‘Crispy’ Activated Nut Butter

‘Crispy’ Activated Nut Butter

While super nutritious, like grains and legumes, nuts contain substances that interfere with the body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Just as soaking, sprouting or fermenting grains reduces their anti-nutrient content and makes them more beneficial to the body, soaking nuts also improves their nutrition. Like grains, raw nuts contain fairly high levels of phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors. Both are helpful for the plants, but less so for anyone who eats them. Phytic acid helps protect the nut (or seed) until proper growing conditions are present. These enzyme inhibitors can cause potential problems in humans, though, by binding to nutrients - contributing to nutrient deficiencies and irritation of the digestive tract. And if you have a child with Hirschprung’s, you’ll agree nobody needs more of that. This relatively simple step is especially important for young children - who are still developing the enzymes to break down these foods. His Hirschprung’s means we are always keen to do all we can to increase digestibility and nutrient absorption for Finn.

Soaking and sprouting have been done for centuries by our ancestors and traditional cultures, but they’re rarely done in large-scale production. While it takes some time, it is relatively simple and inexpensive to do at home. Warm water neutralizes many of the enzyme inhibitors and increases the bioavailability of many nutrients - especially B vitamins. The salt helps activate enzymes that deactivate the enzyme inhibitors present in nuts - so don’t skip it.

Dehydrating them before eating makes the soaked nuts ‘crispy’ again, and they can be eaten whole like this or used in recipes that call for nut butter. This can be used in loads of ways. A few favourite snacks here are Medjool dates stuffed with nut butter, as well as sliced apple ring nut butter sandwiches.

If you make your own nut milk, the best time to use the nuts is right after soaking - while soft. Don’t dehydrate the nuts if you’ll be making milk from them.

Ingredients (makes 2 jars)

3 cups / 400g raw nuts

1/2 teaspoon sea salt or pink Himalayan salt (for soaking)

6 cups / 1.5 litre warm water for soaking

1/2 teaspoon salt to taste

Instructions

Place warm water into a bowl lard enough to hold all the nuts and water. Stir in the salt and let it dissolve. Pour in the nuts, making sure they are well covered by water. Leave to soak for at least 8 hours, or overnight.

Drain and rinse nuts well.

Dehydrate nuts. Ideally, in a dehydrator for 8-12 hours at 45C, until crispy and completely dry. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can use an oven set to the lowest possible temperature. Bake with the oven door ajar for 2-3 hours until crispy and completely dry. Toss every hour or so. You will need to make sure that whatever method you use, the nuts are completely dry before using for your nut butter - to reduce the risk of mold caused by moisture remaining.

Once nuts are crispy, dry and still warm ideally, place into a food processor or high-powered blender. I prefer to use a food processor (I use a Magimix), but blenders work well too. Process the nuts for a few minutes then stop to scrape them down the sides. Repeat a number of times, until a liquid nut butter is formed. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt during the final blend for salted nut butter.

If you don’t have a high-powered blender, add a few tablespoons of cold-pressed oil once the nuts are broken down to a dust-like texture to help the butter along. This will speed up the process and protect your blender from damage.

Store the nut butter in well-sealed jars. Store in the fridge. Will keep for 2 weeks. Halve the recipe if you don’t think you will use it all within this time.

Variations: Add 1 tablespoon maple syrup during the final blend for a sweeter nut butter. Adding 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla powder also works well.