Chili-Lime Peanuts

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Here’s a nice little Christmas gift for you: Chili-Lime Peanuts. They are fast and easy to make up (yay!), really tasty (bet you can’t eat just one), and perfect snacking for New Year’s Eve (they’ll pair nicely with the finest Champagnes, and even the Champagne we buy)!

We made up little treat bags of Chili-Lime Peanuts to include as Christmas presents this year. Since we didn’t want to spoil the surprise, we didn’t want to post this until after the presents are opened. So far, we haven’t had any returned.

Our thanks go to Lucy Baker and her book Edible DIY for this tasty treat!

Chili-Lime Peanuts

Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 4 cups shelled and unsalted peanuts
  • 1/4 freshly squeezed lime juice ~2 large limes
  • 2 tsp freshly grated lime zest 1-2 limes
  • 1 Tbs kosher salt
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 0-3/4 tsp red pepper or cayenne

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 250°F.
  • Wash the limes thoroughly, and, before juicing, run the limes over a grater (or a zester or micro-plane, if you have one) to get that freshly grated zest.
  • Squeeze the limes.
  • Measure the lime juice, zest, salt, sugar, chili powder, and cayenne into a large bowl. Whisk until well blended.
  • Stir the peanuts into the liquid, and whisk them around until well coated.
  • Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the nuts are dry and just beginning to darken. Remove from oven and let cool.

Ingredient discussion:

Since you’re scratching these up, you can choose how spicy you want these peanuts: mild, medium, hot, or crazy hot! Just vary the amount of cayenne/red pepper. You’ll be grating the lime skins, so you might want to consider getting organic limes. Oh, and we wouldn’t advise trying anything other than fresh lime juice. There is just something about fresh.

Procedure in detail:

Preheat oven to 250°F.

grating lime zest
Grate off the peel, but try not to get too much pith; it’s bitter.

Grate the lime. Wash the limes thoroughly, and, before juicing, run the limes over a grater (or a zester or micro-plane, if you have one) to get that freshly grated zest. That’s all zest is, the peel (without the white pith); it just sounds better to say zest.

Squeeze the limes. Cut ’em in half, and use a reamer to squeeze out the juice. If haven’t got a reamer, use a fork.

whisking the chili-lime coating
In our house, whisks get a real workout. They are really handy for all those quick mixing jobs.

Make the coating. Measure the lime juice, zest, salt, sugar, chili powder, and cayenne into a large bowl. Whisk until well blended.

coated peanuts
Coat the peanuts thoroughly, even let them soak a few minutes. Pretend it’s a spa day and the sauna is up next!

Add peanuts. Stir the peanuts into the liquid, and whisk them around until well coated. You can even let them soak and relax in there for a few minutes.

Bake. Spread the peanuts out on one or two baking trays. Ideally, you should have a single layer, but if not, it’ll still work, but will take longer. Anyway, bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the nuts are dry and just beginning to darken.

Chili-Lime Peanuts
What a tasty snack, and pretty good for you, too.

Remove from oven and let cool. They’ll crisp up a bit more as they cool.

Now enjoy a great scratched snack! As promised, easy-peasy, lime-squeezy. Five stars.

Worth the trouble?

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