This nut butter is my go-to comfort food! As a kid I loved chocolate hazelnut spread—less for the chocolate than that roasty, nutty hazelnut flavour! As an adult, spreading a little hazelnut butter on a piece of toast comes pretty close to my childhood memories of the Italian and Croatian pastries we often had. With the warming addition of cardamom, this hazelnut butter is the very definition of comfort!
Like most nuts, hazelnuts are an excellent snack as they’re a good source of healthy fats and contain protein and fibre, which allow for satiation and blood sugar balance. Hazelnuts are rich in free radical-fighting antioxidants and have a very high amount of proanthocyanidins, a polyphenol also found in red wine and chocolate. Further, studies have shown that hazelnuts may be effective in improving insulin sensitivity, may improve some cardiovascular risk biomarkers, and increase beneficial HDL cholesterol while decreasing harmful LDL.
While hazelnuts do contain fats, a clinical trial recently published in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity found that moderate consumption of hazelnuts was excellent for health and didn’t appear to lead to weight gain.1In a nutshell? Go ahead and get nut-cracking!
Go nutty with this recipe! Next-level your nut butter with some cocoa powder, a dash or two of vanilla, and a little coconut sugar for a healthier version of that popular commercial indulgent spread or try subbing some of the hazelnuts for almonds for a slightly milder flavour!
Cardmom Hazelnut Butter recipe
Check out Dr. Heidi's Arame Avocado Kale Salad with Sesame Vinaigrette for more delicious ways to get healthy fats into everyone's diet!
Ingredients
- 3 cups hazelnuts
- ½-1 tsp ground cardamom
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Roast hazelnuts in a 350°F oven until fragrant, about 10-15 minutes.
- Let cool for 5 minutes, then dump nuts into a clean tea towel and rub vigorously to remove skins.
- Add nuts to a high-speed blender in intervals, taking breaks every few minutes to scrape down the sides and to ensure you don’t overheat the machine.
- Once blended to desired smoothness, add cardamom and salt and process for a few seconds more, until combined. Transfer hazelnut butter to a glass container and refrigerate. Will keep in fridge for 1-2 months.
