I recently started hankering after dry roasted peanuts as a result of buying a packet for snacking purposes one sunny afternoon. The immediate and most obvious drawback to this ever becoming a regular snack item was the price – nearly £2 for small bag (roasted cashews are even more expensive – more on that in this article). Even the most heavily discounted KP nuts (the best ones) work out at nearly 70p per 100g.
That got me going on one of my make-your-own projects, and this recipe is what I came up with.
You can buy raw, blanched, skinless peanuts for well under £5 per kg (that’s less than 50p per 100g). All you need after that is a jar of Marmite (from any large grocery store), onion powder (also from most large grocers in small jars, or in various pack sizes online), garlic powder (ditto), honey, and sea salt (no additives, so don’t use table salt).
All you need to do is place the following in a saucepan (with a lid available):
- ½ tbsp salt
- ½ tbsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tbsp Marmite
- ½ tbsp honey
- 4-6 tbsp (approx) water
Gently bring it to the boil while stirring continuously using a small whisk to break up any lumps, then simmer while still stirring for a minute or so. Remove from the heat, add 500g of raw peanuts, and put the lid on the saucepan. Toss the nuts until they’re all completely coated with the sticky brown syrup (invert the pan several times to make sure).
Turn out the coated nuts on to baking parchment laid inside a baking tray of some sort and spread them out into a single layer. Roast gently in a pre-heated oven (gas mark 4, 180°C, 350°F) for 20 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn the nuts using a spatula, or simply tip them off the parchment on to the baking tray. They will over-cook extremely easily, so stick to exactly 20 minutes (maybe even less if you have a fan-assisted oven).
Take the tray out of the oven and allow the nuts to cool to room temperature. Store in airtight containers or bags. They will – or should, if you didn’t over-cook them – look like those in the photo above.
If you think they’re too salty when you taste them, next time try using half the amount of salt (Marmite is already salty, of course).
Are dry roasted peanuts healthy?
If raw peanuts are classed as “healthy”, the only thing in this recipe that makes them any less so is the sodium (salt) content. You have to face the fact that for many things to taste good, you need salt to act as a flavour enhancer.
Having said that, the amount of salt in an entire batch of these nuts is less than the recommended maximum daily amount of around 2.5g. So unless you scoffed 500g all in one go there would be no issue – and quite honestly, unless you have high blood pressure, exceeding 2.5g now and again isn’t going to hurt you. I’m not saying you should, just that you’re not going to die on the spot if you do.