It looks like peanut butter. It smells like peanut butter. It even tastes like peanut butter. The trick here is…there is not one nut in this spread!
Nuts seem to be one of the things I’m not allergic to when it comes to food. Thank goodness. I don’t know what I’d eat if I couldn’t have my peanut butter (or my preferred almond butter!). But I tend to buy those organic and that can mean a lot of money for one small jar.
Then, my mom texted me one day and told me about a gluten-free brand of nut-free “peanut butter” that actually tastes like peanut butter despite the fact there are no nuts in it. I was intrigued and sought it out.
I.M. Healthy Soy Nut Butter is the product. And I was quite leery about purchasing it at first. After all, I can have most peanut butters as long as they are gluten-free. But, my mom raved about it…and I was visiting somewhere that would have kids around with peanut allergies. Just in case one got into the pantry, I didn’t want to be responsible for them having a serious allergic reaction to peanut butter. So, I.M. Healthy Soy Nut Butter came home with me.
I bought the chunky kind, although it does come in a wide variety: creamy, chunky, honey, unsweetened, and chocolate. But I have a soft spot in my heart for chunky peanut butter so, I went with the chunky variety here. One morning, I spread a bit of it across my Udi’s gluten free bagel and had a taste.
My mom was absolutely correct! It tasted just like peanut butter! I was really impressed. The texture was awesome. The flavor was amazing. And if I had done this in a blind testing, I never would have pegged this as not having nuts in it.
I.M. Healthy Soy Nut Butters have absolutely no peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, dairy, egg, wheat (gluten), or shellfish. And the product is manufactured in a plant that does not house any of these products so there is no cross-contamination. That’s awesome. What this product is made from is soybeans. And in this particular kind, the chunks are roasted soybeans that add a bit of a crisp texture to the spread.
It was so much better than I expected. In fact, since departing from the home I was visiting, I now have the creamy variety in my pantry. And, depending on where I shop for it…much cheaper than my organic peanut butter and almond butter.
No peanuts? No worries. You can’t even tell. Even if you don’t have a food allergy, I recommend giving these a try. They are far and away the closest thing to peanut butter without actually having peanuts in them. Kudos to a company for taking a common food allergy and bringing around a product that is so close to the real thing…if you didn’t know better…you’d swear it was.
The Celiathlete 