Snacking when you are trying to watch your weight can always be a challenge. I love to grab a few pretzels and a spoonful of peanut butter when I need a little pick me up. Peanut butter is full of protein and healthy fats and can keep you energized during meals. I have been wanting to experiment with some new flavor profiles and since I love Thai peanut sauce I thought that would be a good place to start. Loaded with lemongrass, ginger, lime zest, honey and toasted coconut you can use it anywhere you would use regular peanut butter. The addition of sriracha adds a nice kick of heat and I’ve been enjoying it on my morning bowl of oats with some diced mango. Depending on how you feel about spicy foods you could omit the Sriracha all together or add a little bit more for more heat. I used a microplane grater for the lemongrass, ginger and lime zest so that I wouldn’t end up with any large pieces in my finished peanut butter and it helps break up the fibers of the ginger and lemongrass.
Be patient when you make the peanut butter, don’t rush the process. Once you add the honey and sriracha it will seize up and get clumpy, but after a few more minutes it should smooth out and get nice and creamy. Thin the peanut butter with a little water and add a splash of soy sauce and toss with some noodles for a super easy lunch. Later this week I’ll show you my favorite way to enjoy the peanut butter, spicy coconut granola bars!
- 1 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
- ¼ cup toasted coconut
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemongrass
- 1//2 teaspoon finely grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon sriracha
- 2 tablespoons honey
- Place the peanuts, coconut, lemongrass, ginger, lime zest and salt in the bowl of a food processor and process for 3-4 minutes, scraping occasionally until the mixture is smooth. Add the sriracha and honey and continue to process for 5-7 minutes until the mixture is smooth and spreads easily. Don't worry if the mixture gets dry and clumpy after you add the honey, continue to process until the mixture seems to melt and is creamy.
Hi,
This is the first recipe of yours that I’ve made that was a total bust for me. I never could get the stuff to get smooth, and I almost burned my motor out in my food processor. It smoked, and smoked, and smoked. Any thoughts about what might have happened? In the recipe, you said not to worry about it seizing up after the honey and sriracha were added. But it just would not get smooth…I processed way more than 8 minutes. Mine never looked anywhere close to creamy…should there have been some sort of liquid? I hate to say it, but I think I’d just rather add the yummy spices/flavor enhancers to already made peanut butter 🙁
Thanks,
Susan
Hi Susan,
I’m sorry that it didn’t work out for you. Did it get smooth before you added the honey and sriracha? The first batch of this I made I tried to add some coconut milk to it and that was a total disaster, it broke and got super oily and weird.
I did have to process the peanut butter longer than I normally do regularly but it smoothed out after a few minutes. I did notice that my food processor got warmer than usual but didn’t get to the point where it smoked, maybe my processor is a little bit stronger than yours? I’ll try a version in my vitamin and see if that works better. You could try adding the flavoring to a all natural peanut butter but you might still have a problem with it seizing, however if you added it to something like Jif or Skippy it should work fine. Sorry again that the texture didn’t work out, did it taste okay?
It tasted great! No, it never got smooth…even before I added the honey and sriracha. My food processor is very old…got it when my son was a year old…he’s now 33 🙂
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