Zero Waste Homemade Peanut Butter
Looking for healthier peanut butter but not interested in the high-maintenance natural options from the grocery store? Try making your own single-ingredient peanut butter at home. It’s delicious, low maintenance, and zero waste!
Peanut butter and I kind of have ‘a thing’. Peanut butter and I go way… I mean way, way back… to when I was about twelve.
Starting in seventh grade and every school day for the next six years, I ate a peanut butter sandwich with a glass of milk. As you might be able to tell, I was a rather picky eater. So I fell back on the comfortable staple of creamy, gooey peanut butter between two slices of white bread, washed down with a glass of 2% milk. That was it. Lunch for over half a decade.
When I was pregnant with each of my boys, I joked that I wanted a return policy. Not the kind where you return babies who don’t sleep or babies who cry for days on end. I just wanted a return policy for a baby with peanut allergies, because I couldn’t fathom living without my peanut butter. Of course I was kidding, and I feel for all the parents dealing with allergies. But it gives you some insight into my connection with the sticky, gooey goodness.
High Maintenance Natural Peanut Butter
Over the years, I tried many natural peanut butters and hated the work required to use them. Keep them refrigerated. Let them sit out before using to soften up. Stir together with all your muscles because the ingredients separated. Peanut butter isn’t supposed to be fussy. It’s a staple because it’s simple!
Then M suggested we get this Vitamix. We both resisted for years thinking we wouldn’t use it. We already had a blender, a Magic Bullet, and a food processor. Wasn’t that enough? But last December we decided to bite the bullet and invest in a Vitamix. When it comes to low waste food preparation and making wholesome food for real fresh ingredients, the Vitamix is my jam.
Simple Homemade Peanut Butter In Our Vitamix
After grabbing a gigantic bag of peanuts from the bulk section at the grocery store, I brought them home and tossed them in the Vitamix with no other ingredients. With little more than the touch of a button and some patience, I blended them into creamy, gooey peanut butter goodness.
So many store-bought peanut butter options include oils, extra salt, sugar, and sometimes preservatives. Our Vitamix peanut butter, made with just peanuts, lives in our fridge and has nothing from which to separate. It is always soft and creamy enough to spread on bread, so there is no waiting for the peanut butter to soften.
I’ve passed my peanut butter affection on to my older son. He’s an equally picky eater, giving me a taste of my own medicine. When he’s in school, he also eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch almost every day at school. I steer clear from jelly religiously because it’s not my jam (you like that pun?), but we both relish in a tasty consistent comfortable lunch every day. Needless to say, we still go through lots of peanut butter in our house.
I mix up a fresh batch of homemade peanut butter in the Vitamix about once every two to three weeks. We’ve had no issues with the peanut butter going bad during that time. If you don’t eat a ton of peanut butter, you may benefit from making this in smaller batches than I’ve included in the recipe below.
My affinity for peanut butter hasn’t waned since my middle and high school days. Leave your favorite peanut butter recipes in the comments, because clearly I have a thing for peanut butter. And I’m always happy to find more ways to put our zero waste homemade peanut butter to good use.
Homemade Peanut Butter
Ingredients
- 2 cups of peanuts (I use roasted, salted but any peanuts will do. If you choose unsalted peanuts, that will change the flavor but you can add a bit of salt to the mixture if you desire.)
Instructions
- Blend peanuts in the Vitamix, starting at level 3 or 4 and working up as the peanuts breakdown. Mix until you reach your desired consistency. It usually takes us about 2 - 3 minutes to get creamy peanut butter.
- Store in a jar in the fridge and enjoy!
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