquify a little. Add the oil and salt and continue processing until the butter is smooth and thick. This may take around 10-minutes depending on your machine.
- Transfer the cashew butter to a sealed jar or container and store in a cool pantry for up to 2 months or in the refrigerator for around 4 months.
Fanni says
Hello! Would this work with activated cashew nuts (soaked and dehydrated) ?
Thanks 🙂
Amanda says
Hi Fanni, I haven't used them myself but I am seeing recipes for activated almond butter so I think you can go ahead and use the activated cashews 🙂
Stewarts spiked says
Wow Loved it. Thanks for posting
Amanda says
Fantastic! It's so easy, right?