Nut Butter Universe

If you take a look at my massive vegan cookbook collection (It really is massive. Seriously, I have a problem), the one name you'll see the most is Robin Robertson's. Robin churns out cookbooks at an impressive rate, and her no-nonsense cooking style has made her one of my favorite authors. When I heard that Robin was working on a cookbook that's all about on of my favorite subjects - nut butters – I became giddy with excitement and no-so-patiently waited it's release. (Okay, full disclosure here, I do part time consulting work for Nut Butter Universe's publisher Vegan Heritage Press, but I learned of the book's impending release long before I landed that position.)

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of spicy peanut sauce, but I'm also a big fan of cooking with nut butters in general. I love swirling almond butter into my oatmeal and adding a few spoonfuls of cashew butter to my stews. I've also recently begun to use nut butter in the place of oil in baked goods such as muffins and banana bread. Nut Butter Universe is full of recipes like these and such much more. There are recipes for everything from soups and starters to main dishes and desserts. The book also contains instructions for making your own nut butters, nut creams and nut cheeses. If you're wondering about the health benefits of nut butters, you're in luck, because The Plant-Based Dietitian Julieanna Hever wrote the book's forward, which if full of nutritional information about nuts and nut butters. When a new cookbook arrives, I usuall sit down with it and a stack of sticky notes and mark the recipes I want to cook, but I haven't been able to do that with Nut Butter Universe because I want to make every dish! 

While I haven't had time to make everything just yet, I have made a few dishes. Here's what I've made so far:

Quinoa and Black Beans with Cashew Queso Sauce This recipe made about 5 servings, but we used up all of the delcious cashew queso sauce with just our first two servings and so I had to make more for the leftovers. It was so good that I even caught my cat Archie trying to get to it. 

Mushroom-Cashew Breakfast Burritos These wraps are full of onions, mushrooms and tofu in a creamy cashew butter sauce. It was a nice twist on the tofu scrambles that I like to make, and it was was a nice hearty breakfast to start the day out with.

Banana Bread The recipe in Nut Butter Universe uses walnuts and walnut butter, but Dennis isn't very fond of walnuts, so I used peanuts and peanut butter instead. The beauty of cooking with nut butters is that you can swap one for another!

Bryanna's Chocolate Double Nut Clusters I made these with cashew butter and used peanuts, almonds and cashews. They were supposed to be for a weekend potluck, but it was canceled because of the snow, which meant more for Dennis and I. Warning: they are highly addictive!

Szechuan Stir-Fry with Firey Peanut Sauce Because I can't abandon my true love spicy peanut sauce, I made this delicious stir-fry. Now this is my kinda dish!

I'm looking forward to cooking (and eating) my way though the rest of Nut Butter Universe!

Like what you’re reading? Join me on Facebook!