If you’re stuck in a peanut butter rut, check out out rich, creamy almond butter as an option. Packed with protein, calcium, and vitamin E, it’s a healthy—and delicious—way to get nuts into your diet. But you can do much more than slather it on toast. We’ve got three exciting ideas to transform any jar of almond butter into something unexpected.
Hear us out on this one. Almond butter has a more mellow flavor than peanut butter (which we also love!). So, turning it into a sauce for noodles (much like a peanut sauce) is a no-brainer. It has a smooth consistency with a mellow flavor that goes with nearly any other ingredient, from veggies to chicken to tofu.
Try whisking almond butter with minced garlic, grated ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and toasted sesame oil. Or blend it with water, lime juice, chipotle powder, garlic, honey, and salt for an almond-chipotle sauce with a kick. It works beautifully over pasta or as a dressing for a slaw.
Out of almond milk but reeeeeeeeally want some for a smoothie or oats? Blend a spoonful of almond butter into water until you reach the consistency you’re looking for. We can’t take total credit for this one—our friend Ksinia over at Breakfast Criminals shared this on her Instagram recently and we loved it.
We love making homemade hot cocoa using cocoa or cacao powder, maple syrup, and cashew or almond milk. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, we stirred almond butter into our creation and did a total taste bud swoon: rich, sweet perfection.
Photo credit: Paul Delmont