Chrysoula’s Nuts
Like all my recipes these nuts are simple to make yet delicious. This recipe is a wonderful addition to your nibbles table and a great on-the-run healthy snack. With various holidays in the near future, this handy recipe can be used as a hostess or teacher gift (if nuts are allowed on the school premises) and makes for a wonderful edible gift for any occasion.
I have tried many flavour combinations to spice up nuts over the years and my children always ask me to go back to ‘Chrysoula’s Nuts’. My friend Chrysoula gave us these Union Square Café style nuts as a hostess gift years ago and they are by far the tastiest recipe…so far. I have tweaked it a little by replacing the sugar with maple syrup.
Depending on where my travels take me, will depend on what nuts I pop into the recipe. The recipe is really not fussy. This batch is made with what I had in the cupboard, which happened to be almonds and cashews, but my favourite nuts for this recipe are pecans and walnuts.
The buttery balance of a slightly salty nut with an aftertaste of a very mild pepperiness from the cayenne pepper and the lovely ending of the aromatic fresh tasting rosemary makes for a delicious snack. I love how the flavouring gets into the crevasses and coats the outside of the nuts.
I always like to try and learn something new when I am writing a post and these two facts about almonds and cashews I didn’t know:
Almonds play a role in increasing the healthy bacteria in the gut.
Cashews, in moderation, are good for lowering your cholesterol.
- 500 grams of unsalted, unroasted raw nuts
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 Tablespoons freshly chopped rosemary
- 1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup
- 1 level Tablespoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, Gas Mark 4 or 350ºF.
- Spread the nuts onto an oven tray, insuring you have a single layer.
- Bake the nuts without distractions for between 5-10 minutes or until the nuts are starting to turn a light brown colour.
- Remove the tray from the oven and set it aside.
- In a deep frying pan on low heat, add the chopped rosemary, cayenne pepper and salt, and dry fry the spices for a few seconds to release the natural flavours.
- Then add the butter and maple syrup, and stir until the butter has melted and all the spices have been incorporated.
- Switch off the hob.
- Add the nuts to the pan of butter and spices.
- The ratio will look like you have too many nuts for the butter mixture, keep stirring and they will all be perfectly coated in the spice mixture.
- The nuts can be served immediately or cooled and stored in an airtight glass jar.
Please don't be tempted to slot in another job other than melting the butter and stay in eyeshot of the nuts.
Some nuts will take a shorter time to brown and you need to be on hand to quickly remove them from the oven. It is devastating to throw away a tray of nuts, I speak from experience!
