So, I never realized that I had an adverse reaction to walnuts until after I had eaten them soaked. Before that I didn’t eat a lot of walnuts because they tended to always be bitter. Sadly, I’m not a super-taster like my husband, but I could still recognize the strong aftertaste of a handful of raw walnuts right out of the bag. I wouldn’t say I avoided them but I didn’t ever search them out either.
On my whole foods journey I discovered that nuts should be soaked and dried. {Why did I never know this?} This helps to removes phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors in the nuts making the nutrients more available for your body. It gets rid of the bitter taste too.
I always soak our nuts at home now. Although I have tried raw nuts elsewhere, I now recognize that raw, unsoaked walnuts will invariably give me a temporary mouth ulcer within 15 minutes of consuming them. The ulcer lasts from a few hours to a day or two.
I usually prepare a couple pounds of nuts at a time. The best price I’ve found for them is at a local health food store in their bulk room. I’ve even scored LOCAL walnuts which I didn’t even know was a thing. Yes, I know walnuts grow in PA and we do have a walnut tree up by our barn but honestly, I’d never eat walnuts if I had to crack the darned things. I usually resort to throwing them back into the woods so I don’t mow over the baseball-sized balls. I am not always motivated to harvest.
Here’s how I soak my nuts. This applies to my most used soaked nuts – almonds, pecans and walnuts. It takes about five minutes of hands on time.
1) Pour nuts into a large stainless steel or glass bowl.
2) Cover with water and stir. Some people add a little bit of salt here but I never have.
3) Stir sporadically through out the day.
4) At about 4 hours, dump water, rinse nuts and cover again with fresh water.
5) Between 6 hours and up to 12 hours, dump water, rinse nuts and put into dehydrator. {I usually just soak mine overnight} You may also use your oven but do it on the lowest temperature and keep the door slightly ajar. Watch them carefully.
6) Dehydrate until crunchy and no more moisture remains.
7) Store nuts in freezer and pull out only what you need for each recipe.
Soaked nuts can be used just as any other nuts are used although I have noticed that they are less oily. This may only be an issue if you try to make any kind of butter out of it such as pecan butter or walnut butter. In that case, you would need to add some other responsibly-sourced oil.
{ Here’s a chart if you’d like to see how long to soak other nuts and seeds. }