We don’t drink beer, but I do have 4 glass beer mugs in my cupboards. Why? For raw smoothies, sundaes and parfaits of course! It seems as though at any given moment you can find raw nuts soaking on my counter. Usually I’m making cashew milk, vanilla pudding , or this granola. Nuts contain an enzyme inhibitor which makes them hard to digest. By soaking them (and rinsing them well in fresh water) you are removing this enzyme inhibitor, making them easier to digest, and giving your body access to all the nutrition available in nuts.
For my nut milk and pudding the process stops after soaking and rinsing. From there the nuts become food or drink. The granola, however, has one additional step. Dehydrating. Depending on how much you want to dehydrate, and your financial situation, there are a few options. The queen of all dehydrators is the Excalibur 9 Tray Dehydrator . If this is out of the question for you, there is a one called Nesco American Harvest. (We had a Nesco, but the plastic cracked after about 4 years of use.) Still unsure? You can use your oven, but it wont go as low as a dehydrator. Most ovens go to 170 or 150 so turn it off and on during the course of dehydrating to keep the temperature lower, using an oven thermometer.
My raw granola parfait is so yummy you may want to eat raw all the time 🙂
♥, Kelly
Raw Granola
Soak 4 cups of nuts and seeds. I like to use a cup each of almonds, cashews, walnuts and sunflower seeds, and let them soak about 5 hours. Rinse them really well in a bowl of fresh water and strain. Repeat several times.
Add ground spices to a small glass or dish:
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp sea salt
Add to large bowl:
2 tbs coconut oil, liquified
2 tbs honey or agave
Mix together oil and sweetener. Add the nuts to the bowl. Pour the spice mixture over the nuts and stir to combine all the ingredients. Dehydrate for 12 to 24 hours, until the nuts are dry. Layer the granola with fresh fruit and Vanilla Pudding. We also like to add dried fruit to the granola and eat it by the handful. (Note: Don’t forget you can click on the words above in bold.)
~M says
YUM! I wonder if you couldn’t dehydrate these nuts in a crockpot, possibly vented with a chopstick or wooden spoon to let the moisture escape (see crockpot365.blogspot.com for what I mean).
Do you soak your nuts together or do the almonds need to soak separately from the cashews, etc.?
Thanks for patiently answering all my questions! I’m new to soaked nuts and raw foods!
Kelly says
-M,
That’s interesting, I’ve never heard of that. I used my oven before I had a dehydrator, and I turned it off occasionally to keep the temperature at like 140. Then I would forget I had something in there dehydrating, and turn the oven on to 400 or something, and ruin what I was dehydrating! So after I did that a few times I went ahead and got a dehydrator 🙂 I use it all the time though. Andrew loves dehydrated apples especially. I’ve been meaning to dehydrate tomatoes – that sounds really yummy to me. And of course I love my raw carrot cookies and Christmas cookies.
I do soak my nuts together. I don’t follow all the raw rules you could say 🙂 I love reading raw books though. I think I have a couple of my favorites pictured on the right hand side of my blog.
Thanks for reading and thanks for asking questions!
~M says
Hey Kelly,
What is the shortest time you think is necessary to soak nuts? I forgot to soak my nuts this AM (to bake this evening)…is 4 hours sufficient? I don’t want to soak them too long…last time they soaked for 2 days and they never really dried out properly in the oven.
Thanks!
Kelly says
-M,
I sometimes only soak my cashews for 3 or 4 hours, but my walnuts, for instance, I like to soak closer to 7 or 8 hours.