Going Nuts with Almonds and Walnuts

ACTIVE PREP TIME: 1 MIN
PASSIVE PREP TIME: 8 HRS TO SOAK (OVERNIGHT) + 24 HRS TO DEHYDRATE

My family and I have become connoisseurs of nuts. We eat them raw as snacks, make non-dairy milk out of them and even pulverize them into non-dairy cheeses, dips and sauces. While they are known to be not only delicious but also very nutritious, I’ve learned that there is an art to properly preparing them to unlock that nutrition.

Let’s start with almonds and walnuts.

Almonds are botanically stone fruits (like cherries, apricots and peaches), so the nut that we eat is technically the seed of the almond fruit. They are also high in monounsaturated fats, just like olive oil, which is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, among many, many other benefits.

Walnuts are true nuts (not stone fruits like almonds). They look like little brains when you crack them open! They are the only nuts that contain high amounts of omega-3 essential fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid or ALA).

We purchase our almonds and walnuts from Nicholas Family Farms in Orange Cove, California. They are tasty & delicious and come raw, organic and unpasteurized.

Why Does It Matter That They Are Not Pasteurized?

Almonds labeled “raw” and purchased commercially, whether at your local kosher market or supermarket chains like Trader Joe’s, will almost certainly be pasteurized. (As far as I can tell, this law does not yet apply to walnuts.) Nearly all almonds grown in the United States, Canada and Mexico are either steam heat pasteurized or fumigated with propylene oxide (PPC) gas, according to a law put into place in 2007 (sources: World’s Healthiest Foods and The Almond Board). Steam-heating almonds may result in nutrient loss due to the heat, while fumigating with PPC gas may leave residue from this probable human carcinogen. One of the two exemptions is for growers that sell almonds directly to customers at local farmer's markets, in limited quantities. So the best place to purchase truly raw almonds is by asking your local organic almond farmer if they pasteurize their nuts.

What’s The Best Way To Consume Almonds And Walnuts?

You might have come across people who soak their nuts before eating them. This is popular in Middle Eastern cultures. There is a good reason for doing this. The hull (the outer coating) of many nuts (as well as the bran of seeds and grains!) contains a substance called phytic acid. This substance functions as an “anti-nutrient” that inhibits absorption of minerals such as calcium iron and magnesium by the body because bodies lack the enzyme to metabolize it. Soaking the nuts deactivates the phytic acid and activates the nutrients.

I usually take a cup each of almonds, walnuts (and sometimes pecans), throw them in a 64-ounce Mason jar with filtered water, and soak overnight (or for at least 8 hours). Then I rinse and shake a few times to remove the murky brown gunk (you want to throw this away).

Finally, I place them on a dehydrator sheet and dehydrate at 118°F for 24 hours. If you don’t own a dehydrator (which I strongly recommend purchasing; I own an Excalibur), you can use the oven at the lowest setting (ideally 150-170°F or lower) for 6-12 hours. Dehydrating at 118°F preserves the enzymes in the nuts and keeps them “raw”, while higher temperatures render them slightly “cooked”. This process is also more flavorful than unsoaked nuts.

Once they have been activated and dehydrated, they need to be stored in the refrigerator in an air-tight container so they don’t go rancid from the heat in your kitchen or pantry. I add Thompson raisins to the nuts to make a simple trail mix for my family to munch on while at school, at home or on a road trip.

The Health Benefits Of Preparing Your Own Snacks

Having kids at home and tending to busy work lives can make it difficult to find the time to prepare nutritious food. When you prepare your own food, though, you also gain the health and nutritional benefits that are otherwise lost through processing. Preparing nuts is a simple and effective way to shift from consuming processed snacks to going back to the source of best nutrition.

Cooking as a Form of Worship

Judith Jones is the publisher who championed Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. She was a tour de force of cooking literature and an advocate for home cooking.

Cooking is a very grounding process, an opportunity to connect to the source of your nourishment. There is a certain sanctity in being able to trace the origin of your food through the cooking process and onto your plate. It is a very different experience from popping open a package of factory-prepared and -processed food made from 20 ingredients and to which you have no emotional connection. Cooking is also the one act of food that is beyond nature, the process of transforming a food into something else.

I recently took my family on a camping trip to Sequoia National Park. My two young boys learned how to catch, clean and cook a fish. It was a powerful learning moment for them and a reminder to pause and reflect on what the earth had given us.

As an observant Jew who eats only kosher food, I have been taught that raw ingredients and the ability to consume are both provided by God. Having food, and being able to eat it, are not a given. Therefore, we say blessings both before consuming specific foods as well as after the meal, to acknowledge from where our food comes. It is our way of giving thanks.

The one area of food preparation in which we do exert control is the cooking process. By cooking our food, we act as partners with the Creator in molding something new – like bread, soup, quiche or crackers. There is ample reason to give thanks.

With these thoughts in mind, we should savor our food rather than devour it. We should commit to eating purposefully rather than instinctually. And we should approach cooking with intention, to elevate our food from the earthly to the sublime.

Cooking in an Open Fire

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver wrote that “I'm probably a bit romantic about it, but I think we humans miss having contact with fire. We need it.”

And indeed we do. My wife and I cook at home on a gas stove and oven every day. But I had forgotten the amazing sensation of cooking in an open fire – and of sitting around it afterward.

We went on a family camping trip to Sequoia National Park in July and got to do just that.

• Sending my kids to collect branches of firewood to feed the fire…

• Watching my brother-in-law kindling the 🔥…

• Wrapping the 🥔 🍠🍆 before placing them in the 🔥…

• Listening to the snap-crackle-pop of as they roasted on the open fire…

• Marveling as the flames licked the cool nighttime air…

• Holding still as the embers briefly pierced the space between us…

And after the fire had gone to sleep, there was quiet under the stars by our 🏕.

Those moments were very surreal.

More About Bell Peppers

hungarian bell peppers // locally grown at underwood farms

Bell peppers are not only delicious but also super, super healthy and healing.

When you get sick, you are taught to consume vitamin C, usually in the form of a citrus fruit. Did you know that peppers have an abundance of vitamin C – way more than citrus, in fact? Green peppers contain double the vitamin C by weight as citrus 🍊. And red and orange peppers 🌶  contain FOUR times as much! That makes them the #1 vegetable source of vitamin C (papaya is #1 overall). Red bell peppers also contain 11x more beta carotene than green bell peppers. Wowsers!

But wait…there’s more! Peppers are also high in phytonutrients carotenoids and flavonoids such as quercetin (a natural antihistamine) and kaempferol that protect the body from free radical damage.

This begs the question: Why are green peppers relatively lower in vitamin C and beta carotene than their more colorful companions? It turns out that they are the same pepper! A green pepper is merely a less ripe version.

How are you enjoying your peppers this summer? I like mine simple… straight out of the fridge and sliced.

Cherry Bomb Peppers

Ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!

If you want to turn up the heat this summer, try a cherry bomb pepper. These adorable innocent-looking fruits resemble fat cherries. (They are botanically fruits because they contain seeds.) The thick flesh has a sweet flavor that imparts little to no heat. But as the name suggests, your mouth is in for an explosion of heat if you eat the seeds.

Realistically, these peppers feel more like a mild jalapeño than a red hot chili pepper, ranking at 2,500-5,000 Scoville units. The Scoville scale measures the heat level, which is produced by capsaicin, the chemical that gives hot peppers their “hotness”.

Cherry bombs may be eaten raw (the flesh is not spicy, just the seeds), pickled as a side dish at a barbecue or stuffed and baked. Nevertheless, my kids had a blast (pun intended) tasting them!

Red, Orange and Yellow Bell Peppers

We love peppers. We can’t get enough of them this time of year! Predictably, my kids wanted to know where they come from and what they are best known for.

Peppers are nightshade vegetables (botanically related to cayenne, chili pepper, eggplant, tomatoes, goji berries and ordinary potatoes). This means that they contain lectin proteins to ward off insects and other predators. But they can cause gut issues in some people. Peppers were first cultivated in South America about 5,000 years ago and were introduced into Europe in the 16th century.

Peppers come in an astonishing bounty of colors, including red, orange, yellow, green, white, purple and brown. They also range from sweet (bell peppers) to hot and spicy (chili peppers 🌶). The carotenoids and flavonoids in these peppers are responsible for the vivid colors. The only pepper with no capsaicin, though, is the bell pepper.

Among the sweet varieties, what’s the taste difference between the colors? Green and purple peppers are more bitter and tangy, while red, orange and yellow are sweeter and almost fruity. While sweet bell peppers do contain a small amount of sugar, it is their lack of capsaicin (the alkaloid that gives hot peppers their “hotness”) that allows the sweetness to come through.

Already this season, we’ve brought home red, orange, yellow, green and brown bell peppers. And did you know that paprika is derived from ripened, dried and powdered sweet bell peppers? My kids will be excited to know that their favorite spice is in fact derived from a pepper!

Almond Milk: Make It From Scratch

ACTIVE PREP TIME: 10 MIN TO MAKE MILK
PASSIVE PREP TIME: 8 HRS TO SOAK NUTS (OVERNIGHT)

Why Eating Healthy Food Is Important

Every person wants to have enough energy, not get sick too often and maintain optimal functioning of the body. Unfortunately, most food in the typical Western diet – packaged foods, high-calorie, high-sugar, low-fat foods, drains the body of energy and builds toward disease. On the other hand, nutrient-dense, life-sustaining whole foods boost energy, optimize bodily function and heal the body, thus building toward health. In my own experience, I lost 20 pounds, my sinus issues became manageable, the seasonal allergies became a minor nuisance and my energy began to return.

One small example of what changed is that I stopped drinking cow’s milk about 6 years ago, gave up the heavily processed Blue Diamond and Silk almond milks and began making my own almond milk.

The Nutritional Benefits Of Homemade Almond Milk

Homemade almond milk is a refreshing drink to start the day. It doesn’t raise blood sugar. It is far less inflammatory than dairy. It contains the following vitamins and minerals:

• High amounts of calcium, iron and magnesium, potassium, a bevy of B-vitamins and Vitamin C

• Vitamin D, which helps in reducing and maintaining blood pressure

• Vitamin E, an antioxidant that maintains skin health, fights free radical damage and slows the aging process

Almonds also help lower cholesterol naturally while increasing levels of “good” HDL cholesterol. And, if you add fresh turmeric root to it – this is called Golden Milk – it can play a major role in decreasing inflammation.

The Five Steps To Making Homemade Almond Milk

But a nutritional lesson on the benefits of drinking fresh almond milk is not convincing enough to just write about. It is best explained by actually doing it.

There are five steps to making this delicious beverage at home.

• First, soak 1 cup of the nuts. Preferably use raw and unpasteurized almonds. I purchase mine from the Sunday morning Farmer’s Market on Larchmont Blvd in Los Angeles. The purpose of soaking them is to remove the phytic acid, an anti-nutrient that binds to certain minerals and slows their absorption by the body.

• Second, Discard the soaking water and rinse the almonds at least twice, making sure to shake well each time.

• Third, add 4 cups of water and blend on the highest setting for 60 seconds. A high-speed blender such as a Vitamix or a Blendtec work best.

• Fourth, strain the milk and set aside the pulp. Although the pulp is very nutritious and hearty, it does not play well in breakfast cereals, smoothies or coffee.

• Finally, add 2 Medjool dates, 1/8 tsp salt and a teaspoon each of vanilla extract and cinnamon to the filtered liquid. Spin it up again for about 20 seconds. [If you are making this for Passover, you can swap out the vanilla extract (as it’s prohibitively expensive) and add some extra cinnamon. You can also grind your own cinnamon, which is incredibly pungent.]

The Recipe

1 cup raw, unpasteurized organic almonds

4 cups filtered water

1 tsp organic vanilla extract

1 heaping tsp Ceylon cinnamon

2 Medjool dates

1/8 tsp sea salt

Cooking From Scratch: An Act Of Subversion

I want to close with a quote that really speaks to me about the process of making your own food. Author Michael Pollan, in his book “In Defense Of Food”, writes that “to reclaim this much control over one’s food, to take it back from industry and science, is no small thing; indeed, in our time, cooking from scratch and growing any of your own food qualify as subversive acts.”

Take back your food from the industry! Make it from scratch. Your body and your mind will thank you.

Meet the Reed Avocado

This one’s for all the avocado toast-loving folks on Instagram. Meet the Reed avocado. Cousin to the Hass. The Reed is big and round, like a softball, with thick, leathery (but not pebbly) skin. It is creamier and denser than a Hass. They can even grow to 2-4 pounds.

That’s a lot of avocado for your toast!!

How do you know that it’s ready to grace a slice of bread? Shake it and feel for the slight rattling that the huge pit makes inside.

And what about the nutritional benefits of avocados? The fat in avocados aids in carotenoid absorption from sweet potatoes, carrots and leafy greens and improves the conversion of beta-carotene into vitamin A.

So let’s get to it!

Reconnecting To Our Sources

“One of the most important things we can do around our food culture is to reconnect to its sources.”

— Michael Pollan

In the documentary “Cooked”, Michael Pollan truly hits upon the reasons why I love shopping farmer’s markets, visiting farms as often as possible and posting photos of fruits and vegetables:

“One of the most important things we can do around our food culture is reconnect to its sources…. Outsourcing has its values, and it certainly makes life easier, but it renders us all into passive consumers.”

I’ve never been entirely comfortable in the Western mindset of passively consuming products. As a consumer, I feel like I’ve ceded choices and decision making to supermarkets, clothing manufacturers and advertising agencies. On the surface, it appears to make life easier: they satisfy with convenience, taste or speed; and they free us from doing a lot of manual work ourselves. But this mindset actually strips us of *real choice* and desensitizes us to what the earth actually provides us.

At heart, I’m passionate about sources in all aspects of my life: I love exploring plants in the forest, examining rocks along the coast, wanting to know the story behind each thrilling discovery. As a kid, I learned how to tend to the myriad fruits and vegetables that my dad grew in our backyard. While eating our harvests, we often talked about the uniqueness of each pick: the enormous zucchinis; the scrawny grapes; the fat blackberries; the hefty collards that gave my dad a kidney stone.

There’s a certain sanctity in reconnecting to food sources, in recognizing the panoply of shapes, textures, flavors, aromas, colors and sounds in which nature packages its bounties. No plastic wrap; no cardboard boxes; no refined, processed & unrecognizable ingredients that are generations removed from their primary sources.

Pure, unadulterated joy.