After a brief break, we’re back to the Secret Recipe Club. My assignment this month was a delight! Winnie, over at Healthy Green Kitchen, does a lovely job of presenting healthy and friendly food. She always has a helpful suggestion and encouraging words for the kitchen novice. You’ll find her recipes focus on healthy foods, so there are plenty of whole grains, vegetables, and healthier twists on classics. My concern this month– as I try to use up all my food while preparing to move!– is that many of the recipes I looked at called for a relatively long list of ingredients. (I’m in three to five ingredient mode these days.) I just wish I had time to truly delve into the full depth of her archives and play with more recipes, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to do true justice to her blog as making Pickled Radishes, or Pumpkin Souffles with Maple Pumpkin Ice Cream wasn’t practical. And it’s the wrong time of year for Leek and Asparagus Pizza…
Caveat: I’m more conservative/mainstream nutritionally and do not necessarily endorse all her diet recommendations.
Sweet and Spicy Roasted Pecans
As it happens, I had a couple of bags of pecans that were originally intended for Christmas pecan bars. Repurpose: moving party snacks. Mine came out a little clumpy (probably because I dumped in the coating all at once), so be sure to toss thoroughly.
2 cups raw pecans
1 T sugar
1/2 t cocoa powder
1/2 t chile powder (she uses chipotle, I have Indian)
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t ground ginger
1/8 t smoked paprika
1 T butter, melted
Sea salt, to taste (I used canning salt)
Toast the nuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet for 12-14 minutes in a 200 degree F oven. Meanwhile, mix the spices into the sugar. Melt the butter in a medium bowl. Remove the pecans from the oven and pour carefully into a bowl with the butter. Stir, until the pecans are coated thoroughly. Gradually mix in the sugar mixture, stirring well.
Pour the pecans back onto the cookie sheet and roast for 3 -5 more minutes. Check them halfway through to be sure they aren’t in danger of burning. Remove, and season to taste with sea salt. Allow to cool before eating. Store in an airtight container for up to seven days.
Will I make these again? Unfortunately, probably not. Turns out I like pecans best when well-coated in lots of sugar. The technique is handy, though, and I’ll likely use it to make nuts with other flavors. On the other hand, I had someone at the party who said, “These are really good! And I don’t even like this kind of nut!”
Secret Recipe Club is a fun group where the members are randomly assigned another blogger, and we pick a recipe from that blog to make. On the reveal day, all of us go live at the same time and chat about our experiences and share photos. (Or, we share a creative commons photo as *cough* we’ve lost the camera’s battery charger. In a box. Somewhere. We hope.) You can see a few examples of previous SRC recipes here: Ginger Cookies, Fresh Corn Cakes with Peppers, and Coconut Risotto with Roasted Plum and Almonds. You can visit everyone else’s adventures via the blog hop, below.
Linked to: Slightly Indulgent Tuesday
I’m allergic to pecans, but I bet this would be a great recipe to use with almonds too.
Or cashews! I think it would be delicous on them, or perhaps macadamia nuts.
Thanks for trying the recipe! Sorry they weren’t sweet enough for you 😉
I am into the less sweet so these sound like a winning recipe to me. Great SRC choice.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
I could sit with a bowl of these, at my side, and I bet they would disappear quickly.
I’ve had them with paprika and chile powder but never with cocoa powder too. I definitely need to try that on my next batch.
Yum – this recipe looks right up my alley!
These look great to me. I like them less sweet that most!
The technique looks very interesting. I prefer my pecans raw, but sometimes it’s nice to try something different 🙂
You should add these to your football party list!
I absolutely adore Winnie’s blog and I have a feeling that I would love these. They seem right up my alley. I almost wrote “too bad you weren’t nuts for them” and then realized what a terrible pun that would be! Ha. Good luck with your move 🙂
But oh so appropriate! Thank you.
These sound so good. I have such a weakness for nuts.
I love the idea of a Secret Recipe Club – also, I appreciate that you give an honest answer about how much you liked the recipe. It’s always nice to get genuine opinions. I loooove spiced nuts, it’s actually something I’m becoming more interested in as the weeks go by. I don’t think I would make this recipe with pecans though; I would probably opt for roughly chopped walnuts or shelled almonds.
Either way, I love the flavor combo. And I hope you find your camera’s battery charger soon 🙂
Yes, it’s quite fun and I do tend to push my boundaries a little more with the choices than I might all on my own (note the blunt feedback!). Feel free to join ;-).
Yum! I have always wanted to make my own spiced nuts, yours sound delish. Great being a part of SRC with you =)