How and why to soak your nuts and seeds

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How and why to Soak your nuts and seeds

This can feel like a lot of work at first but in fact it is super simple and takes just a little forward planning. If you want more bang for your buck in terms of nutrients then this is the way to go to increase the nutritional content of your nuts and seeds.

Prep Time2 minutes mins

Active Time3 hours hrs

Soaking time8 hours hrs

Equipment

• Bowl or large jar (preferably stainless steel or glass)
• Strainer
• Roasting tin
• Baking parchment

Materials

• Any nuts or seeds such as cashews, pecans, almonds or sesame, sunflower or pumpkin seeds

Instructions

• Place nuts or seeds into container
• Add enough cold filtered water to cover
  
• Leave for 8 hours
• Wash in filtered water and strain
• Spread onto baking parchment on a baking tray
• Dry out at 100'C for 3 hours or until dry
  
• Use straight away or place in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container

Shortcut

• Use boiled filtered water and soak for 2 hours

Why Should I Do this?

Nuts and seeds and some vegetables contain things called anti-nutrients, namely phytic acid and lectins.

Phytic Acid is used by plants to prevent the seeds sprouting too early and it acts as an antinutrient as it binds to useful minerals such as iron and calcium prevent them being absorbed.

It is not only nuts and seeds that contain anti-nutrients, legumes, grains and plants such as spinach do too. Check out my recipe for spinach smoothie cubes as way to enjoy spinach without as many anti-nutrients.

Lectins are proteins that can cause inflammation and irritation in the gut lining and can increase gut permeability.

Soaking and light heating can remove these elements from the nuts and seeds enabling more complete absorption of the nutrients from foods as well as limiting digestive issues.