Homemade Cashew Nut Butter (no added oil)
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This Homemade Cashew Nut Butter couldn't be easier. It's a kitchen staple which you need to have in your larder and will take you mere minutes to make. Creamy delicious and all natural, made with 100% cashews and that's it! No extra oil needed.
It's easy to make cashew butter at home using just one ingredient (guess which one). We are not reinventing the wheel with this recipe. It’s a tried, tested and truly natural, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, salt-free and oil-free nut butter. However, it's definitely worth repeating here as it's used in so many of my recipes and we'll perfect the easy stages of blending cashews into silky nut butter. Plus storage tips, so many uses and links to recipes. I'll give you flavour inspiration for baking, smoothies, dinner ideas and toast!
Cashew butter is such a valued ingredient in my larder and although it’s delicious as a nut butter spread in its own right it’s mild flavour and creamy texture means it does so much more than give you great breakfast toast.
I prefer to make cashew butter myself at home as although you can easily buy it in health food shops (it’s not as available in regular supermarkets) I find the gentle flavour of homemade much more versatile. Ready-made nut butters can often use roasted nuts or add salt which makes its use more limited.
Classic Nut Butter: No Gimmicks
This recipe here is for a classic nut butter, there are no fancy spices and it isn't married with any other ingredients with it in at the end. There isn't even any salt. However, you can add 1 teaspoon into the blender if you like. This is because Cashew Nut Butter makes an excellent base ingredient.
If tomorrow you decide you would like celery sticks smeared with thai spiced cashew butter then just toast the thai spices and include them at that stage.
This way you don’t need a million differently flavoured nut butters living in your larder. Tell me you don't already have almond butter and peanut butter clamouring for space.
Why You’ll Love Homemade Cashew Butter
- Ultra creamy (so much more than shop bought).
- Simple recipe – just one ingredient.
- No added flavour or salt.
- Very useful for flourless / dairy-free / vegan baking.
- Can be a great base for other flavours so very customisable.
Cashew Butter vs Peanut Butter vs Almond Butter
Cashew butter is an essential part of the nut butter trio I keep stocked in my larder.
Peanut butter has the most distinctive flavour of all - of which I am the biggest fan by the way. It’s the one I use the most for spreading. When you use it in recipes though the peanut butter flavour will override everything.
Almond butter is a great direct alternative to peanut butter for spreading. It also has a distinctive flavour, but one that will sit with other flavours rather than overriding them.
Cashew butter though is a lot more amenable to other flavours so can be a great texture / structure base for vegan or dairy-free recipes. The mild cashew flavour can get lost in the mix. So it’s great for adding creaminess to smoothies and sauces and structure for bakes without interfering with your main flavours.
Ingredients & Equipment Needed
Unsalted raw cashews. You want your cashews just shelled, not blanched, not roasted, not salted.
Food processor. I do prefer using a food processor rather than a blender as I like to make cashew butter in small batches (300g) and that’s often too few to make successfully in the blender. Nut butters can go rancid if not used quickly (I like to use in under a month) so smaller batches ensure you can use the whole batch.
How To Make Cashew Butter
If on the off chance you have never thought to make your own nut butter you will be interested to hear that it is also perhaps one of the easiest recipes you'll have met. All you need are 3 things:
- unsalted cashews
- a food processor
- 12 minutes
The recipe below in the recipe card will simply state that you rip open your bag of cashews, throw them into the processor then press on. It’s fascinating to watch the cashews transform in 12 minutes, every so often giving them a bit of a scrape around so it all gets processed evenly. In no time at all you will have a sweet, smooth and creamy nut butter.
You need patience through through the following stages:
- Whole nuts
- Rubbly crumb
- Rough paste
- Smooth butter
- Whipped creamy confection.
Tips & Troubleshooting
You do need a powerful food processor to make nut butter as it will be on for a long time – 12-15 minutes. The motor will get warm but will be fine if your machine is in good working order.
Be patient during the mixing stage. You will need to attend to it every three minutes or so just to scrape down the sides and the nooks and crannies so the nuts are being processed evenly.
Ultra creamy. You are looking for a gentle butter that is whipped into a creamy confection. This isn’t grainy or full of nut roughage but smooth and light as air. You can achieve this by lengthening the time in the food processor.
If you will mainly be using this cashew butter as a spread then it will benefit from ½ teaspoon sea salt to bring it to life.
If you wanted to add flavouring extracts or spices then add them during the last stage when the cashews have turned into the smooth butter and are about to be whipped into its creamy confection.
The cashew butter will naturally be quite warm after being whipped up for this long. Allow it to cool before decanting into an airtight container and storing.
Flavour Variations
Salted Vanilla Cashew Butter. Just add ½ teaspoon of sea salt and 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract.
Chocolate Cashew Butter. Add 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon maple syrup and ⅛ teaspoon sea salt.
Cinnamon & Maple. Add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 2 tablespoons maple syrup.
Storing
It’s best to store cashew butter in a cool dark place in an airtight container. It will last up to 2-4 weeks but after than it might go rancid. You’ll know if it’s rancid as its oils will start separating and it will smell and taste sub-optimal.
You can store in the fridge if you live in a warmer climate or in the summer months but the coolness of the environment will stiffen the nut butter so it won’t be as creamy.
Cashew Butter Uses
Breakfast Ideas
- Add to smoothies for added protein and creaminess.
- Spread onto toast, crumpets or English muffins.
- Mix into porridge, chocolate porridge, bircher muesli.
- Baked into granola (try swapping out the almond butter in this Kid Friendly Granola for cashew butter).
- Used to make a creamy No-Oat Porridge. Stir together 4 tablespoons apple butter, 4 tablespoons coconut milk and 2 tablespoons cashew butter. Thick, creamy and delicious.
Baking Recipes
- Flourless Cashew Butter Cookies.
- Healthy Banana Flapjacks.
- Cashew Butter Blondies (recipe to come).
- Dairy-Free / Vegan Cashew Buttercream (recipe to come).
Snacking
- Added to protein balls like in these Chocolate Tahini Energy Balls.
- Try it as one of the main ingredients in this Happiness Bread.
- Spread over banana bread (especially over this easy gluten and dairy-free banana oat bread!)
- Made into a fruit dip. Just whisk into yoghurt, a pinch of cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup. So good - especially with apple slices.
Savoury Uses
- Creamy Cashew Satay Sauce.
- Creamy Cashew Salad Dressing.
- Cashew Butter Noodles. Stir together 60g cashew butter, 60g hoisin sauce (try this homemade Blackberry Hoisin Sauce which is gluten-free and vegan), juice of ½ lime and 50g coconut milk until smooth. Stir into warm rice noodles for an excellent easy one bowl dinner.
FAQs
I wouldn’t recommend making nut butter without a food processor. I have tried in my Vitamix blender but I find it a lot more finickity as it tends to clog up at the bottom of the blender. Use the main food processor bowl rather than a smaller insert which isn’t always as powerful.
It’s unnecessary to add oil to make cashew butter. You can add extra virgin olive oil or a flavoured oil to make a particular flavour but for regular cashew butter all you need are the cashews.
This homemade cashew butter is deliberately bland. We are not roasting the nuts prior to blending or adding extra salt or flavourings. Shop bought nut butters are designed for spreading so will often toast the nuts or add salt to amp up the flavour. Here you can certainly do the same thing but I like to keep it simple so it can be used as a baking ingredients. Salt can always be added afterwards.
More Cashew Recipes You'll Love
This cashew milk recipe is the quickest and easiest homemade nut milk as you don't need to wait ages for the cashews to soak and you don't need to strain the finished milk through a nut milk bag.
This Cashew Cream recipe is an absolutely heavenly vegan alternative to whipped cream or yoghurt and is so versatile that you can serve it with dessert or even breakfast.
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Homemade Cashew Nut Butter
Ingredients
- 300 g raw cashews
Instructions
- Pour the cashews into your food processor and turn it on.
- Keep a light eye on the processor, giving the mixture a scrape around every so often.
- If you would like a very smooth and creamy nut butter it will take about 12 minutes, if you would like something a bit more robust then it might be to your liking at about 9 minutes, but check, taste and decide for yourself.
Notes
- This recipe makes 300g cashew butter. This is about 20 servings if you are using 15g per serving.
- Cashew Butter is best stored in a cool dark place for up to 4 weeks.
- If you are just using cashew butter as a spread then it will benefit from a little sea salt. ½ - 1 teaspoon depending on your tastes.
- Add any salt or flavourings during the last couple of minutes of processing.
Hi, I made this but added a small amount of turmeric, a squeeze of lemon juice, a grind of black pepper and some Celtic marsh sea salt, I really enjoyed it ( I’m trying anti inflammatory recipes hence the turmeric and black pepper) I stored it in a glass jar and put it in the cupboard as recommended, however I went to use it today and it had exploded - could it be that the extras I added fermented? I am on instagram ( finding_my_way_lifestyle) and posted what I did but obviously need to update with more information, and give your account a mention
Oh no—sorry that happened! I confess I hadn't heard of this happening before and I've not experienced it. But after a bit of research I found out that if there's any moisture (from soaked nuts, sweeteners, or flavourings), it can cause fermentation, which builds pressure in a sealed jar and can lead to an explosion. I guess that makes sense and as you say that's what must have happened. It’s best to let the nut butter cool completely and leave a bit of headspace in the jar. You can choose to store it in the fridge to be safe.
In my Bosch processor it took just over 20 minutes, including very frequent scraping down the sides and loosening the 'butter' stuck at the bottom but, oh joy, it finally merged into a cohesive mass so the patience was worth it. I've never bought cashew butter so can only compare with homemade almond butter which was much 'oilier' than this. I'm going ot make the biscuits now for my gf daughter
I have a Magimix so I have to say it didn't take as long as 20 minutes but I'm glad you got there in the end. I'd love to know how the cookies worked out!