November 27, 2015
(last updated October 4, 2019) 
Happy Friday, friends. I hope that everyone who was busy celebrating Thanksgiving yesterday had a lovely time!
Now we’re all moving swiftly into the holiday season, which is also the season of edible giving. As always this year, I’ll be sharing a few ideas for sweets and treats that make for enticing gifts for your loved ones. The first such treat is an easy and unique homemade nut butter created by my dear friends Lisa Pitman and Nicole Axworthy, the talented authors of a super new cookbook called DIY Vegan: More than 100 Recipes to Create an Awesome Plant-Based Pantry.
One of the nicest things about being vegan in this day and age is that there are so many products and items that make our food authentic and our lives easy. Earth Balance, Daiya, Neat Meat, Beyond Meat, Field Roast, Veganaise, Just Mayo–these are just a few of the plant-based brands that I enjoy and admire most. Their products lend authenticity and familiarity to a lot of traditional dishes, and they can be a fun way to liven up dishes.
With that said, these products can be expensive, and there’s an undeniable satisfaction involved in making one’s own staple ingredients. That’s the idea behind Lisa and Nicole’s new book, which gives you easy recipes and all the tools you need to make your own plant-based pantry, complete with vegan milks, ice creams and butters made from a variety of nuts and seeds, home-ground flours, yummy sauces and spreads, snack foods, and an array of artisanal, homemade vegan cheeses.
Some of my favorite recipes from the book include a vegan version of sweetened, condensed milk, DIY toaster pastries, sweet ginger stir-fry sauce, maple masala mustard, chai concentrate, and an ingenious savory “egg” mix, which lends incredibly authentic flavor to your favorite tofu scramble.
I also love Lisa and Nicole’s shake n’ bake herb breading, which is perfect for tofu, tempeh, or for sprinkling onto your favorite casserole or dish of roasted vegetables!
Lisa and Nicole are the authors of a couple ebooks, each of which specialize in sweets and treats. Not surprisingly, much of their talent shines when they tackle sweets and desserts, and DIY vegan has rich offerings in that category, including chocolate cake mix, oatmeal-raisin cookie mix, lemon curd, and chocolate fudge filling.
This is an ideal book for anyone who’s interested in edible gifts and in becoming more crafty and self-sufficient as a vegan home cook. There are some more involved recipes, like DIY pizza dough or fermented nut cheese. But for the most part, DIY Vegan has something for someone at every level of culinary comfort and expertise, and many of the recipes are incredibly simple.
This rich coconut peanut butter is one such offering. It beats commercial peanut butter by a mile, it’s easy to make, and the coconut gives it a unique twist!
Coconut Peanut Butter from DIY Vegan
Author -Yields: 1 cup
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1½ cups dry-roasted unseasoned peanuts
- 2 teaspoons agave nectar or pure maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- In a food processor, process the shredded coconut until a paste starts to form. This will take about 10 minutes, so be patient. Stop and scrape down the sides of the processor bowl as needed.
- Once a paste forms, add the peanuts and continue to process until smooth and silky.
- Add the agave and salt and process to combine. The butter can be stored in a mason jar in the fridge for about 4 months. It will thicken once refrigerated.
Notes
Try this: The recipe is also amazing with dry-roasted almonds instead of peanuts. Give it a try!
How to dry-roast nuts: If you have trouble finding dry-roasted peanuts, it’s pretty simple to slow roast your own. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Spread the blanched peanuts on a rimmed baking sheet and roast, stirring occasionally, for about 25 minutes, until lightly browned.
Reprinted from DIY Vegan. Copyright © 2015 Nicole Axworthy and Lisa Pitman. Published by St. Martin's Griffin. All photographs by Nicole Axworthy.
I’ve been enjoying this peanut butter in place of my regular jar. It’s so satisfying (not to mention delicious) to add this one little DIY touch to my toast and my oatmeals. I look forward to trying it with different nuts, and to sharing it as an edible gift this coming year.
I’d love to offer one reader of The Full Helping a chance to explore his or her own copy of this fun, creative collection, and Lisa and Nicole’s publisher has graciously offered to help make it happen. Enter below to win one free copy of DIY Vegan (US and Canadian residents only, please). The giveaway will run for two weeks!
Good luck!
I hope that many of you have a restful post-holiday weekend planned. I look forward to a combination of work, lots of meal planning for clients, and a little planning of my own edible giving for the season ahead. And I look forward to seeing you on Saturday, for weekend reading!
xo
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Categories: Recipes,
Dips
Dietary Preferences: Gluten Free, No Oil, Soy Free, Vegan
Recipe Features: 30 Minute or Less, Quick & Easy
Dietary Preferences: Gluten Free, No Oil, Soy Free, Vegan
Recipe Features: 30 Minute or Less, Quick & Easy
Leave a Comment
Vegan yogurt and cheese!
Ketchup!
I’d like to learn to DIY all those baking needs! Eggs, milk, butter, cream, shortening, etc. Things we’re always running out of and needing when wanting to bake cakes, cookies, and breads! That way instead of running out to the town next door, I could just whip up what was missing!
oops! One item it said! I’d have to say tempeh!
that shake and bake tofu sounds incredible!
I already DIY a lot of my own nut butters, but this looks like a good one to try, too. I’m definitely curious about DIY vegan lemon curd, though! And the cake and cookie mixes, of course.
I’ve been wanting to DIY mustards and kimchi!
I’m a new vegan so there’s SO MUCH I want to learn how to do, haha. Vegan cheeses, butters, coffee creamers for sure.
I’d like to make my own condiments, especially vegan worchestershire (I know that’s spelled wrong) sauce.
Nut milks and cheeses for sure!
The sweetened condensed milk replacement sounds awesome. I haven’t been able to find a close substitute for my thai iced tea.
I would love a DIY wonton/potsticker wrapper! I really haven’t seen too many vegan ones!
I would love to win this book – so many yummy recipes I am dying to make!! This may not be a pantry staple, but I would love to try and make coconut kefir!
I’m new to vegan cooking and am excited to learn about many of these DIY vegan recipes! Thanks for the giveaway!
That peanut butter looks so creamy!! I’d love to learn how to make fermented nut cheese since I just got into making my own kombucha. I love the idea of making your pantry staples!
I’d like to be able to make condensed milk so I could veganize my childhood favorite pie recipe.
This looks like a really cool book! I would love to learn to make more nut butters and cheeses!
I’d like to learn how to make fermented nut cheeses!
What a neat recipe! I’ve tried Earth Balance’s peanut coconut butter – so good. You have such an awesome blog, Gena! So inspiring to this almost-but-not-quite vegan.
Sarah, so happy you like the blog 🙂 Thanks for reading — I’m glad you find it inspiring!
I already make almost all of my staples but mayonnaise is an exception. I would try a recipe with olive oil.
Great sounding cookbook! I especially love the sound of the DIY pizza dough or fermented nut cheese. Yum! Even if it is rather involved, it sounds well worth the effort.
I would love to try a homemade version of sweetened condensed milk. I envision holiday recipes from years past made vegan.
Thank you so much for everything you post on this blog. It is my go-to site for everything vegan as I am transitioning into this lifestyle. From your delicious recipes to the weekly readings you post every weekend, and especially the green recovery stories, including your own, I am always inspired when I come here. Keep it up! You are making more of a difference than you could ever know. As a college student, having ready-made staples in bulk is key, since I never have as much time as I would like to make things from scratch. But someday, in that imaginary future where I have time, I’d love to experiment with making vegan cheeses! Someday… 😉
I would like to learn how to make DIY vegan cheese!
graham crackers and a nice nut butter to go on them
I’d love a copy of this! I’d most like to tackle making my own miso paste.
Coconut and anynutbutter sounds good to me! 🙂 I diy most things, so this book looks amazing! Thanks for the chance to win one!
I’d like to learn to DIY vegan cheese. I already do nut milks, granola, and yogurt, but have been intimidated by cheese! Condiments would be good too!
I already make most of my own staples– nut butters, condiments (ketchup, mustard, sauces, etc.) but am always up for new ideas! Great giveaway!
If I knew how to DIY pasta, I would make it every day!
Butter, nut butter, and cheese!
I’m a big fan of fermenting, so I would definitely love to try the fermented nut cheese you mentioned! I bet it’s easier than it sounds 🙂
DIY Vegan – the next step for me!
I would love to try DIY vegan cheeses. It is pretty much one of the few things I haven’t tried to make myself yet.
I’d love to DIY yogurt!
The savory egg mix and tofu “shake n bake” both sound enticing!
I’ve been hankering for a good, vegan sweetened condensed milk recipe!
I would like to learn to make my own vegan yogurt at home, without any sugar.
The maple Masada mustard sounds delicious!
I have just started to make some of my own staples at home. I’d love to learn some of the DIY cereals. That’s one store bought hold-out that I haven’t been able to let go of yet.
almond butter is number one for me. Also low sugar and low fat granola bars.
Any condiments!
I’ll second the granola request (especially chocolate) and also add pasta. Those two have both become quite the pantry staples for me as of late – although they barely make it back into the pantry because I use them so much!
Always love a new cookbook for my small collection!
I would like to learn how to make vegan cheeze or almond milk
I’d like to be able to make my own granola so I always have that on hand.
This sounds good but I love almonds so coconut almond butter would be the thing I would like to DIY.
Thanks, Gena for the chance to win the Pitman & Axworthy “DIY Vegan” cookbook.
…I like the sound of the fermented nut cheese especially.
oh, yum! I would love to win this book- all the recipes you mentioned sound amazing!
I like making a lot of my staples myself, but I know I’d still learn a lot from Lisa and Nicole’s book. One of the things I haven’t yet tried making and would like to add to my repertoire is vegan butter. I don’t use it very often, but when I need it, it’d be great to be able to make it myself!
Gena,
It is such an honor to see my book on your blog. Thank you for your kind words. As always I wish our kitchens were closer together. Hope you’re enjoying a relaxing holiday weekend!
Two of my favorite flavors!
I’d love to learn to DIY any condiments!