**This post is part of a month-long series as I participate in the Salad as a Meal Challenge.
A great way to add texture, flavor, and nutrients to a salad is to add toppings. One of my favorite toppings to add is nuts–gluten-free, crunchy, and healthy. Salad as a Meal has a recipe for curried pumpkin seeds that would be great as a salad topping…except I really don’t like pumpkin seeds at all. I had some leftover raw almonds and cashews from a couple of recent recipes, so I decided to adapt the recipe to make some roasted nuts.
I’ve been trying for a while to come up with a good savory roasted nut (plenty of candied nut recipes already). However, I’ve had trouble getting the spices to stay stuck to the nuts. I tried using an egg white but that ended up burning the first time and the nuts were under-roasted the second time since I pulled them out early to avoid time #1’s problem. I tried using water to wet the nuts and then toss the nuts in the spices, but that didn’t work so well either. So when I saw that Patricia uses soy sauce in her recipe, I had renewed hope. And it worked great! The spices stuck, nothing burned, and they were wonderfully delicious! Thanks Patricia! [Note: This is not the recipe from Salad as a Meal, but is inspired by it.]
Do you prefer sweet or savory roasted nuts? What’s your favorite flavor combination? Leave a comment to be entered to win a copy of Salad as a Meal!
Soy-Ginger Roasted Nuts
Ingredients:
2 cups raw nuts
1 Tbsp gluten-free soy sauce
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp garlic powder
Directions:
- Toss nuts in soy sauce until well coated. Combine spices and sprinkle over nuts, tossing to coat. Spread on a greased baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until nuts are golden.
The cost:
nuts: 5.99
pantry items: <1.00
Grand total: $6.99
Love this idea, Rella! I’m definitely a savory girl
Love that you tried this. I had it on my list now I’ll definitely do they look so good!
I will now be trying this recipe. I don’t care for nuts in my salads, but after thoroughly enjoying the peanut-sesame seed topping in the Vietnamese chicken salad, I now totally appreciate the texture they add. Sold on the almonds from such a delicious looking close-up!
Yum!!! These sound fantastic!!
[…] the essential elements of a salad, and this week she discusses toppings and protein. First, Rella adapted Patricia’s recipe for Curried Pumpkin Seeds, and yesterday she went on an egg poaching […]
Wow! Lovely photos. Thank you for participating!