Thai Spiced Nuts Recipe

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If you ever had spiced nuts you would know they can be pretty addictive. That's if you have a great recipe for spiced nuts that actually taste great. Like this Thai spiced nuts recipe with cashews.

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• Ingredients needed
• How to make it
• Variations
• How to make this recipe vegan or Keto
• Serving suggestions
• Other recipes you might like
• Useful equipment for this recipe
• Thai Spiced Cashew Nuts
• Nutrition Facts

Let's be honest. Store-bought spiced nuts are not exciting and mostly pretty bad and tasteless. That's why I roll the homemade spiced nuts route and make my own.

More specifically these are Thai spiced cashews and they are extremely moreish and incredibly addictive.

They have all the spicy, fragrant, sweet, salty and sour flavours we all love so much in Thai food.

Needless to say but, this spiced nuts recipe is amazing with an ice-cold beer or well chilled white wine. Although, I snack on them all through the day, and then sprinkle them onto curries too when I have them at hand.

So, be warned and make a double batch straight away, as you'll be chomping through these in no time.

Ingredients needed

The ingredients for Thai spiced nuts are easy to get and you can buy most of these in either a supermarket or Asian store.

I used store-bought curry paste for this recipe as I hardly think any of you would make the paste from scratch just to roast some nuts. Plus, the ready-made curry paste actually does a very good job.

Saying that you could use this massaman curry paste if you want to make your own. Or, check back regularly as I am constantly adding new recipes for curry pastes you could possibly use instead.

• Cashew nuts - Use pre-roasted unsalted or raw good quality cashews.
• Curry paste - I used red curry paste but you could also make your own or use this massaman curry paste instead.
• Sugar - Regular fine white sugar, otherwise palm sugar, honey or agave syrup also works great.
• Lime - Fresh green limes.
• Lime leaves - Buy fresh or frozen.
• Egg - You will only need the egg white, so feel free to buy pasteurised egg white in a carton if you want.
• Soy sauce - Use a naturally brewed soy sauce.
• Fish sauce - Same goes for this. Use a good natural brand of fish sauce.
• Coconut Oil - extra virgin or else, use cooking oil.
• Seasoning - a touch of fine sea salt.

How to make it

Making this spiced nuts recipe requires no skill and only the ability to judge between when something is burnt or well caramelised. It's that easy.

PS. you obviously want it to be well caramelized;)

1. Turn the oven to 150C and roast the cashews for 10 minutes. This step is mainly to dry them out a bit as sometimes cashews are quite moist. Alternatively, you could also use pre-roasted cashews with no salt or anything added. Just make sure to keep an even closer look at them when roasting to make sure they don't burn.
2. Blend the lime leaves in a spice grinder or chop very finely with a super sharp knife.
3. Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl and spread out onto a baking tray lined with good quality parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
4. Turn the oven up to 165C and bake for about 25 minutes or until deep golden brown while giving the nuts a mix every 5 minutes or so. This is to make sure they brown evenly.
5. When you are happy with the colour, remove and let them cool down completely before storing in an airtight container in a cool dry place.

Variations

You can easily modify this spiced nuts recipe to your own taste. This is how:

• Nuts - Change the cashew nuts to any other nut. Like hazelnut, peanut, pecan or walnuts. Or, do a mixed spiced nuts recipe by using them in combination.
• Curry paste - Use different curry pastes. Like green curry paste, Indian curry paste, Georgian adjika or yellow curry paste. Even homemade sriracha will be interesting.
• Aromatics - Use finely chopped lemongrass along with the lime leaves or add some minced galangal.
• Seasonings - Change the soy sauce and fish sauce to other similar umami-rich sauces like Worcestershire sauce, anchovy essence or tamari.
• Sweetness - Use palm sugar, honey, maple syrup or agave syrup instead of normal white sugar.

How to make this recipe vegan or Keto

To make vegan spiced nuts - Remove the fish sauce from the recipe and make sure to use a fish sauce free curry paste. Also, remove the egg white and replace with a flax egg or simply remove.

What is a flax egg?

Simply flax or linseeds blended with water. How to make it?

Grind up 30g flax seeds or use storebought flax meal(the same kind I use in this flax sourdough bread). Soak in 90g water for 30 minutes. You will end up with a gloopy kinda slime. Gross but it works great as an egg substitute in this recipe and in other baked goods like carrot cake.

You could also use chia seeds instead. Same measurements and the same instructions. Same-same no difference:)

To make it keto - Remove the sugar from the recipe and mix through a touch of stevia when they come out of the oven. Do not roast with stevia as it will get bitter.

If you're vegan and keto then combine the above two and voila! Keto vegan spiced nuts are yours.

Serving suggestions

Naturally, spiced nuts go great with drinks. Especially beers, ales and other fermented drinks like white wine. For an alcohol-free friend with your roasted Thai cashews. Try the following.

• With other Asian foods like this Massaman curry, this coconut chicken curry, this beaten Chinese cucumber salad or crush up and sprinkle on top of this Indian butter chicken.
• Their also a nice little side snack along with other salads and appetisers like creamy tahini coleslaw, this pea mint and feta dip, this seabass crudo or these roasted Romano peppers.
• Speaking of snacks and beer. They are an easy pass around at BBQ time when making crispy pork belly, braai sides, grilled angelfish, lamb koftas or Middle Eastern lamb chops.
• No time to make a breakfast sandwich or baked eggs? Have a handful of spiced nuts. They saved me many times.
• With other soft drinks like this beetroot and apple juice, this 3-citrus lemonade or this summery strawberry lemonade.
• They are also great crushed up and sprinkled on to other side dishes like this silky smooth mashed potatoes, this versatile creamed spinach, or even when making the perfect rice and serving with this amazing Filipino beef adobo.

Other recipes you might like

If you like food with a bit of character you will love the following recipes:

• Couscous - Morrocan spiced and perfect with Mom's roasted leg of lamb.
• Whole Roasted Cauliflower - Rubbed with homemade adjika.
• Sriracha - Easy homemade fermented hot sauce with huge flavour.
• Parmesan biscuits - My other favourite snack with drinks.

Useful equipment for this recipe

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