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I picked up a bag of cashew pieces from the bulk bin last night got home and realized they were of the unsalted variety. Which are good but for a snack not quite what I was looking for.

Is there anyway to "salt" those cashew pieces. I googled and found ways to do it when they are still shelled but none after the fact. I may not be using the correct search paramaters though as I cannot think of any other terminology other than "make salted cashews". I don't need a recipe just a direction and if it is possible.

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18 Answers 18

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Sure, just roast them in a pan with oil for few seconds, not long enough to darken, and remove the nuts. As soon as you remove the cashews from oil they are sticky, then you need to sprinkle salt on it. Don't add much—add slightly, checking the taste, and then mix according to the taste you require.

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26

You may have luck just tossing them in popcorn salt. Popcorn salt is ground much finer than regular salt, and should stick to the surface much easier than the larger grains in table salt or kosher salt. If you don't have popcorn salt, you can start with kosher salt and pulverize it into a fine powder in a food processor, spice/coffee grinder, or mortar and pestle.

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    +1 for the suggestion of finer-grained salt, but note that you'll need some oil, though, or the salt will just fall off.
    – amcnabb
    Aug 8, 2012 at 20:17
  • to make it easier to grind the salt and stop it clumping, it's a good idea to heat it first in a pan - this makes sure it is completely dry
    – canardgras
    Mar 7, 2017 at 9:14
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    I'd suggest that a coffee grinder is not such a brilliant idea unless you (can) clean it really well afterwards.
    – Maarten Bodewes
    Oct 9, 2019 at 1:57
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    Well, or it's one that you only use for salt, spices, and the like.
    – OJFord
    Jun 5, 2020 at 20:11
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Even easier method - Bring a pot of water to a boil. Pour the nuts into a strainer and hold over the steam shaking the contents occasionally to get moisture spread throughout the mixture. Remove from steam. Spread the nuts out on a plate and sprinkle with salt or other seasoning

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    That worked for me, but please note that you need precious little steam. Stopping it from boiling will generate a lot of moisture quickly and you can immediately remove the nuts from the steam when they are only slightly moist. Shake to dry after sprinkling. Moist or worse steamed nuts are not for the connoisseur. Nuts should be dry and crunchy in my opinion. By the way, I used a steamer basket and forked the nuts around.
    – Maarten Bodewes
    Oct 9, 2019 at 2:02
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I really didn't want to roast the nuts, however, the cashews I purchased were not salted at all and tasted very plain and were too expensive to throw away.

I tried shaking salt onto them, however, it did not stick so I tried the following and was very pleased with the results.

Place about 18oz of cashews in a bowl, add a small amount of oil (vegetable or cannola, any oil which will not impart taste)--less than a teaspoonful. Stir the nuts. Then salt to taste.

Wonderful...This time I was right... One in a Row!

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Spritz with water...add salt...just did it...perfect.

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Another method that doesn't appear to have been covered is to brine them. You can soak them for a few hours in salt water, then either roast or dehydrate them. It's a bit more time consuming, but some people prefer the flavor of brined nuts.

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  • Do you rinse after the brine, or add even more salt while they are wet? How strong of a brine? I might do that with some pistachios I have on hand.
    – Jolenealaska ♦
    Oct 23, 2013 at 2:48
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    You don't rinse or add more salt. I've usually just done a heaping tablespoon of salt or tamari to a quart of water, but you could easily adjust it to taste. Usually after brining, I let them sit on paper towels until they've dried a bit and then put them in a low oven until they're crunchy again.
    – SourDoh
    Oct 23, 2013 at 15:52
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I would think you would want to roast them, though this will change the flavor slightly. You can heat up some salt in a pan and then mix in the cashews and roast them, from what I'm told this will make the salt stick much better. Though it's a Yahoo Answers link, there are some basic instructions to get you started here.

Shaking them with a salted oil (grapeseed has a neutral taste) might work, but I don't know if I'd like oily cashews.

Along the same lines, this recipe uses butter to infuse rosemary, cayenne, sugar, and salt into cashews.

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    You can use a bit of water to help the salt stick and then dry roast them. fanaticcook.blogspot.com/2006/05/…
    – talon8
    Dec 2, 2010 at 19:23
  • I like that low-fat idea.. but as someone who likes the salt to stay stuck, how well does this work? Especially for a smaller-grind like popcorn salt?
    – zanlok
    Dec 2, 2010 at 23:19
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My wife came home with unsalted almonds, so I had to find a way to salt them. My method uses no oil or butter, and leaves the nut covered in a light white powdery salt coating. Some adjustments to the process will make it more or less salty, to taste. Even other flavors such as garlic, chili, or onion may be used.

I used a small pan big enough to more than hold all the nuts and allow for stirring. I placed 1/4 cup of kosher salt. I added 1/2 cup of hot tap water and brought to a boil, stirring constantly. Not all the salt dissolved, so I probably used too much salt.

When the stream left deposits of salt on the walls of the pan I removed from heat and added the nuts. Stirred to get all nuts wet. Drained with strainer. Spread on towel to dry totally. Placed in plastic container to store.

They had a white powder evenly covering the nuts that doesn't easily fall off.

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This works well and basically the same method used to salt raw nuts in the shell. Heat some water. Add in a lot of salt. Stir it up. Pour in nuts. Cover and let sit for 8 or so hours. I soak them over night. Take out the nuts and put in metal baking sheet and bake at 350 for 15 or 20 minutes. Let cool. You now have nice salty nuts and the salt will stay on the nuts.

Testing amount of salt to use is a good idea. Try a few nuts first to get the right amount you like. Also after stirring up the salt water you might want to pour off the water and leave behind the solids or you will get a lot of salt on the nuts when removing them from the water.

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An easy way I've done peanuts and almonds is to spread them out on a cookie sheet, dust moderately with canola cooking oil spray and sprinkle lightly with popcorn salt. For raw nuts, I bake for 45min at 250° or so, stirring once after 30 mins. For already cooked nuts, an extra roast would be fun, but maybe more like 350° for just 3 mins or so.

Using a cookie sheet that has a little bit of a 'wall' to it, maybe 1/2" high, makes the stirring and re-distributing process a lot easier.

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This is not the right way to do it. But, I took 1/4 or a little more of a stick of salted butter. I took a separate container placed the butter inside and heated on high for 30 seconds. Then I took another separate container and poured the cashews in fallowed but the butter. I put the cap on the container and shook it all up. I opened it put lots of salt (as much as you want) and closed it and shook it again. I put the in the freezer and am now waiting to see if it worked.

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    If this is not the right way to do it, then why is it a good method? Also, what is the purpose of all of that butter, which seems a lot for a single bag of cashews.
    – lemontwist
    Oct 6, 2012 at 22:32
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I heated up the oven to 350 degrees. Put the cashews on a cookie sheet. Sprayed with Pam and tossed to coat. Put the cashews in for 2-1/2 min. Sprinkled with popcorn salt and tossed again. Finished with another 2-1/2 min. Let sit to cool. Perfect!!

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For 250 gm. Nuts:

  1. Wash nuts for 5 seconds.
  2. Keep for 10 to 12 minutes in a filter to drain all the water.
  3. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt and rub it on the nuts.
  4. Keep for 40 minutes to marinate.
  5. Put the nuts in the oven for 1 minute.
  6. Shuffle them and put them again in the oven for 1 minute.
  7. Repeat this 3-4 times till you feel the nuts are dry.
  8. Turn off the oven and keep the nuts in it till they are cool and crispy.
  9. Salted cashew nuts are ready to enjoy.
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A fairly low-effort method that works great is to buy a canola oil spray and very lightly mist the nuts, then salt to taste.

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small knob of butter drip of rapeseed oil - salt to taste, rosemary and a splash of soy sauce in a pan - toss until warmed through and coated - under the grill to set the flavour in. delicious.

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  • AKA "canola oil" in the US and Canada.
    – RI Swamp Yankee
    Mar 19, 2018 at 15:10
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Smiled at 'the salt would not dissolve' Thats called the saturation point in Chemistry. Not enough H&O's to bond with the salt (NaCl) I have unsalted pumpkin seeds. Soaking them in a jar of salt water :) Dry them on a paper towel in the sun. A bird might get a few - Thanks!

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Do it like the companies do: Make a brine with salt, soak them for 15 minutes or so, then roast them in the oven. I am still working on my procedure. My first efforts worked but wasted a lot of salt. I will try heating the water first, then adding salt to make a super saturated solution, then soaking the nuts.

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Place several nuts in the palm of your left hand. Using your right hand, shake some salt on the nuts. Eat the nuts and salt. Adjust the amount of salt to your preference. Next time buy salted nuts.

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