Friday, October 12, 2012

Comfort Food Night II and Homemade Nut Butter

Last night, The Red Herring had their second Vegan Comfort Food Night. It was Mexican food this week and just as good as last week.
 Jackfruit carnitas, pinto beans and rice, cup of salad, and bananas with cinnamon and sugar.
 Tempeh and polenta enchiladas, pinto beans and rice, cup of salad, and bananas with cinnamon and sugar. We all thought the enchiladas were the best, but the the carnitas were also very good.
Extra bananas with cinnamon and sugar because the kids ate all of mine.

I've thought about making my own nut butters for a long time now. I am probably the last blogger to attempt this seemingly easy feat. The great peanut butter recall of 2012 was the fire I needed to get my food processor out. So yesterday morning I dumped raw almonds in the Kichenaid and started processing.
 Okay, I put a jar of raw almonds, homemade vanilla, and dark chocolate hemp powder in the food processor. Even after about 30 minutes and some canola oil, Brazil nuts, cashews (raw and roasted), vegan chocolate chips, sunflower milk, shredded coconut, and ground flax seeds it still looked more like cookie dough than nut butter. I took it from the food processor and put it in the Vitamix with a little more sunflower milk and it never really did get smooth. Sigh.
 The kids took a and taste and promised it was the best nut butter ever, even with the strange consistency.
 Some of them may have even eating it with a spoon.
I have to admit, it was pretty good toasted with our favorite fruit spread. Not a complete fail, but I'll keep working at it. I think I started with too many nuts for my small food processor and next time I'll skip the Kitchenaid and go straight for the Vitamix. Perhaps I put the hemp powder in too soon as well. Whatever went wrong, it is still quite edible and there will be no recall.

1 comment:

x said...

Those jackfruit carnitas look good and I really want to try making nut butters but I am worried they'll be all think and not like the ones in store. Anyway, yours look delish!