Substitutes For Almond Butter

Many people love almond butter for a whole host of reasons, not only for its enjoyable taste, but potentially as a healthier option to other nut-based butters.

Whether using it to avoid an allergy, or simply looking for a substitute in a recipe if your store is out, we have done the research so you can get back to eating, or baking.

Keep reading to learn more about almond butter, how it compares to other nut butters, and what can replace it in different situations!

What Is Almond Butter?

Like any other nut butter, almond butter is the homogenized, smooth, version of almonds, usually with some added sugars, fats and other stuff, to make it taste nice.

It tastes similar to peanuts with a little more of a nuanced earthy taste than the in-your-face nuttiness of peanut butter.

Almond butter is really easy to make, like most other nut butters, and is almost 100% nuts. You can actually make almond butter at home, so long as you have a blender and some time on your hands.

Not only is it easy to make at home but homemade nut butter is way nicer and thicker than the shop bought stuff and you are way better value for money.

Here’s our favorite almond butter recipe you can easily make at home.

Why Choose Almond Butter?

There are many people who will swear by peanut butter, so is there any nutritional benefit or otherwise for almond butter that explains its popularity?

To surmise an often long and redundant argument between gym bros and vegans alike, there isn't a great difference in terms of nutrition or being better for the environment.

Arguably, the gym bros will tell you that almond butter has half as much saturated fats that peanut butter, and they are right, but this can be negligible unless you are eating lots of it everyday, which many will.

On the other hand peanuts are fairly sustainable, but along with almonds they both have high demand which has led to overfarming especially with almond milk being so popular too.

The most important distinction is that lots of people are allergic to peanuts, in this case almond butter can be better, especially when homemade and free from contamination, when suffering a peanut allergy. 

In this case, you may be looking for an almond butter replacement if you have a peanut allergy and want something similar. But taste is also a big difference, and certain recipes may specifically want almond butter which you can’t get your hands on.

Almond Butter Alternatives

Peanut Butter

Let’s get this out the way, if you are not allergic to nuts, but are using a recipe that wants almond butter, there’s no reason you can’t use that jar of Skippy in your cupboard. 

As the crow flies, peanut butter and almond butter are pretty similar in terms of taste and nutrition as well how they function in baking recipes. But if you are allergic to peanut butter, there are other alternatives we can get into.

Homemade Almond Butter

If you need almond butter to bake with, but can’t find it in the store, you could either buy almonds and make it yourself, or you may already have some almonds in your pantry.

Making almond butter at home is super easy and cheaper than the jarred stuff, if you have a blender of any sort, just make it yourself - it will end up being better!

Seed Butter

Allergic to nuts? Then try seed butter!

In the, often redundant, argument between peanut and almond butter, seed butter is the true winner. Want something way healthier, and way better for the environment, that is way more sustainable and economic, then seed butter is your man.

Sunflower seed butter is often widely available these days. Note that this can make your baking goods green which you may want, but this is totally safe and is a natural reaction with potential baking soda in your recipe.

Pumpkin seed butter is another one worth looking into, that you can also make at home, especially during halloween.

This has a potentially more recognisable taste and is more sweet than other butters, and doesn't have any weird reaction with other ingredients.

5 Seed Butter, these blends of various seeds , potentially more or less than 5 that’s just the most common, into butter can be a good replacement, and do better than single seed blends in terms of mimicking a nutty taste. 

Neither will necessarily taste like nuts, although there are blends of seed and nut butter for healthier options, they do have a similar earthy taste but not that recognisable nuttiness.

Equally, if you are allergic to nuts you probably won’t mind this at all and in baking it is a good swap.

Other Nut Butters

There are thousands of nuts in the world, and they all can be turned into a butter similar to almond or peanut butter. If your local store has any of these nut butters, they are totally fine to swap out in a baking recipe, so long as an allergy isn’t the problem. 

Equally, if you have any other nuts in your pantry, but no almond butter or whole nuts, you can simply make those nuts, whatever they are, into a nut butter like you can with almonds and peanuts.

Walnut butter, chestnut butter, pecan butter, even pistachio butter - while they all have unique flavor profiles that are nuanced, but they all will bring that nutty flavor, and will operate exactly the same in any recipe that wants specifically a nut butter.

Final Thoughts

Need almond butter for a recipe? If you have actual almonds, you can make it pretty easily for really cheap too. If you can’t find almond butter in the store, you could also just make your own with whole almonds. 

Any other nut butter would work totally fine in a recipe that needs almond butter. If you are allergic to peanuts, any other nut butter will work, or with general nut allergies you can replace them with seed butter.