Healthy Vegan Nutella

This healthy Nutella is made with roasted hazelnuts and cocoa and sweetened with dates.

Store at room temperature for about a week or in the refrigerator for up to two months.

Ingredients:

400 g hazelnuts

20 large MEDJOOL dates (pitted)

1/3 to 1/2 cup coconut oil

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 cup (120 ml) oat milk (or other plant-based milk)

1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes

1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder (or a dash of vanilla extract)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 150 °C.

2. Spread hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Place them in the preheated oven and roast for 20-30 minutes (until fragrant and the skins start to crack). Watch carefully to make sure they don’t burn.

3. Remove the nuts from the oven and let them cool slightly.

4. Then place the nuts in an old kitchen towel and rub them to remove the skins. You may need to do this in batches (or just keep stopping and picking out the nuts that are already skinless and then rubbing the nuts with the remaining skins again). You may not be able to remove all the skins, but that’s okay.

5. Remove the pits from the dates. Place the dates in a small saucepan with the oat milk.

6. Place the saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the oat milk starts to bubble, turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid to allow the dates to soften.

7. Place the hazelnuts in a food processor and blend until you have a smooth hazelnut butter mixture – you may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times if they stick. The length of this process will depend on the power of your food processor and how old the nuts are (it should take about five minutes).

8. Then add the coconut oil, cocoa powder, dates with whole oat milk, salt and vanilla. Blend until smooth.

9. Pour the chocolate hazelnut spread into clean, airtight glass jars.

Recipe: heynutritionlady.com