Nutty recipes and a nutty giveaway!

Last Sunday Steph the CrockPot Lady posted a recipe for Roasted and Spiced Nuts. I made them that day, and I was immediately obsessed...uh, I mean, inspired. I've spent the last six days working on various CrockPot roasted nut recipes. I've eaten a lot of nuts. My DNA is now officially half pecan.

I now have the four recipes I'll be using to make a lot of my Christmas gifts this year, and I'm sharing. First I'll share the recipes...then I'll share some of the goodies. (Details on the giveaway are at the end of the post.)

A few notes: I'm using a combo of pecans and almonds, since that's what Costco had available. Use whatever nuts you like! I've written all these recipes for 4 cups of nuts, but you can easily make more or less. I am using kosher salt with a nice, coarse texture; you can substitute table salt if you really need to.

1. Curry Roasted Nuts
(This recipe is very similar to the Roasted & Spiced Nuts recipe from The CrockPot Lady's blog, though I made some minor changes.)



Ingredients:
4 cups raw nuts
1 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
cooking spray

Instructions:
Spray CrockPot with cooking spray. Put nuts, maple syrup, curry powder, rosemary, and cayenne pepper in CrockPot, and stir to coat nuts well. Turn CrockPot on high, and cover. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring every 10 minutes. (Set a timer!) Nuts are done when they are almost crunchy enough--but they will cook further after removing them from the CrockPot, so don't overcook. Before removing from CrockPot, spray nuts with cooking spray, add kosher salt, and toss so that all the spices stick to the nuts. Immediately put nuts on wax paper to cool.

2. Sweet & Spicy Roasted Nuts
(The original recipe can be found here; I've simply adapted it for the Crock Pot, and I used raw nuts instead of pre-roasted.)


(Yes, that's paper under the nuts, since I didn't have enough to fill the bowl. They were really tasty; I didn't make that many; and, uh...I enjoyed them.)

Ingredients:
4 cups raw nuts
1/4 cup honey
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
cooking spray

Instructions:
Spray CrockPot with cooking spray. Put nuts, honey, and cayenne pepper in CrockPot, and stir to coat nuts well. Turn CrockPot on high, and cover. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring every 10 minutes. (Set a timer!) Nuts are done when they are almost crunchy enough--but they will cook further after removing them from the CrockPot, so don't overcook. Before removing from CrockPot, add sugar and kosher salt, and toss so that all the spices stick to the nuts. Immediately put nuts on wax paper to cool.

3. Cinnamon & Sugar Roasted Nuts



Ingredients:
4 cups raw nuts
1/4 cup honey
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 tsp plus 3/4 tsp cinnamon (divided)
3/4 tsp kosher salt
cooking spray

Instructions:
Spray CrockPot with cooking spray. Put nuts, honey, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and 3/4 tsp cinnamon in CrockPot, and stir to coat nuts well. Turn CrockPot on high, and cover. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring every 10 minutes. (Set a timer!) Nuts are done when they are almost crunchy enough--but they will cook further after removing them from the CrockPot, so don't overcook. Before removing from CrockPot, add sugar, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, and kosher salt, and toss so that all the spices stick to the nuts. Immediately put nuts on wax paper to cool.

4. Roasted & Salted Nuts



Ingredients:
4 cups raw nuts
2 Tbsp vegetable oil (You may experiment with less if concerned about fat content. I used canola oil.)
1 tsp kosher salt

Put nuts and oil in CrockPot, and stir to coat nuts well. Turn CrockPot on high, and cover. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring every 10 minutes. (Set a timer!) Nuts are done when they are almost crunchy enough--but they will cook further after removing them from the CrockPot, so don't overcook. Before removing from CrockPot, add kosher salt, and toss so that the salt sticks to the nuts. Immediately put nuts on wax paper to cool.

Now, for the giveaway!

I'll send one lucky winner samples of all four types of roasted nuts. The rules...

1. Leave a comment, any comment. Last time the haiku comments were fun. Perhaps this time you'd like to leave a comment about why you're a nut. Maybe you'd even like to leave it in some sort of rhyming poetry form. And maybe you'll just leave a boring, prose comment. That's okay too.
2. Tell your friends, family, in-laws, outlaws, blog readers, etc. about the contest. Make sure when they enter, that they let me know they heard about it from you. If they win, you win too.
3. I'll accept U.S. and non-U.S. entries. as long as you live in a place with reasonably affordable international postage.
4. I will chose the winner randomly Monday afternoon or evening.

Good luck!