Given my love for all things Peanut, over the years, I found many new ways of incorporating Peanut butter in my meals and life seems more satisfying 😉 Today I am making a low Cal, protein rich dip which tastes pretty much like Peanut butter and has such few calories that you can enjoy it guilt free.
Being a food blogger, I think It has become a habit to read the labels of food that i purchase. To confess, I was never into reading labels and did not really bother reading beyond the ‘calories, fats and serving size’! When I started though, I realized that most of the packaged food contains crazy amounts of sugars, fats, sodium and what not . I took it with a pinch of salt (pun intended) and decided to choose products wisely.
Then one day, i got to know about Crazy Richard’s Peanut Butter. Well you might think why Crazy. Well my explanation is simple – They use the craziest of ingredient in their PB. Any guesses?? Well, it is the humble Peanuts !! 😛 This Peanut Butter is made only with one ingredient – Peanuts. I was delighted to learn this and got in touch with the brand to taste test their products.
The Taste test:
As soon as the package arrived, i took out the creamy peanut butter to taste test. It had a layer of oil floating on the top but as i read, i figured out that since this PB has no random ingredients/stabilizers, the natural oils from the peanuts tends to separate. Once i stirred it through, i found the PB a little runny as compared to other PB brands. The Crazy Richard’s PB smelled just like roasted peanuts (which is a really good sign).
I was really excited to try it in different ways and so the very first thing i tried was to drizzle some right on top of my fruits along with some honey and sunflower seeds. I must say – I am so much in love with that combination !!
Recipe Inspiration
This actually gave me this great idea .. Why not try make a low- cal spread which would taste like peanut butter but have far lesser calories? That sounded awesome to me and i decided to go ahead and whip up a twin marbled spread which is inspired by my favorite combinations with PB – Chocolate/Nutella and Maple Cinnamon . I am using the goodness of fun easy ingredients which we all have in our pantry and making something which would be a conversation starter on your next party 🙂
Maple+Chocolate marbled peanut butter spread
Maple+chocolate marbled peanut butter spread
Ingredients
- Chickpeas- 1/2 cup , boiled
- Crazy Richard’s Peanut Butter – 3 tablespoons
- Maple Syrup- 2 tablespoons
- unsweetened Cocoa powder- 1 tablespoon (for the chocolate half of the marbled spread. You can use sweetened cocoa powder for a sweeter taste)
- Cinnamon powder- 1/2 tsp (for the Maple half of the marbled spread)
- Vanilla Extract -1/2 tsp
- Pinch of Salt (optional)
Method
Add the boiled chickpeas, peanut butter, vanilla extract and salt in a food processor and blend till smooth. Divide the mix into 2 parts.
Maple PB Spread –Take one part and add maple syrup and cinnamon in it and mix well.
Chocolate PB spread – Take the second part and add cocoa powder in it. Mix well.
Pour both the spreads in a bowl and swirl using the back of a spoon for a marbled effect. Serve with fruits, nuts, crackers or with toasts !
Doesn’t that look fun ? Well it tasted just as great ! I was surprised that chickpeas would do the trick of acting like a base for this dip and still not interfere with the natural taste of Peanut Butter. When i was living in Canada, i had got hooked to maple syrup and thus my first experimentation had to have some maple syrup. Maple syrup’s nutty sweet flavor compliments the peanut butter and brings a rich nuttiness to the spread. The cocoa powder brings in another dimension of flavor to the dip and together the two dips create a dramatic appeal 🙂
Note : The samples for this review was provided by Crazy Richard’s but the post contains my personal opinion about the product.
