The Best Vegan Healthy Nutella Recipe Ever
PLANT-BASED, SUGAR-FREE, HAZELNUT-SPREAD WITH A RICH CHOCOLATE FLAVOR
Hello you beautiful soul and welcome back – here, on our HOLI BLOG!
We hope your past week has been amazing and we are happy that you found your way back here for another read.
If you are new here: welcome, it is so nice to see you!
Sunday is brunch day, am I right? So what do you say if we share a brunch must-have with you. But in a better, healthier, and vegan version? Sounds good? Alright! Let's get right into it!
It doesn't matter if on toast, croissants, pancakes, waffles, or right out of the jar. Nutella must be an all-time favorite! Most of us probably connect childhood memories with that rich hazelnutty and chocolaty cream.
At least, we do and we have been missing that taste since deciding to not eat animal products anymore.
So we went ahead and searched for vegan alternatives and we found some pretty good ones. However, many of them were on the pricier side. Also, let's face it – they are not necessarily the healthiest option.
And so our vegan hazelnut chocolate spread mission began...
We tried many different recipes – with and without sugar, with dark chocolate, and with cocoa powder, with whole nuts, and with nut cream. We tried mixing different nuts, and different kinds of milk. We tried sweetening with dates, various syrups, and coconut sugar.
And we have to admit, it was a very yummy journey!
And then, we finally found it! The PERFECT combination of everything. A wonderfully balanced flavor and a creamy texture. And the healthiest option there was!
When thinking about what content to share on this blog, we immediately agreed that we wanted to share our favorite and most delicious recipes with you – sweet and savory. It can be hard sometimes – depending on where you live – to find healthy vegan options. Sometimes, especially if you are a "new" vegan, it is difficult to think of (or even find) fun, easy, and balanced recipes to make at home. So we are going to try and share as many as possible with you. We are planning on creating a collection of delicious and easy recipes for you to recreate!
Also, feel free to change up anything you like and make every recipe your own. Most ingredients can be substituted according to personal preference or dietary restrictions.
For example, for today's recipe, you could try substituting for different nuts or find other ways to sweeten your chocolate spread. We encourage you to experiment and adjust ingredients to change the level of sweetness or texture of the hazelnut spread.
No matter what you do with it, I am confident you are going to love it!
So let's stop the chit-chat, and dive right into today's blog post! We cannot wait to share our recipe with you!
(Video version down below)
THE RECIPE*:
*makes one jar
You are going to need:
3 hand-fulls of hazelnuts
3 tbsp of cocoa powder
1 tbsp of maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
100-150 ml of sugar-free oat milk (depending on your preferred texture)
1 pinch of salt
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Spread hazelnuts on a baking sheet and put into the oven for 8-12 min. (If you bought roasted hazelnuts just leave the hazelnuts in for 5-8 min) Heating up the hazelnuts in the oven is going to bring out all the wonderful oils and flavors of the nut. This will ensure that your spread turns out soft and smooth. In addition, it allows the skin to peel off easier.
Take nuts out of the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes.
Spread nuts out on a paper or kitchen towel. Then, gently peel off the skin with your fingers. Do not worry if the skin does not come off completely. That is totally fine! You just want to make sure to get rid of as much as possible of the excess skin on the nut.
Put nuts into a blender and blend on medium for about 10 min. If needed, scrape down the sides to make sure that the nut butter is evenly mixed.
Now put in the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth: The oat milk (just a little bit to begin with), the cocoa powder, the maple syrup, the vanilla extract, and some salt. If the mousse seems too stiff, you can always add in some extra oat milk.
Once you feel like your hazelnut chocolate spread is super smooth and ready to be eaten, transfer it from the blender into a jar of your choice.
And now enjoy! :)
Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator!
If you prefer the video version to see how we made our vegan Nutella, check it out right down below!
Feel free to share your thoughts on the recipe with us in the comments!
Also, let us know if you tried the recipe and what adjustments you made. We would love to hear about it! Check out our post on Immune Boosting Foods if you have not already. Spoiler Alert: Chocolate made it on the list. Follow us on Instagram for more food-related content.
Until next week! Stay kind!
xx HOLI BLOG Team