Yes indeed! I have started soaking my nuts!
So if you've read some previous entries you know the spark that finally lit my fire was terrible abdominal pain caused by gut damage and MSG exposures. So here I've been trying to eat clean, no more peanuts or peanut products, no more grains or soy, really trying to eat clean and start incorporating alot of primal/paleo eating ideals into my day to day life. Well I would notice I was still getting some abdominal discomfort after eating almonds. I bought raw almonds and still, bit of discomfort. I went back and read some emails from my friend and dear advisor and sure enough one of her old "gut damage" healing protocol emails suggested not eating nuts unless they had been soaked 4 to 6 hours. I did some reading and discovered that folks "soak their nuts" before eating them. I thought well what in the world is that for? I had a million questions, could you soak them ahead of time? did you have to soak them just before eating them? did they get mushy and soft? what was all this nut soaking about.
Then I came across this site http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/soaking-nuts.html and learned that you soak your nuts to weaken the enzyme inhibitors built into the nut which can cause digestive issues for those like me with gut damage. Apparently soaking the nuts can also help release beneficial enzymes. I figured what the heck, it's worth a shot.
So I purchased a package of raw almonds and put them in a mason jar filled with warm sea salt water (note here... don't use a mason jar... when the almonds swell the tapered top makes it a pain in the bootay to get the nuts out) I left the almonds to soak overnight, then emptied the jar into a strainer (with the help of a butter knife..lol) and rinsed the almonds, removing any lose skins that came off during the soaking process.
I then spread the almonds on a cookie sheet and placed them into the oven to dry. The lowest setting on my oven is 170 so just slightly above the recommended 150 degrees. We just might have to invest in a dehydrator.
I don't like to leave the oven on when we're sleeping or not home since we have a gas oven, so I dried the almonds in the oven until bedtime last night, then again this morning when we woke up, then after we returned from the farmer's market, on through the afternoon.
I ended up taking the almonds out of oven around mid-day because I was planning to roast a chicken to use for more bone broth so I decided to package the almonds in ziplock bags. It was about this time I got the great idea to get creative. I decided to put a little bit of olive oil in each bag with different seasonings and invited my husband to get in on the creative fun. We came up with Southwest Chipotle Seasoning (Mrs. Dash), Dill weed, Cinnamon, Chili Powder and one batch of plain. We put the seasoning into the bags and then massaged the seasoning and oil around all the almonds. Once the oven had cooled from the chicken roasting, I created little dividers in the foil and returned the almonds to the oven for a couple more hours.
Once they were done drying and cooling I put them back into the zip lock bags and put those labeled zip locks into the freezer (since its my first time soaking and drying nuts I want to be sure that they don't have the chance to mold if I missed any moisture) I am very excited about the different flavor possibilities and look forward to getting creative with our daughter and seeing what sort of flavor combinations she comes up with too.
Plus it's alot of fun to say "I'm soaking my nuts" :) Enjoy
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