cashew cardamom almond butter (jem-inspired).
If you read my Cinnamon Maca Almond Butter post, you already know about my addiction to Jem nut butters. They’re best described as crack. The second I laid my tastebuds on one of their nut butters on a fateful trip to a Palo Alto Whole Foods, I was worried I could get into trouble.
$100 and 4 jars later, I was officially in trouble. I regretfully fell in love with all four, and may or may not have threatened my boyfriend if he dared lay his hands on one of my jars (I ended up being a good girlfriend and buying him his own for Valentine’s Day).
While my stomach may always yearn for Jem, my wallet definitely doesn’t. Because I refused to live a life without Jem and didn’t want to funnel half my food budget into nut butters, there was only one answer: make my own versions.
I already checked the box on the Cinnamon Red Maca, so it’s time for Cardamom Cashew.
Honestly, when I first saw the Cardamom Cashew Almond Butter, I was skeptical. I didn’t really know what cardamom was, but I had a faint recollection that it kind of smelled like soap, which is usually not something you equate with something you want to put in your mouth. But, given how amazing the maca one was, I figured the odds were in my favor so I gave it a chance.
It shockingly turned out to be one of my favorites. I absolutely love the balance of sweet and spicy and the unique cardamom flavor. It adds a lot of personality to whatever you put it on and is a nice change of pace to my usual repertoire of cacao, cinnamon, maca, etc.
How do I eat it, you may ask? It tastes amazing on top of yogurt with Maple Walnut Purely Elizabeth or my Captain Crunch Bread. It’s also the perfect topper for my Cardamom Fig Shake. It also couldn’t be more perfect straight off the spoon, but you may not want to go down that rabbit hole…
ingredients.
1 ½ c raw cashews
1 ½ c sprouted almonds
¼–½ c coconut sugar (it’s good with ¼, but ½ gives you a flavor most closely matching Jem)
5 tsp lucama powder
1 tsp vanilla bean powder
1 ½ tsp cardamom
Dash cloves (optional — add if you want to channel the Solstice Canyon cardamom clove version)
½ tsp sea salt
process.
Put nuts into food processor. Process until not just smooth, but DRIPPY. I used to make the major mistake of stopping the processing too soon and ending up with a “drier” nut butter I had to add coconut oil to. If you let it go longer than you think it should, you’ll eventually get a texture closer to Jem’s. Trust me!
Add the rest of the ingredients. Let process for ~5–10 minutes, scraping regularly. Since the coconut sugar takes a little bit to “melt,” you’ll need to process it for a little so it can heat up and get to know the oils from the cashew butter. If you like it a little crunchier, feel free to stop it earlier.
Store in fridge. Prior to eating, heat it up (I like to put it in a ramekin on top of a toaster) to get it back to a state primed for optimal drizzling.
