Omega Juicer Almond Butter: Easy Guide To Making Almond Butter At Home

While most of what I write about is juicing and in particular juicing green juices, my Omega juicer is great at making almond butter. It’s actually superior at making nut butters than even a food processor or a blender. I’ve made almond butter using all three methods and by far and away the easiest and best tasting almond butter was from my Omega juicer.

It’s a bit of a lesser known use for Omega Juicers, but it’s something that more people have decided to get into making. Face it, almond butter is expensive. So why not make it at home with your Omega Juicer? Here’s how I make my own almond butter with my Omega juicer.

Almond Butter: It’s Better Homemade

First, why bother making almond butter and not buying it? The main reason is that it’s much cheaper. I might pay 10 bucks on a big bag of almonds at a health food sore (I try and buy organic and in bulk) and I can get at least three times the amount of almond butter than if I was to buy from Whole Foods or some other store.

Secondly, the freshness and control of ingredients. I can make the almond butter with just almond, or with sea salt, or with coconut oil. I can make almond butter out of raw almonds, or I can use roasted almonds. When you make almond butter at home you are able to make the nut butter exactly the way you want it.

Finally, it’s fresh. When you are buying almond butter in a jar from the store, who knows how old it is! Not only that but the almond butter is sometimes stored in plastic jars. That’s terrible as plastic contains estrogen disruptions.

Almond Butter In An Omega Juicer?

If you have never made almond butter then you might be wondering how a juicer of all things can make almond butter! But it’s quite simple. Masticating juicers that use an auger to press can easily take raw or roasted whole almonds and turn them into butter. Regular juicers can’t….but as long as you own a masticating juicer like an Omega,you can.

The auger device that is in your omega is used to crush the almonds. At first what comes out is almond flour. It’s similar to when you are using a food processor or a blender to make almond butter. The almonds are broken down first into a flour, and then when you process them more they turn into almond butter.

Realistically, I feed the almonds through the Omega several times until I get the consistency I like. It’s simple enough of a process. It might look messy if you are watching any of the YouTube videos, but as long as you use a plunger and spoon to scoop the almond flour back into the juicer, it will be easy. It does take longer than it does to make juice…but you are making almond butter that will last a while (depending on how much you make) whereas juice is drunk immediately.

It does take a bit of effort to clean the Omega juicer auger and feed tube after you make almond butter, so I’d make it worth while and make at least a cup of almond butter so that you don’t have to go through the cleaning process that frequanly.

The reason it takes a while to clean the Omega juicer after making almond butter is that there is fat in almonds. Juices are made with greens and fruits that don’t have fat, so that Omega juicer’s auger and feed tube are easy to clean.

Roasting Is The Key To Creamy Almond Butter

I’ve found that the key to making really creamy almond butter is to make sure that the almonds are roasted before blending or putting through the juicer. When you use raw almonds it will take longer to process them into smooth almond butter. And most of the time you have to add some sort of oil to them.

When you pan roast the almonds in the oven, it helps to break them down and releases some of the natural oil in the almond. This in turn makes them much easier to turn into almond butter.

You also get a nicer roasted flavor to the almond butter that is not present when you use plain raw almonds.

There are a lot of recipes online that will tell you how to roast almonds. Most of them call for the use of three ingredients, including the almonds. You will need:

• salt (sea salt, pink himalayan salt, etc…)
• oil (coconut, olive, avocado,etc…)
• almonds

Take the almonds and put them into a bowl and coat with oil and salt. The salt helps breakdown the almonds and draws out their natural almond oil. It is a way to help soften the almonds so that when you place them into the juicer they get broken down faster and easier. The roasted almonds are softer than raw almonds. And they taste better than soaked almonds.

When you are placing the almonds in the oven, I recommend using a stainless steel baking sheet. If you don’t have one of those ,then you can always use an oven baking dish like something from corningware or any other casserole dish.

I would advise that you steer clear of non-stick fry-pans and stovetop toasting methods. Not only is direct heat more likely to burn the almonds and not roast them (technically you are toasting them when you use a fry pan) but the non-stick pans are very unhealthy).

After you have roasted them, what I suggest that you do is to take them from the oven and cool them on a piece of paper towel so that the excess oil can be absorbed. Once the almonds are cooled down you can then begin to put the almonds into the omega juicer.

I like to add fresh oil when the need arises instead of putting the almonds in with all of the excess oil from the oven.

Also, in case you were thinking of putting the hot almonds right into the juicer…don’t. It’s best to let the almonds cool off before you put them into the blender. You don’t want to have the almonds too hot for the Omega.Remember, the machine is not meant to be used with high heat.

 

 

The Omega Juicer Design : Auger Juicers Can Make Nut Butter

The reason that the Omega juicer can make almond butter or any butter at all for that matter is because it has an auger press and a blank cone that will prevent straining of solids and liquids. When you buy an omega juicer, it comes with a few attachments. The straining cone is cone that you will almost always use. It’s the one used to make juices.

The “blank cone” is used to make everything from pasta to nut butters to vegan sorbets. You use this with your juicer and it allows the the nut butter to be extruded easily and smoothly.

Also, that fact that the omega juicer uses a masticating design means that you can make nut butter. Whereas other juicers such as the Breville use a cutting wheel, which would not allow for  you to make nut butter.

The Omega juicer uses a slow speed , slow press auger design. It is much easier to use it to make nut butter than even attempt to use a cutting wheel style juicer.

Use The Right Omega Juicer Nut Butter Attachment

As I mentioned in the section above, the Omega juicer comes with two different black cones that can be placed over the auger. One of them has a strainer and is to be used when making juice. The other has no strainer and is used whenever you make almond butter, other nut butters, extrude pasta, or make sorbets.

If you use the wrong black cone on your Omega, then you won’t end up with a good almond butter. So always, always choose the right cone!

Add Oil If You Like: Coconut or Avocado or Almond

One trick that I do encourage people to use is adding additional oil. Even though you have roasted your almonds in the oven and that does help to bring out the almonds natural oil, you can speed up the process of turning the roasted almonds into nut butter by adding oil.

I like to use either coconut oil or sometimes avocado oil. I like the flavor of coconut, and I think it works well with almonds. If you don’t like coconut oil, than a more neutral oil such as avocado oil would be fine. The reason that I happen to like coconut oil is that it also provides a healthy source of MCT. (I have written about this elsewhere, but basically medium chain triglycerides are beneficial for the brain and help your cognition).

The coconut oil should be extra virgin and cold pressed. Do not buy fractionated coconut oil, or coconut oil such as LouAnns. And also try and get a coconut oil that comes in a glass jar. I know that I’ve passed up on bargin priced coconut oils from places such as BJs and Costo because they sold them in  plastic. As you’re well aware,plastic is very bad for your health.

 

Do You Add Salt To Almond Butter

You should be adding salt when you roast the almonds. This salt will help to draw out the flavor. However, you might also want to add salt to the almonds when you’ve processed them through the Omega Juicer. There are a few reasons to add additional salt.

First, salt helps to preserve food. It’s been used for centuries as a preserving additive. Unlike the other preserving food (sugar) salt is not all bad! Your body needs salt, so adding some salt to the almond butter is ok. I would advise against adding sugar though!

Secondly, salt helps to bring out the flavor of the almonds. You do not want to over do it when it comes to sodium, but a small amount, especially if you do not normally add salt to your food would be ok. Just remember to use a good clean source of salt. I’m preferable to either sea salt or pink himalayan salt.

How To Store Your Almond Butter

Finally, when all of the work is done and you’ve got yourself a nice amount of almond butter, you need somewhere to store it. I personally always opt for storing food in glass. You can find nice glass containers in a variety of shapes and sizes. However, try and get good quality glass such as Ball mason jars, or anchor glass containers, or pyrex glass jars.

The reason that I like to store things in glass as opposed to plastic is that plastic is considered unsafe by most health experts. The glass is not going to reacte to food and leach like aluminum or plastic will. Plastic use has been linked to health hazards ranging from cancer to birth defects..so I just say play it safe and use glass.