Carolyn Cesario - Nut Butter: Over 50 Clean and Simple Recipes to Fuel a Healthy Lifestyle

Contents

Nut Butter: The Basics
(Buying, Storing, Soaking + Toasting)

Chapter 1:

Introduction

We are the nut butter ladies, aka the cofounders of Ground Up, a small-batch nut butter company based in Portland, Oregon, that provides employment opportunity and job skills training to women overcoming adversity. We like to call ourselves a not-just-for-profit, meaning that we are most certainly a for- profit business but that we also exist to do more than make a profit; we aim to empower women.

Through the sale of healthy and delicious nut butters, we are able to hire and train women to work with us part-time as a means of getting back on their feet. We provide fair wages, mentorship, and training in all aspects of the business, from sales to production. We founded the company in 2016, and now, just a few years later, we are in over one hundred stores and employ eleven women. Well get to more on our business model later. For now, we know youre really here for the nut butter.

All of our nut butters are made with clean ingredients. (No refined sugar or added oils.) We create them from unique blends of nuts, flavor them with natural spices, and use just a touch of honey for sweetness.

When selling our nut butters at markets and events, the question we most often get asked is, So how do we actually use these?

This cookbook is intended to serve as a comprehensive guide to assist you along your nut butter journey. If youre simply testing the waters, weve included a few easy recipes for adding our nut butters to your morning oatmeal or smoothie. If youre a seasoned vet, well show you how to incorporate nut butter into some wilder sauces (and even frost a cake with it!), and well also provide step-by-step instructions for making your own nut butter at home. In line with our own diets, weve tried to keep all recipes peanut-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free.

We hope this cookbook shows you that healthy and nourishing food can taste delicious, and that you leave wanting to incorporate more healthy fats into your diet. We hope that you get inspired by our flavor combinations and whip out your food processor to start a nutty kitchen party. And we hope that this cookbook provides fuel and nourishment for your adventures.

XO, Carolyn + Julie

Why Nut Butter?

The short answer: As active individuals, weve always enjoyed nut butters as healthy, quick fuel for our busy lifestyles. Making them is also incredibly fun; we love mixing up different flavors and combinations in our home food processors.

The long answer: Well, well let Carolyn share that.

CC: Cooking and preparing food has long been an important creative outlet for me. When I was working at a business consulting job that felt stifling to me, I would come home after long days at the office and turn my kitchen upside down. Tinkering with new, healthy recipes and blasting music took me to my happy place.

And, for whatever reason, my food processor has always been my favorite kitchen tool. I use it to make everything from homemade dips and sauces to granola barsand, of course, nut butters. I think Im drawn to the creative "mixology" involved in these types of recipes; adding "a bit of this" and "a dash of that" makes me feel inventive.

Five years ago, at age twenty-five, I was diagnosed with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, more commonly known as SIBO. SIBO occurs when there is an overgrowth of bacteria in your small intestine, resulting in chronic pain. In my case, it meant over two years of brain fog, bloating, malnourishment, sleeplessness, muscle aches, and depression. At its simplest, it just felt like my body wasnt digesting anything properly.

Soon, cooking became a necessity, not just a creative outlet. I went on and off of various doctor-mandated diets, from GAPS to SCD to Low FODMAP. These are low-sugar, high-fat diets that restrict grain consumption, prohibit additives (so most store-bought food is excluded), and dont allow sugar (with the exception of small amounts of honey).

With all of the constraints, it was hard to buy anything at the grocery store, since most packaged foods contain additives and sugar. I would scour ingredient labels and special order items online, but for the most part, I had to cook my own food. (Which is quite a feat when youre working full-time!) On the plus side, I learned to do everything from making bone broth and fermenting yogurts to dehydrating apple chips.

As someone with a perpetual sweet tooth, the hardest part of these diets was not having chocolate or a proper dessert. So I began tinkering with my food processor in an effort to create delicious, creamy nut butters that both satisfied my sweet tooth and fit my diet. They were sweetened with just a touch of honey, free of peanuts and added oils, and used fresh vanilla bean and spices to create deep flavor profiles.

As many of Ground Ups loyal customers already know, fat-filled nut butters are an absolute treatbest enjoyed by the spoonful. When coworkers and friends tried my nut butters, they began asking for their own, so I started selling them as a side hustle, without the intention of doing anything more than sharing my creations with loved ones. Im pretty sure I was actually losing money on this endeavor because nuts are pricey, and I thought it was a good idea to allow each person to customize their own flavor combination through an online form.

Thats when I met Julie.

Business as a Tool for Social Good

Julie takes the story from here!

JS: When I met Carolyn, I had recently returned from Uganda, where I was managing an employment training program for 160 women on behalf of a jewelry company that helped women overcome poverty. After witnessing the success of this model of empowerment, I saw the opportunity (and need) to implement a similar training program in my hometown of Portland.

To better understand the issues women in our city were facing, I began interviewing various organizations and nonprofits. I quickly learned that part-time work for eight to twenty hours per week would be a huge help for many women trying to get back on their feet. I thought that if I could provide these women with an opportunity, along with basic job skills training and mentorship, they could gain the confidence and income they needed to transition toward stability and reach their goals.

After volunteering at nonprofits, where I got a better understanding of the frustrations of endless grant applications and oftentimes the disconnect between management and the people being served, I knew I wanted to start a for-profit business. Insert first roadblock: I didnt have a product to sell.