The Best Sacha Inchi Butter – And How To Make It
Quick Answer
The best sacha inchi butter is easy to make at home using just sacha inchi seeds. Follow these steps:
- Blend toasted sacha inchi seeds in a processor until smooth.
- Optionally, add melted coconut oil or sweeteners for flavor.
- Store in an airtight container.
Read on for more detail
Seed butter has grown in popularity at almost exactly the same rate as peanut butter has become more and more difficult to enjoy in public areas.
With peanuts being one of the most common and dangerous food allergies, children and adults alike have been searching for a way to enjoy their favorite sandwiches without risking the lives of their friends and acquaintances.
Equally on the rise are superfoods. Sacha inchi brings these two popular worlds together and delivers a delicious, high nutrition seed butter option that is safe for almost everyone.
So what is the best sacha inchi butter? Sacha inchi butter itself might be tricky to find, but with the right supply of seeds, you can make the butter yourself.
This article will not only teach you how to make the best sacha inchi butter in your own home, but it’ll also elaborate on all the benefits that you’ll enjoy beyond the delightful taste.
What is Sacha Inchi?
Sachi Inchi is a really unique and nutritious seed that’s indigenous to Peru. It has risen on the superfood scene in the past few years, but it’s relatively difficult to come by because it’s really only grown in Peru.
This makes it a bit of a premium product, but once you understand the myriad of benefits packed inside the star-shaped seed, you’ll be happy to splurge.
Often considered a nut, partly due to its flavor and partly due to its nickname of Incan peanut, sachi inchi has become a popular ingredient in vegan-friendly protein powders and seed butter as well as beauty products made with the oil of the seed.
If you eat the seeds themselves or sacha inchi butter, they have a nutty, umami flavor that’s quite delicious. They’re large, as far as seeds go, closer to the size of a small almond or pistachio as compared to a sunflower seed. They grow on a climbing plant, packaged in a pretty star-shaped shell.
Sacha Inchi Benefits
Sacha Inchi is considered a super seed for good reason: it’s full of high-quality nutrition with little to no downside. If you’re following a plant-based diet, you’ll be happy to hear that sacha inchi is considered a complete protein, so you don’t have to spend any time trying to figure out what to pair it with to get all your amino acids.
In a ¼ cup serving size, the basic macro-nutrient profile consists of:
- 170 calories total
- 13 grams of fat, of the heart-healthy variety
- 5 grams of carbohydrates, of which
- All 5 grams are fiber, making it a net 0 carb count
- 8.5 grams of complete protein
Let’s talk a little bit more about the fats. Most people have heard about Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. A health-conscious goal is to eat a diet that balances the two types of fat in a ratio of a maximum of 4:1, with Omega-6 being in higher supply.
Unfortunately, Omega-6 are plentiful in fried and processed foods, and most Americans have a ratio closer to 12:1 or even more disproportionate than that. This can lead to chronic inflammation, heart disease, arthritis, cancer, and other diseases.
Sacha Inchi seeds can help you balance these essential acids back out. That ¼ cup serving provides 37% of your recommended daily intake of Omega-3s and only 11% of Omega-6s, which will help counterbalance the 6s coming form meat, dairy, eggs, and oils used in fried and processed foods.
There’s a lot more going on inside these seeds than just protein and fat though.
They are a great source of fiber and won’t spike your blood sugar levels, so they’ll keep you feeling satiated without over-taxing your insulin response.
They’re also high in iron and antioxidants that play a pivotal role in healthy aging, namely Vitamin E, carotenoids and polyphenols. Think fewer wrinkles, more lustrous hair, better eyesight, and less disease.
Sachi Inchi Butter Ingredients and Supplies
Making sacha inchi butter isn’t overly difficult, but you will need a good supply of quality seeds and a few helpful tools to make the process go as smoothly as your resulting, decadent butter.
1. Imlak’esh Organics Sacha Inchi
Check current price on Amazon.
This supplier is our top pick for two main reasons: the organic, ethically sourced product and the fact that you can buy the seeds in bulk, saving you money and time in the ordering process.
Key features:
- The seeds are lightly toasted, making them a delicious snack as well as perfect for making your Sachi inchi butter with
- The container it’s shipping in is recyclable high-grade plastic, so you can reuse it at your local bulk food store as needed
Biggest drawbacks:
The product is sourced from Southeast Asia. Ideally, you’d want your sacha inchi to come from it’s native Peru, but the company does go to great lengths to ensure that the seeds are ethically harvested under free trade agreements and organic conditions, so the drawback has a silver lining.
2. NutraMilk Nut Milk Butter Processor
Check current price on Amazon.
Part of making a great seed or nut butter of any kind is getting the ingredients nice and smooth, but not runny. You don’t want to have to add a lot of oil in order to keep your processor working.
This means either you need a food processor with a good amount of power and high-quality blades, or you need a device that is specifically made for the creation of creamy, delightful, homemade nut and seed butters.
The NutraMilk Nut Milk Butter Procesor is just such a specialized machine, and we think it’s brilliant.
Key features:
- it’s very easy to use, allowing you to make butters from nuts and seeds as easily as milks
- It can process up to 5 cups of nuts or seeds in minutes without setting fire to your kitchen appliance because the motor blew out
- It’s dishwasher friendly, which is marvellously handy when trying to clean up after oily nuts and seeds
- It comes with a cookbook as well, giving you more than 200 delicious recipes to try out, after you’ve mastered the sacha inchi recipe below of course
Biggest drawbacks:
The only real drawback is the price tag. It’s a specialized unit made for creating a bit of a difficult product and it does that really well, but it’s only going to be worth the expense if making your own nut and seed milks and butters is something you plan on doing at least semi-regularly.
DIY Sacha Inchi Butter
Making sacha inchi butter is relatively easy, though depending on your processor might require some patience. You don’t need to follow a specific recipe, you simply need to add your seeds to your processor and blend until they’re as smooth as you can get them.
You can create 100% sacha inchi butter adding nothing else, or you could drizzle in a tablespoon of melted coconut oil and/or a tablespoon of honey or maple syrup for a little added sweetness.
Using a nut butter processor vs standard processor:
- If you opt for the recommended nut butter processor above, you’ll have your sacha inchi butter in just a few minutes.
- If you’re working with a standard food processor, you’ll need to have a silicone spatula to hand, and every 30 seconds or so you’ll want to stop the processor, tap down the seeds, and then process some more.
Depending on your unit’s power and blades, you may need to give it a rest after a few minutes to allow it to cool down. Nut and seed butters are a lot of work for a processor, so patience is a crucial ingredient.
Starseed Sacha Inchi Butter
If DIY isn’t your forte, or if you’d like to taste sacha inchi butter before taking the time to make your own, Starseed has a great selection of butters for you to enjoy. They offer their organic butter in the original flavor as well as chocolate or caramel. You can find it here on Amazon.
Key features:
- The butters are packaged in single serving packages, so you know exactly how much you’re eating at a time
- They are smooth, creamy and completely hassle-free
- The products are very health-conscious, being made from not only organic seeds but also leveled up with organic cane juice and sea salt, completely vegan, non-GMO and gluten-free
Biggest drawbacks:
Sacha inchi is a rare crop when compared to the commercialized production of many other seeds and nuts, so finding high-quality products made from these seeds means that you pay a bit of a premium. Treat these single servings like the premium, gourmet healthy treats they are, and try not to compare them to mass-marketed cheaply produced peanut butter.
Related Questions
What does Sacha Inchi taste like?
Depending on your palette, the taste may vary. Most people agree that while you’re munching, Sacha Inchi seeds are distinctly nutty.
However, it has a rather noticeable finish which some will call umami and others claim it’s downright fishy.
Umami is one of the 5 basic flavors of food, but if you’re used to a diet rich in animal proteins and processed foods, your taste receptors are going to be quite different from someone who is used to a diet in plant-based whole foods.
Is Sacha Inchi safe?
Truth be told, sacha inchi hit the superfood scene in a blaze of glory with few, long-term scientific studies surrounding the seed.
Unless you have an allergic reaction to them, there are no serious known side-effects to these seeds and plenty of well-documented benefits to the nutrients in the seeds.
As with anything, however, if you consume copious amounts, you can have too much of a good thing. These seeds are high in fat, though it is considered healthy fat, so you do want to moderate your intake responsibly.
How much Omega 3 should be consumed daily?
In an already healthy diet for a generally healthy person, most health organizations agree that you should try to eat between 250 – 500 mg of Omega-3 per day, preferably in a combination of EPA and DHA which are mainly found in fatty fish and algae.
If you’re vegan or vegetarian, you need to consume considerably more because the body doesn’t utilize plant-based Omega-3 (ALA) as well as animal-derived sources. Also if you have high triglycerides or a few other health disorders, increasing Omega-3 beyond the RDI intake might improve your health.