Raw Walnut And Cacao Spread Recipe: A Magnesium-rich Nutella Alternative

Who loves Nutella? Pretty much everyone, right? But it’s clear that what is essentially chocolate icing, marketed for breakfast, is not ideal.

It’s increasingly tricky to choose the right spreads:

Peanut butter is just not that nutritious
The ‘school-friendly’, kid-oriented soy nut and sunflower seed butters are highly-processed and full of sugar
Almond butter is getting very pricey – especially raw almond butter, which is healthiest

In this easy, home-made spread you have all the goodness of raw nuts, with the added antioxidants and magnesium of cacao. Zero sugar, no dairy, nothing artificial.

It’s relatively inexpensive to make this and other nut butters at home. If you have a decent food processor, you can get good results, but you may need to add a bit of coconut oil, as I have here. The flavour of the coconut oil is great, and unrefined coconut oil is more easily digested and used as energy than vegetable oil.

You can try this recipe with any type of nut. I chose walnuts because their soft texture makes these nutritious nuts easy to blend, even raw. They are really buttery – and a good source of magnesium!

If tree nuts are an issue in your house, take a shortcut and buy a container of nut-free spread. I like sunflower seed butter and tahini, personally. If you’re really a from-scratch kinda cook, grind up those seeds yourself. You just might need an extra dollop of oil as seeds don’t release their oils as readily.

Raw Walnut-Cacao Spread

1 c. raw waluts halves and pieces
1 Tbs. cacao powder
1 Tbs. unrefined coconut oil
1 tsp. pure vanilla
20 drops liquid stevia*
Sprinkle/pinch sea salt

Instructions:

Add all ingredients to a small, high-powered food processor.
Blend, stirring as required, until the mixture is smooth.
Refrigerate.

* Note: stevia comes in many different formulations, liquid and powdered, some more concentrated than others. Whatever brand you use, add it to taste, building gradually.

There it is! A spread that nourishes and satisfies. It’s convincingly sweet and smooth enough that you may even convert those holdouts clinging to their jars of Nutella.

Wonder what it looks like? My photo of the finished product just didn’t turn out very well – food photography is an art!

It looks like a rich, thick, dark brown icing. Not glossy and silky smooth like Nutella, but substantial – like it would hold up a spoon. Not that I’ve been eating it by the spoonful…