I’m not sure I’m even allowed to call this a recipe… because it’s SO SIMPLE: only one ingredient, and only two steps!! But it’s a basic ingredient in a lot of my cooking and deserts, so I thought it really deserves an entry. Here you go!

Ingredients:

• Cashews

Preparation:

Step 1: Put the nuts — raw or roasted — in the blender. The ideal quantity for getting a smooth result depends on the size and speed of your blender, so try a handful and experiment.

Your blender jar has to be absolutely dry for this! You can add water to make a chashew cheese — but that’s different recipe 🙂

Step 2: Switch on and pulse till all the cashews have turned into a fine, dry flour or powder. Keep blending until it starts turning buttery. Keep going. Depending on the blender, it can take anywhere between 1 and 5 minutes to get to a smooth buttery texture.

The butter can get very hot during grinding, and you may have to scrape down the sides of the blender jar repeatedly if the butter is sticking to the sides of the jar.

Step 3: Enjoy!

Have it as a spread on bread, or add a tablespoon of cashew butter to any vegetable dish or sauce to make it wonderfully creamy. Or blend one part cashew butter with one part oil to make a home-made “margarine” for baking – this works really well!

Flavour options: Add a pinch of salt, vanilla, cinnamon, jaggery or coconut sugar, roasted cashews/ almonds, or any other flavour you fancy. Add a sweetener and cocoa powder for home-made chocolate spread!