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We use almonds a lot here in the MamaBake HQ testing kitchens. We love them for savoury, sweet and everything in between.
Our favourite savoury way to use almond meal is as a crusting for these chicken fingers – a kind of paleo version of your classic chicken nugget recipe. You can use the crust for anything: fish, chicken, tofu. It comes up beautifully golden and gives a crunchy, wholesome texture.
Ingredients
- 1kg chicken breasts
- 2 cups almond meal
- 2 tbspns paprika
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tspn sea salt
- three eggs, lightly beaten
Method
- Preheat oven to 190 deg C
- Slice chicken breasts into long strips
- Mix together the almond meal, spices and seasoning.
- Dredge each piece of chicken in the egg first and then coat with the almond spice mixture
- Pop the chicken strips on to a baking tray
- Bake for 25 minutes or until rich golden and crispy.
The lowdown on Almonds:
Almonds are a natural source of plant based protein and are a super easy snack to have with you when you’re out and about. And if you run a lot or go to the gym, almonds are great post work-out recovery food too.
If you fancy jazzing up your nuts, consider roasting them! Doing so, wll increase the flavour and blow your mind. How?
Roasted Nut Recipe
Oven: set your oven to 180 C, later the almonds in a roasting tray and roast until golden brown
In a frying pan: simply toss in the almonds in a single layer and toast until golden brown.
Get creative with your roasted almonds! Add some sugar and cinnamon for a sweet treat or garlic salt for something savoury. Or keep them plain and add to a cake or sweet bread (toasted almonds are less likely to sink in the batter, don’t you know).
We also use almond meal in cakes and might use half flour and half almond meal, use it in pancakes and smoothies, savoury patties and anywhere you use flour but want to reduce your flour intake and increase the protein.
We are bothered by where our ingredients come from so it was good to know that we can buy Australian grown almonds from the shops with the Australian almond farmers harvesting their nuts every March of every year. In fact, did you know that Australia is actually the second biggest exporter of almonds in the world?
WIN a $100 Almond Gift Hamper!
Fancy winning a gift hamper of almond deliciousness? To be in to win, simply tell us in the comments below (or on the Facebook thread) how you use almonds in your kitchen. The most creative comment wins!
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More inspired recipes for almonds, here.
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I love using raw almonds in the recipe Nuts and Bolts instead of mixed nuts, and also instead of the Nutri-Grain. So it’s pretty much almonds roasted in a mix of butter, olive oil, worcestershire sauce, paprika, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Very moreish.