Homemade Peanut Butter

If you have been following this blog for a while, you might have noticed that I'm pretty slow on updating the blog. Now a days I cook more often than I blog and blogging all the recipes will take ages at this pace. So I thought of an easier way to share the recipes that I love making over and over again. I'm updating the links of these recipes on Flavours facebook page in the album Tried and Tested Recipes from other blogs. Check it out right now, it's just a few but I'll keep updating as I try new ones.  You can like the Flavours Facebook page to get updates. I wonder why Facebook has a Like button for Pages and Subscribe button for People. Shouldn't it be the other way around, so if we like someone, we can like their profile and if we want updates from a blog, we can subscribe to its FB Page. Wouldn't it be simple that way? Anyways the point is "like" works as "subscribe". Photography update: I'm thankful for all the appreciation from you guys for the pictures, it means a lot and it motivates me to work harder to get it right. In pursuit of photographing better pictures, I joined in an exercise with Aparana of My Diverse Kitchen. Check it out if you are interested in taking better pictures. :) All right now, let's talk about Peanut butter. I didn't know it was so easy to make peanut butter at home until a few weeks back. I was surprised and super excited to have made my own peanut butter; I finished it in one day. If you are a peanut butter lover, do yourself a favour double or triple the recipe. :) Makes 3/4th cup Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 2-3 minutes Ingredients:   1cup Peanuts (shelled) 1tsp oil (refer notes) Salt to taste Procedure: 1. Dry roast the peanuts for a few minutes. Let it cool. 2. Put it in the blender and blend away till you get smooth peanut butter. Simple huh! But since most of us don't have super blenders, we should blend and stop every once in a while when the blender heats up.  3. Add salt. 4. And blend again. 5. Add oil. 6. See it has started to look like peanut butter now. Though it looks grainy the texture was smooth. You can test the seasoning at this point. Don't overdo the licking like I did, it tasted so good that I couldn't stop. 7. Store it an airtight container under refrigeration. 8. Enjoy with some freshly made whole wheat bread.. Notes: 1. I don't think it's really necessary to use oil. It will depend on the oil content in the peanuts you are using. Use the oil at the last stage, if you feel the mixture needs lubrication to blend further without getting stuck. 2. You can use any kind of oil. Best would be to use peanut oil. I used vegetable oil since I didn't have peanut oil at hand. 3. Some people remove the skin of peanuts. If you would like to do that extra work, please remove the skin after roasting. 4. You could use roasted unsalted store bought peanuts and skip the first step. Best would be to get peanuts in shell coz that way you can be sure that they are really fresh. 5. If you would like to sweeten it, add sweetener. Play around, adding flavours to get the kind of peanut butter you like. :) 6. For chunky peanut butter, just keep 1/4 cup of peanuts aside and just pulse it once in the blender and add to the rest of the peanut butter.  Health and Nutrition Homemade Peanut butter is a good source of monounsaturated fats, which may reduce your risk of heart disease. Peanuts and peanut butter are a good source of magnesium, folate, fiber, protein and vitamins B3 and E. Homemade peanut butter is more nutritious and healthier option than store bought as it doesn’t contain high amounts of sweeteners and preservatives.