Name: How to Make Keto Peanut Butter: Fast, Easy, and Delicious!
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 3
Ingredients: 6 cups organic peanuts; Sea salt (optional - to taste); Powdered erytheritol (optional

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It really is amazingly easy to make peanut butter yourself. And it’s keto (as long as you don’t add un-keto things). The best keto peanut butter recipe has only a couple of ingredients (possibly just one, depending on your taste). And it only takes a couple of minutes to make.

The biggest risk is that you’ll love it so much you’ll put it on everything and blow out on your carbs!
No, peanuts aren’t super strict keto because they are technically legumes, not nuts. However, they are reasonably low-carb, cheap, widely available, and nutritious. Like anything else, moderation is the key.

How to Make Keto Peanut Butter - Fast, Easy, and Delicious! — Image Credit: Katys Keto Kitchen.

We regularly eat peanuts and peanut butter in our household and still follow a fresh, strict ketogenic lifestyle. We put it in our spiced peanut butter cheesecake, have it on keto bread or crackers, and put it in our favorite peanut curry and chicken peanut satay (all keto, obviously). But, of course, the choice is yours. You can use this same recipe to make any other nut butters, too. Almond is popular, as is cashew.

You don’t need any special skills to learn how to make peanut butter and you don’t have to buy any weird ingredients or equipment to make this keto peanut butter recipe. It is what it is – and that is quick, easy, and delicious!
You can choose to make peanut butter smooth or creamy, salty or a little sweet, or spiced or flavored however you like.

Below you’ll see that I’ve included some of my family’s favorite flavor variations for this keto peanut butter recipe. You can stick with the basic recipe, follow any of the variations, or just take inspiration from them and tweak the seasoning and extra ingredients to suit your own palate. It’s really versatile so it’s hard to go wrong.

You can keep homemade peanut butter for a month although unless you make a huge batch it probably won’t stick around that long. You can refrigerate it, but I’d advise against it. If you do, it stiffens up and isn’t easy to spread.

Why Should You Make Keto Peanut Butter?

It’s cheaper, you control what’s in it, and it’s actually keto!
Take a look at the ingredients in the store-bought peanut butter and you’ll find all sorts of non-keto surprises and general nasties like artificial sweeteners, sugar, preservatives, stabilizers, palm oil, and more. None of which are actually needed.

And it’s often bland or oily or has an unpleasant chemical after taste that lingers for hours.
Even if you’re not doing clean/strict keto, you don’t want sugar or other ingredients to blow up your macros and knock you out of ketosis. Plus, regardless of what diet you follow, you definitely don’t want to eat unnecessary chemicals.

Plus, I’ll say it again – making keto peanut butter is so easy!
If you go for a high-quality commercial peanut butter, it’s expensive. Yes, it contains fewer or more natural ingredients, but it’s costly!

Whipping up a batch of keto peanut butter saves you money and puts you in control, because you know exactly what ingredients you’re using. And the flavor can be customized to your taste. Want a sweeter peanut butter? Awesome, add a natural, keto-friendly sweetener. Prefer your peanut butter salty? Great, add some mineral-rich sea salt. Make it smooth, make it salty, add some spice, heat things up with a bit of chili and paprika – the choice is yours!

Tips For the Easiest and Tastiest Keto Peanut Butter Recipe Ever!

For the best peanut butter, there are a few little tips that will give you creamy, beautiful peanut butter every single time.

Patience

This is probably the most important tip for making peanut butter. You have to be patient. Yes, it really does only take a few minutes in the food processor, but there are a few different stages the peanuts go through before they turn into the rich, creamy butter you’re looking for.

Common questions about making peanut butter are usually variations of “why is my peanut butter so dry?” or “Why is my peanut butter grainy?” The answer is almost always simply because you didn’t run the food processor for long enough.

You’ll see the peanut turn to chopped nuts, then finely ground nuts. Then, as the oils start seeping out, you’ll get a big ball of grainy paste. But don’t stop here! Keep going and you’ll get delightfully smooth, spreadable peanut butter.

Give Your Food Processor a Break

Grinding peanuts is tough on your food processor, even if you’ve got a nice powerful one. So you need to give the motor a brief rest by stopping every 30 seconds. And you can take this opportunity to get a spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl. This ensures your peanuts blend more evenly and helps to eliminate grainy bits in the finished product.

Vintage Spoon With Creamy Peanut Butter On A Brown Wooden Table. — Image Credit: Canva.

Make the Right Size Batch

It’s important not to under or overfill your food processor because if you do, you’ll never achieve a smooth, creamy peanut butter – your keto peanut butter will end up grainy and pasty.

I have a Cuisinart 14-cup food processor that I love – it’s a workhorse and I’d struggle to manage my clean keto diet without it.

Anyway, in this 14-cup machine, I do batches of between 5 and 7 cups. I find this is the perfect range to give me smooth keto-friendly nut butter every time, without having to add extra oil.

Make Smooth Peanut Butter Before Crunchy

If you want crunchy peanut butter don’t be tempted to stop the food processor while your peanuts are still lumpy. Yes, this is technically crunchy peanut butter, but it’s inferior. It’s still grainy and not pleasant to eat. Instead, keep going. Let it get completely smooth.

Once you’ve reached that smooth, runny consistency, throw in a handful or two of whole peanuts and blitz again, briefly, to break them up.

Now you have crunchy peanut butter!

Play Around With Flavors

Keto peanut butter doesn’t have to be boring – there are plenty of variations you can try without excessively increasing carbs or adding something non-keto. And it’s so easy to completely change the flavor profile of this peanut butter however you like.

Paprika, black pepper, chili, pumpkin spice, cocoa, coconut, chocolate, toasted nuts. These are just a few of the flavors I’ve made and enjoyed – but there are plenty of other flavors you can try to find what you really love.

The Basic Keto Peanut Butter Recipe

Tip the raw, blanched, or toasted peanuts into your food processor and blitz them on high power for 30 seconds After 30 seconds, turn off the machine, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and blitz again for another 30 seconds. Pause the food processor, scrape down the sides.

Keep repeating these 30-second bursts until you have a rich, creamy keto peanut butter.

Now is the time to add a pinch of sea salt for salty peanut butter or, if you prefer something a little sweeter (but still keto), add a touch of inulin syrup, monk fruit, or powdered erythritol.

And, if you’re going for crunchy peanut butter, now is the time to add the whole nuts.

Then blitz again for 10-15 seconds to break them up and mix through the salt or sweetener.

There you have it – 100% natural, homemade keto peanut butter made to your exact flavor requirements.

crunchy peanut butter recipe — Image Credit: Canva.

Keto Peanut Butter Recipe Variations

You just saw how easy the base recipe for peanut butter is and how fast. But it only takes a few seconds longer to create your own super-tasty version – and there are so many ways you can tweak this recipe. I’ve included a few of my favorites.

Coconut Almond Peanut Butter Recipe

Now, almonds are more keto than peanuts because they’re nuts, not legumes. But for me, almond butter can be unpleasantly cloying and I don’t like too much of it.

But a blend of almonds and peanuts with a little unsweetened, desiccated coconut? That’s an awesome keto compromise. It is delicious without being excessively cloying.

It works well in baked goods and spread on keto crackers or keto toast.

Of course, the exact amounts vary according to your taste preferences, but here’s what I do: I switch out 1/3-1/4 peanuts for almonds and then add 1/5-1/4 of the amount of nuts in coconut.

So, if I’m making a 6-cup batch, I’d use 4 cups of peanuts and 2 cups of almonds. And then I’d add 1 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut.

If it’s a touch dry because of the coconut, add melted coconut oil a teaspoon at a time until you get to the right consistency.

The recipe process is exactly the same as the base recipe.

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter

I love the ketogenic lifestyle, but I do still get chocolate cravings from time to time. And this recipe is so delicious it really shouldn’t be allowed!

It satisfies my sweet chocolate tooth without being overly carby or knocking me out of ketosis. It’s got the right amount of chocolate, sweetness, and crunch.

Exactly how much of each ingredient you add is up to you. I personally work to a cocoa-peanut ratio of 1:6. So 1 cup of cocoa to 6 cups of peanuts. You may want to do a little less. Maybe even start with half of this and if you want to, add some more.

I also add a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil to combat the dryness of the cocoa. And, to sweeten things up, I add 1/2 to 1 cup of powdered erythritol.

Make sure you use powdered or you’ll get a grainy finish.

Then I blend it until it’s beautifully smooth. And then I do something really naughty. I add a handful or two of whole nuts and a handful of dark chocolate chips (or a portion of a smashed-up 85% cocoa Lindt bar).

Honestly, it’s amazing. Yes, it’s higher carb than the base recipe, but I only treat myself to this occasionally and it really is worth it!

Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter Recipe

This one is just so easy. And the pumpkin spice, we love this one – it tastes amazing and is organic too, makes such a difference – it really elevates the flavor into something special. My whole household loves pumpkin spice, and we don’t just restrict it to Fall and pies and coffees, oh no! We put it in all kinds of goodies, including keto peanut butter cheesecake, and in peanut butter!

It’s really easy – I add 1 tsp – 1/2 tbsp of pumpkin spice per cup of peanuts and adjust to taste. You may also want to add a little monk fruit sweetener or erythritol to sweeten it up a little.

Homemade Toasted Nut Peanut Butter

Using raw peanuts is perfectly acceptable, but toasting them first gives your peanut butter an intensely peanutty flavor. Plus, toasting the nuts warms and loosens the oils which I’ve found makes the finished peanut butter smoother and creamier.

It does add a few minutes to your prep, which is why I haven’t included it in the base recipe – most people just want super fast and super easy. But it really is worth the few extra minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spread the peanuts on a baking sheet and stick them in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Take them out, put them straight in the food processor, and follow the basic recipe instructions.

How to Use Keto Peanut Butter

Peanut butter is great in moderation, at least for my ketogenic lifestyle. It’s not something I eat every day. I do use it in curries, peanut satay, on keto toast, in baked treats. Basically anywhere you’d use store-bought peanut butter.

How to Store Keto Peanut Butter

I keep my keto peanut butter in a clean jar in the cupboard. It’ll last for a month, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’ll be so popular that it won’t be around that long!

You can store it in the refrigerator, but I wouldn’t recommend it. If you put it in the refrigerator, it’ll stiffen up too much and be difficult to spread.

3 cups