Healthy (or, at least health-ier) Vegan Nutella

Healthy Vegan Nutella – This creamy, dreamy homemade Nutella is naturally sweetened, dairy free, and unbelievably delicious. Who knew homemade healthier Nutella was this easy? (gluten free + paleo!)

I’ve been listening to Jenna Kutcher’s podcast a little bit off and on, and she keeps using the phrase “you can’t make everyone happy. You are not Nutella!”

I love it.

I know not everyone loves Nutella, but I’m definitely in the “I love chocolate and hazelnut” camp. What’s not to love about toasty hazelnuts in a rich, chocolatey, creamy spread? Now that we’re dairy free, I buy this one instead of the name brand stuff, but I’ve wanted to make my own. AND IT IS AWESOME.

It really was simple as can be. I used toasted hazelnuts (I get the pre-toasted ones from Trader Joe’s), a little dairy free milk, some cocoa, natural sweetener, vanilla, and salt. Blend till smooth and bam. Done.

It’s incredible spread on toast with some strawberries or bananas, drizzled over steel cut oats, blended into banana nice cream, aaaaand scooped by the sneaky spoonful straight from the jar. Basically, it’s everything I hoped it would be. Creamy, dreamy, delicious.

Notes on the Recipe:

Blenders vs. Food Processors. I have made nut butters in both my blender and food processor. Both will absolutely work, but if I can choose, I make mine in my Blendtec. It’s hard to beat that texture, but if all you have is a food processor or standard blender, just be patient and go slowly. All will be well!

Sweetness. The 1/3 cup the recipe calls for here will not be super sweet, so if you like it sweeter, feel free to go ahead! The more sweetener you add, the thicker and less spreadable your Nutella will be. You can counteract this somewhat by adding more milk, about a tablespoon at a time.  If you can’t find or don’t like coconut sugar, you can totally use white sugar or maple sugar. I’ve also tried maple syrup, though it sometimes messes with my consistency.

Milk. You can use a variety of dairy free milks here (and I’m sure you could use cow’s milk if that’s what you drink). My favorite are unsweetened vanilla almond or cashew milks since they have a pretty neutral flavor. Coconut milk is rich and creamy, but I’ve found that the coconut flavor comes through more than I’d like in my Nutella. Use what you like/love/buy.

Hazelnuts. I absolutely love buying pre-roasted hazelnuts from Trader Joe’s. I store them in my freezer and then the work is already done for me whenever I want to toss them into things like overnight oats or this dairy free Nutella. If you can’t find them roasted or want to roast them yourself, here’s how to to it.

Like this? You might also like…

• 3 Ways to Flavor Your Nut Butter
• How to Cook Perfect Steel Cut Oats
• The BEST Vegan Chocolate Pudding

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