Recipe reproduced with permission from Glenda Bishop. Glenda is a Registered Nutritionist, wellness coach, neuroscientist and educator.

One of my favourite things to eat as a snack is toast spread with nut butter, because, well… nut butters are delicious. I also like to eat nut butter on toast because it’s more filling than toast spread with jam or vegemite. But I especially love to eat nut butters because they are an excellent way to boost your intake of dietary fibre, protein and minerals, which can be very helpful when you’re on a restricted diet due to food intolerances.

Before switching to a low FODMAP diet, I mostly ate almond butter, hazelnut butter or a mixed nut and seed butter that contained both almonds and cashews. However, with the amount you need to get a decent spread on the toast, these options are high FODMAP and are now off the menu. Of course there’s still the wonderfully low FODMAP peanut butter, but eating the same thing every day gets a bit boring.

So I decided to make my own nut butter using low FODMAP nuts, but not peanuts. The result was this seriously delicious Roasted Macadamia, Walnut and Maple Butter.

Roasted Macadamia Walnut and Maple Butter square 2.jpg

The good thing with this particular combo is that macadamias and walnuts are both fairly soft nuts, especially after they’ve been roasted, so they grind down to a smooth paste quite easily. You will still need a food processor or blender to make it, but it’s one of the quickest and easiest nut or seed butters I’ve tried making so far.

Great, so now you have a lovely low FODMAP nut butter, but what can you do with it?

My preferred serving suggestion is to eat it simply spread on toast – normally I use a sourdough spelt bread, but whatever bread you can tolerate is fine. It’s also seriously delicious spread on waffles or pikelets/pancakes. And just like other nut butters, you can of course eat it with crackers or dip vegetable sticks into it. It’s even delicious stirred into porridge or blended into smoothies. The only limit is your imagination.

Roasted Macadamia, Walnut and Maple Butter

Makes: about 1 and 1/4 cups

Serving size: 1-2 tbsp

Special equipment: You will need a food processor or blender to make the nut butter, but it certainly doesn’t have to be a top of the range model with these softer nuts.

Ingredients

· 150g macadamias

· 150g walnuts

· Pinch of salt

· 2 tsp pure maple syrup

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.

2. Put macadamias and walnuts onto an oven tray and spread them out in a single layer. Roast nuts in the oven for 15 minutes – watch them carefully though because nuts can burn easily because of their high fat content. Then remove from the oven and cool for at least 5 minutes.

3. Transfer the nuts to the bowl of a food processor and blitz until a smooth paste forms, occasionally stopping to scrape down the sides. At first, the nuts will become crumbly like a meal, but keep the processor going until it transforms into a thick liquid as the oils release. In my processor this takes about 90 seconds, but the strength of your processor will determine how long this takes. Once the nut butter has formed, stir in the salt and maple syrup.

4. Store in a jar or plastic container in the fridge. It will keep for at least a couple weeks.

Ingredient Notes*:

· Macadamias are blissfully low in FODMAPs and have a green light at 40g per serve.

· Walnuts have a green light at 30g per serve (they only become an issue with large servings of 135g).

· Pure maple syrup is a low FODMAP ingredient, but you could also use rice malt syrup, golden syrup or brown sugar if you preferred; however, it would change the flavour. Don’t use maple-flavoured syrup though because they can be high FODMAP.

*Based on current data obtained from the Monash University Low FODMAP Diet app

Rachel is a university qualified Clinical Nutritionist based in Balmain. She is also the busy working mum of two teenagers, so is practical and realistic with her advice . Rachel offers private consultations to improve your family's health and well-being. You can find her on Facebook and Instagram for more healthy tips and tricks.

If you'd like help implementing a low FODMAP diet I can help you. Find out more about my services here. If you’re after more delicious low FODMAP recipes go here.

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