Peanut butter: good for more than sandwiches

This versatile pantry staple can go sweet, savory or spicy

Published July 12, 2022

While we may think that peanut butter— the “paté of childhood”— is a distinctly North American food, the Incas were making and using it hundreds of years before John Harvey Kellogg introduced it at his famed U.S. sanitarium in the late 1800s. Peanut butter must have been on the world food radar though; at about the same time, Québécois chemist Marcellus Gilmore Edson filed a patent for peanut paste, basically the same as what we know (and love) as peanut butter.

As long as we’re discussing surprising things, here’s another: Who do you think is the biggest producer, and user, of peanut butter? China. That’s where almost half the world’s total production of peanut butter happens, and you can bet they’re not using it for PB&J sandwiches.

The truth is that peanuts are a powerhouse food, loaded with easily digestible proteins, fiber, vitamins like E and B and nine essential amino acids. They’re inexpensive and easy to grow and have been shown to help lower cholesterol too. Peanut butter in its purest form is simply ground roasted peanuts with a little salt, and while our go-to form of eating it may be paired with strawberry jelly and spread between two slices of bread, other cultures have developed much more interesting (and delicious) ways of incorporating it into their diets, like the Spicy Peanut Sauce below. Versatile, easy and delicious, you can use it with all kinds of shrimp, veggie, chicken, beef and noodle or rice dishes. Atole — which you may know — takes on a rich flavor with peanut butter added; and the Chicken & Mango Soba Salad, while Thai in origin, translates perfectly to Mexican ingredients.

I can’t find natural peanut butter where I live, and so I’ve learned to make it myself, thanks to a friend’s suggestion. She uses a blender; I use a food processor. It’s not quite as smooth and creamy as I’d like, but still does the trick.

If you have a source for raw or fresh-roasted peanuts, by all means use those, but commercially roasted, easily available cacahuates salados or dry-roasted peanuts will work too. The only caveat is that packaged peanuts for snacking often have more salt than you’d want in peanut butter, so taste them before using. If you can find unsalted ones, that’s best. (Raw peanuts should be roasted before using to make peanut butter, at 177 C/350 F for about 25 minutes, stirring once. Cool completely before using.)

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