Saturday, February 14, 2015

"Nuteena"





Quite a few years ago Loma Linda stopped making Nuteena. Our family just happens to love Nuteena, so this last week I tried a recipe that others claimed to be very similar. I had never made it before and I wanted to give it a try and a review. It tasted very good, but I think that it could be improved upon in order to truly replace Nuteena. I will save that for a future project to try someday, but for now this is quite good in its own right.  

Brown lightly until golden brown:
1 cup flour

Do NOT over brown. Making it too dark can alter the flavor of the recipe. Do NOT use if it is burned. 

Blend together:
2 cups peanut butter, natural only
1 cup water



This step just about made my Vita-Mix Blender go crazy. I don't know if I would want to try it again the way that I did it. I certainly would not try this in a normal blended unless I wanted to burn it up so I could throw it away and get a new Vita-Mix. I think that the water and peanut butter should be mixed together some before they are added to the blender, but I haven't tried that yet. 


Blend everything all together with:
3 cups tomato juice
1 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. onion powder


Pour into 3-4 well buttered pans. I used 4 -15oz. cans. I sprayed mine with cooking spray.


Cover cans with aluminum foil and steam on low heat in a large covered kettle on a rack for 3+ hours with 2-3 inches of water at the bottom of the kettle at all times. 


After they were cooked I cooled the cans and released the edges with a knife. Then the "Nuteena" can slip out of the cans. 

Prepare it any way that you prefer, hot or cold. It is good sliced and used in sandwiches. Some people chop in up and add other fixings to it. 

My family likes it sliced, baked in the over on a greased baking sheet, and served hot with cold applesauce on it. 



Wrap any remaining "Nuteena" in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator. 

 I found this nice retro photo online of an original can of Nuteena. The cans were bigger than the one I used. If the big cans are used in this recipe, I would use three of them instead of four.



11 comments:

  1. While I enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures, I have to say, I never liked Nuteena and have been happy to see it gone from the shelves at the ABC. However, my older brother loved the stuff. I will have to pass this on to his wife.

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    1. I was raised on the stuff and remember a friend visiting and asking what it was. We gave her a piece to try and she tasted it then ran to the bathroom to spit it out. I love it.

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  2. Just made this and thinking it does taste a lot like nuteena.

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  3. We made this and it turned out to be tasteful, but the added taste from the tomatoes distracted from the original Nuteena taste. Why are there tomatoes in this recipe anyway? The original ingredients of Nuteena never listed them (you can Google for them). I think the next batch we'll try without and see how it comes out...

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  4. I used 2 Tbsp. Tomato juice and 2 Tbsp. Water, a little enhances the flavor; too much is overpowering.
    And I used raw peanuts blended because peanut butter is too toasted to make nuteena. Also I use rice and cornmeal instead of flour, as what was in Nuteena. I just don’t use soy flour which was also in it. But it’s good!! I thicken stewed tomatoes and slice it in!

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  5. Tasted Nuteena around 1975 and never got over it. It was absolutely the worst thing I have ever tasted (can't say "have eaten" because I could not even swallow one bite of it.) I start to feel queasy just thinking about the heinous flavor.

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  6. Love Nuteena! Will have to try your recipe, but without the flour.

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  7. My aunt gave this to us when I was a girl 1950's. She mixed a can of Nuteena with some mayonnaise and served it as a sandwich filling on 7 grain buns. We all loved it. I made it in 1980's after finding it in a health food store. My husband loved it too. After we moved in 1992. I could not find it anymore.

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  8. Both my mom and my aunt made us peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches too 1950's and 60's.

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  9. Louis is glad to see it gone from the shelves. Ha ha ha, because no one else should be able to enjoy it either. Ha ha ha, yep, this is what I remember of old Adventists.

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    1. I love Nuteena and L.L. Sandwich Spread. I have made this recipe long ago in the '70s. My children, 1 yea and 1 nay. Hahaha

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