Soaked whole raw almonds
Essentially the purpose of soaking the nuts is to neutralise enzyme inhibitors naturally present in the nuts to prevent them from sprouting prematurely. These enzyme inhibitors can make it harder for us to digest the nuts.
Regardless of the health benefits, the lightly salted flavour of the soaked nuts is lovely - without all the extra salt that is loaded onto commercially roasted and salted nuts - and their crunchy texture after being dehydrated makes then a very more-ish snack!
All you need to do is cover the nuts or seeds in water (filtered preferably) with a few inches to spare above them as they will swell, and stir in a little pure salt (not table salt, it contains undesirable additives). We use an Aussie sea salt to soak them in - about a half to one teaspoonful per kilo of nuts - so we are getting the benefit of a few extra minerals in there as well. Leave to soak overnight and drain well in the morning.
Almonds after drying
You can then dry them in a very low oven or use a dehydrator on it's lowest setting, which is what I do to avoid heating up my kitchen. Dry them until they snap when you try to break them; this can take up to 14-15 hours in my dehydrator for large whole nuts.
I always have jars of nuts - plain or mixed with other nuts or dried fruits - on our kitchen counter (next to the fruit bowl) to encourage the kids to snack on these instead of crackers and biscuits. Generally, a small handful of nuts will stave off their hunger pangs long enough for me to finish cooking dinner too ;-)
If you are interested, you can read more about soaking nuts and seeds here, here and here.
Cheers,
8 comments:
I have read this in Sally Fallon's book too but not done it to date. About how long in the oven Julie?
Wow. That sounds really interesting. I would really love to know more about your dehydrator as I have been thinking of getting one. Any information you could give would be great.
Thanks.
I soak my almonds to make almond milk ..So yummy
Hi Rose,
Around 12 hours should do it I think, although I don't use mine as it is fan-forced (and I can't turn the fan off). I think a conventional oven would work better, on a very low temperature (100'F). Every oven is different though so it might take longer in yours?
Hi Bruise Mouse,
I bought mine at a closing down sale for next to nothing as I didn't know how much I would use it. It is very basic with no temperature control, but I have used it extensively so I am now saving up my pennies for an Excalibur unit which have a good reputation and are adjustable. If you are starting out and not sure how much you wold use one I would definitely recommend getting a second hand basic unit and playing around with it first :-)
Cheers, Julie
Hi FarmGirl,
Yum, I love almosnd milk :-)
Neat idea, I never thought of soaking nuts before. I have smoked alot of them, and they do not last long at our house.
thanks for this post Julie. I will be trying this wih my next nut purchase.
Hi Julie, I love this post, finding it very interesting...do you have to dehydrate them, or can you eat them freshly soaked? hubby has teeth problems and used to enjoy eating nuts, but maybe this is the way? I would also like to learn more and try water kefir too...looking for a local source now.
love your blog, hope you are feeling better.
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