Garlic Almonds

I like snacky foods.  I like crunchy foods.  I hate junk food.  Nuts are the perfect crunchy, satisfying snacky food, especially almonds.

At the Granville Island Public Market about a month back we bought some garlic almonds from one of the vendors.  I threw the tiny package in the freezer when we got home (way too much overindulging and I didn’t want to eat another bite) and forgot about them till I recently had to purge everything animal and dairy related for our new lifestyles.

So, I checked the ingredients – all natural and very simply garlic powder, salt, almonds and some oil.

I ate them.  Levi helped a bit, but I ate most of them.  And how gloriously tasty they were.  Salty, crunchy morsels of goodness.  I prefer salty almonds over, like, say sugar-coated roasted almonds.

So anyways, I found a whole bag of whole unblanched almonds in my freezer too.  So time to try roasting my own garlic almonds.  They’re in the oven right now and they smell divine.  (Ok, they’re no longer in the oven now…obviously I took pictures of them.)

Garlic Almonds

• 2 cups whole unblanched almonds
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoon finely minced garlic (I used about 3 normal sized cloves)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder + 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil.
2. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix to coat the nuts well.
3. Transfer to baking sheet and shake out into a single layer.  Place in the oven and bake until the nuts begin to color, about 20 mins.
4. Transfer to paper towel to absorb any extra oil and set aside to cool before serving.

These don’t taste exactly the same as the ones we bought at Granville Island, they are less salty, and not powdery like those ones were.  But, they taste amazing.  I actually think I might up the garlic powder and salt next time around.

PS: If Levi’s allergy test shows that he is severely allergic to garlic, I may have to divorce him.  That’s one thing I would be depressed without.