What are your hero ingredients? The ones you’ll always go back to, can add to nearly anything, and seem to always make things taste better? My friend Fay always says that nothing can’t be improved with a little ginger. Or a lot. A lot, probably. And you might be able to tell from my other recipes that I’m a pretty big fan too. Ginger makes an amazing addition to puddings, stir fries, hot drinks…I guess I’m in the ginger fan club too.
So when I happened to spot a half-finished jar of crystallised ginger in my cupboard when making a classic almond butter, there was only going to be one outcome.
I am addicted to almond butter (and cashew butter, and macadamia butter, and peanut butter…) but this is definitely one of the best – you can eat it on toast, in porridge, swirled into smoothies or even, ahem, straight from the jar. It’s sweet but it still works fantastically in savoury dishes like my cheat version of a nutty satay sauce. Yep, nothing can’t be improved with a little ginger…
Makes 1 jar
INGREDIENTS
- 185g almonds
- 30g (or 7/8 pieces) of crystallised stem ginger
- A pinch of salt
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 200C (180 fan oven). Place the almonds on a baking tray and allow to toast for 10 minutes until fragrant. Take out of the oven and allow to cool.
- Place the nuts into a food processor and process until creamy, scraping down the sides when necessary. Don’t be tempted to shorten this stage by adding the ginger too soon or your butter will never reach that silky creaminess that you get with shop bought butters. It might take 10-15 minutes. Persist!
- When the almonds are of the desired consistency, drop in the ginger and salt. Process again until they are completely incorporated.
You’re done! Store in a glass jar in the fridge (apparently this is what you are meant to do to stop the nuts going rancid – I always keep mine in the cupboard with no problems – but then again, mine doesn’t last the week!).
UPDATE: I recently had a leftover jar of stem ginger in syrup. Chop it up and use it instead of the crystallised ginger if you like – it works just as well!
