Roasted Almonds - Whole, Skin On, Unsalted

These are whole almonds, roasted with their brown skin on and left unsalted: looz mohammas, as Egyptian nut roasteries sell them. We buy them already roasted and pack them ourselves into resealable pouches of 250 g, 500 g and 1 kg. Roasting turns the raw almond's mild, slightly waxy bite into a dry, clean crunch and a deeper, toasted taste.

The taste is toasted and nutty, with a light natural sweetness, and the thin skin adds a faint bitterness that keeps them from tasting flat. Because there is no salt, they work as well in sweet dishes as they do on their own.

In Egypt almonds belong to the sweet tray and the feast table. A whole almond sits on each square of basbousa, chopped almonds go over konafa and into om ali, and an almond often tops ghorayeba, the crumbly butter biscuit of Eid. In the weeks before Ramadan they are sold with raisins, dried apricots and dates as yamish, soaked into khoshaf for the evening meal and set out on trays for guests, and at weddings and feasts they are fried golden and scattered over rice.

Eat them by the handful with tea or coffee. Chop them and scatter them over konafa, om ali, rice pudding, muhallabia or yoghurt, or stir them into rice with a little butter. They are already roasted, so add them to anything that bakes near the end of the baking time: a second long bake can darken them and make them bitter. If they have lost a little crunch, warm them for a few minutes in a dry pan and let them cool. Almonds are also one of the nuts in our Egyptian Dukkah, pounded with hazelnuts, toasted sesame, coriander and cumin.

Almonds are a tree nut, one of the major food allergens, and for some people even a small amount can cause a serious reaction. This pouch contains TREE NUTS (ALMONDS). Keep it away from anyone with a nut allergy, and wipe boards and bowls after chopping. We cannot confirm that they were roasted or packed away from peanuts, other nuts or sesame, so if you have another food allergy as well, ask us before you order. Whole nuts are a choking risk for small children: chop or grind them for young eaters.

Two things this page does not claim. We have not been able to confirm where these almonds were grown, so no country is named here. Almonds are also widely sold with long lists of claimed effects, and this listing repeats none of them. They are sold as food, and nothing here is a health claim or medical advice.

Roasted almonds keep their crunch and their fresh, toasted taste for a limited time, because the oil in a roasted nut slowly goes stale, faster in heat and light. Keep the pouch pressed shut, cool and dark, and in a hot kitchen keep it in the fridge. Count on about three months of best taste from delivery while the pouch stays sealed, and about one month once it is open. If they ever smell sharp, like paint or old oil, instead of toasted, they have gone rancid and are best thrown away.