Today is a great day because I have a Healthy Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut "Nutella" Spread recipe for you to enjoy.
Believe me...I've eaten my share of Nutella back in the day. And everyone else's share as well!
Once I started paying attention to food labels and ingredients, I realized it was basically nothing but refined sugar and palm oil with soy lecithin and empty calories with no nutrition at all, so I decided I needed to make a clean version.
Here's the ingredient list for the original Nutella Hazelnut Spread:
S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) Nutella Hazelnut Spread Ingredients:
Ingredients: Sugar, Palm Oil, Hazelnuts, Cocoa, Skim Milk, Reduced Minerals Whey (Milk) Lecithin as Emulsifier (Soy), Vanillin: An Artificial Flavor
The first ingredient listed is sugar and the second is palm oil, which means it is 70% saturated fat and 55% processed sugar by weight. And it's not vegan.
This healthier version is made with clean ingredients and is vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo-friendly and contains no refined sugar.
5 Fast Facts About Hazelnuts:
- one cup contains 86% RDA of vitamin E
- rich in heart healthy unsaturated fats
- super high in B vitamins (B1, B3, B5, B6 and B9)
- one ounce has 2.7 g of dietary fiber
- one serving has 90% RDA of manganese and 65% RDA of copper
5 Fast Facts About Coconut Oil:
- super high in lauric acid
- rich in antioxidants
- contains natural microbial and anti-bacterial agents
- improves metabolism and prevents fatigue
- improves cholesterol
5 Fast Facts About Vanilla Bean Powder:*
- anti-microbial
- high in antioxidants
- can help reduce inflammation
- contains small traces of minerals
- 1 tablespoon contains 2 g of fiber
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Karielyn's Expert Tips + Ingredient Substitutions
Tip #1: Make sure you process the mixture long enough for it to become very smooth and creamy. It will still taste good if it's a little "grainy", but will have a texture more like Nutella if you process it long enough to get smooth.
Tip #2: You can use between 1 and 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips, depending on how sweet you'd like it. I find that using 1 cup gives it a mild sweetness and using 1 ½ cups make it more sweet and more similar to the real Nutella (which in my opinion is a little too sweet).
Healthy Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut "Nutella" Spread
Ingredients
- 3 cups organic raw hazelnuts
- 1 ½ cups Enjoy Life mini-chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon organic coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon organic vanilla bean powder
- 1-2 pinches Himalayan pink salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the hazelnuts to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 12-15 minutes, keeping a close eye on them so they don't overcook (they will burn if you leave them in too long).
- Remove from oven and allow the hazelnuts to completely cool.
- Using your fingers, peel off as much of the skins of the hazelnuts as you can (you don't have to get them all perfect).
- Add the hazelnuts to a food processor and process until they turn into hazelnut butter. This will take approximately 5-7 minutes as the hazelnuts turn from nuts, to nut flour and then to nut butter. Stop and scrape the side every couple of minutes to help it along.
- While the hazelnuts are in the food processor, add the chocolate chips and coconut oil to a small sauce pan and melt them on low heat, stirring the entire time so it doesn't burn. Set aside until the hazelnuts are ready.
- Once the hazelnut butter is smooth and creamy, add the melted chocolate chips, vanilla bean powder and Himalayan pink salt. Continue to process until everything is well blended and the mixture is smooth and creamy (not grainy).
- Store in an air tight BPA-free container.
- Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
The recipe and photographs for "Healthy Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut "Nutella" Spread" by Karielyn Tillman of The Healthy Family and Home™ website are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International License and cannot be used without my written permission.
Recipe Roundups: Food Bloggers are always welcome to use a photo and a link back to my original post to share on recipe roundups without requesting permission.Nutrition Information
Copyright Notice
The instructions, notes, and photographs for this recipe by Karielyn Tillman of The Healthy Family and Home™ website are copyrighted material. This copyrighted work is protected and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International License and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and cannot be legally used without my written permission.
Want More Healthy Gluten-Free Vegan Dessert Recipes?
Check out these:
- Healthy Peanut Butter Cups
- Pomegranate and Dried Blueberry Chocolate Bark
- Vanilla Maple Cashew Butter
- or my Clean Eating Cookbook with an entire chapter of dessert recipes just like this one that you will love!
Did You Make This Recipe?
I'd love to hear about it! Please give it a rating a leave a comment below...it would make my day! 🙂
Vanessa Wagner says
Hi, I just made this "nutella" spread and I love it. I think my spread tastes more like "ferrero rocher" (I live in Germany, so I do not know if you can buy it in the us) but it tastes really good! The texture is grainy because I don't have a vitamix but that doesn't bother me at all. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us! I will try a lot of new recipes. 🙂
Karielyn says
Hi there Vanessa! Big greetings to you in Germany and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe!
I've made it in both a food processor and a Vitamix and sometimes I'm not patient enough to process it long enough for it to get smooth, but the grainy texture doesn't bother me either.
I'm just glad I'm able to enjoy a much healthier version of the Nutella I was previously addicted to that is bad, bad, bad.
And tasting like a Ferrero Rocher is definitely not a bad thing lol!
Thank you for trying out the recipe and I appreciate you taking the time to leave feedback to let me know 😉