In this guide, you will learn how to toast nuts and seeds in the oven or pan - and why it makes sense to do so!

Why should you toast nuts and seeds?

Have you ever wondered if it makes sense to toast nuts or seeds?

Nuts and seeds are a must-have staple in the kitchen. Whether you sprinkle them on top of your colorful salad bowls, mix them in your breakfast cereals, or use them to prepare beautiful raw food cakes and sweets, they’re almost always a fantastic way to enhance your dish!

You can even use nuts and seeds to make your own homemade nut butter or nut milk - so you don’t have to buy them anymore in the store.

Toasting your nuts or seeds before adding them to a dish is a great way to boost their flavor. You don’t just enhance the existing flavors, but you unlock completely new flavor nuances that weren’t there before.

Not only that, but toasting also boosts the texture, making it a more exciting chewing experience. While regular nuts and seeds can be a little softer, toasting makes them crunchy and firm.

Without toasting, nuts tend to have a rather mild flavor that can easily become a little rancid if the nuts are not taken care of. Toasting helps to improve the natural flavor in a surprisingly intense and exciting way.

Take walnuts, for instance. By themselves, they have a mild, slightly bitter flavor. Pop them in the oven or the pan for a few minutes, and you’ll get a completely new aroma: rich, intense, and full of additional flavors.

The same is true for toasted hazelnut, peanuts, pecan,s cashews, pine nuts - the list goes on.

Which nuts or seeds should be toasted in the pan?

If you want to toast your nuts or seeds in the pan without using any oil (also called dry roasting), make sure to use nuts or seeds that are small or evenly shaped.

Using the pan is also best for smaller quantities: up to 1 cup (around 120 g) works best because you make sure that the nuts brown evenly. You want to avoid that they’re being stacked on top of each other.

If you want to toast nuts that are large or uneven, you should avoid roasting them in the pan (unless you use some oil - we talk about that in a second).

This could be sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, maybe even cashews. Their small, even shape makes it easier for the heat to reach every side of them. Walnuts, for instance, are extremely uneven. That makes it difficult to brown them from all sides.

Toasting nuts and seeds in the pan is often easier and more time-efficient than putting them in the oven. The oven takes longer to heat up, and you will need more time until they’re nicely brown.

Also, it is easier to keep an eye on their color, so you make sure they won’t burn. 

Here’s how to toast nuts and seeds in the pan

Let’s take sunflower seeds, as an example.

You want to toast 1 cup of sunflower seeds in the pan (for 2 cups or more, you’d better use the oven).

1. Simply bring a pan to medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add your nuts or seeds.
2. Let them toast for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Towards the end, once they get darker, you want to stir more frequently to keep them from getting burnt.
   
3. Usually, you would toast them for 3 to 5 minutes. This depends a little on your stove - an induction or gas stove will go much faster than an electric stove.
   

It’s as simple as that!

The longer you toast them, the stronger the aroma will become. But be careful: Avoid burning nuts or seeds!

Some of them, such as sunflower seeds, will develop a bitter aroma if they’re toasted for too long. You want to make sure to hit the sweet spot. 

Which nuts or seeds should be toasted in the oven?

You can toast any nuts and seeds in the oven, but it will be especially handy for larger quantities of nuts that are big or unevenly shaped (such as walnuts, pecans, or macadamia).

Also, if you want to toast a mix of nuts or seeds, then it would be better to use the oven. The heat will be transferred more evenly and you won’t risk burning some nuts while others are barely ready.

Make sure that you set yourself a timer when you toast nuts in the oven. It can happen quite easily that you focus on something else and forget the tray with nuts in the oven. Just a few minutes on top can often result in badly burned nuts. 

Here’s how to toast nuts and seeds in the oven

Let’s take walnuts, as an example. Let’s say you want to toast 2 cups of walnuts.

1. Start by preheating your oven to 180 °C (350 °F).
2. Spread your walnuts onto a baking tray. You can add baking parchment paper, but you don’t have to. Make sure the walnuts are spread out evenly and don’t stack up on top of each other.
   
3. Once the oven is hot, add your tray. You will leave your walnuts in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how brown you want them.
   
4. You might want to stir them once after around 6 to 8 minutes. This will ensure that all nuts are heated evenly. Often, an oven will have areas that are hotter than others. You want to avoid some walnuts becoming too dark, while others remain light. 

Should you use oil when toasting nuts or seeds?

The truth is: it depends a bit on you.

Most of the time, you want to avoid using oil when toasting nuts and seeds. Nuts are already rich in oils and these oils are responsible for the change of flavor when toasting.

Adding additional oil can deter from the natural aroma of nuts. The oil brings its own distinct flavor, and it also enhances the flavor of the nuts or seeds. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it can even be quite interesting, but you will not have the pure, natural flavor from dry roasted nuts or seeds.

On top of that, it also changes the texture: while toasted nuts are dry and crunchy, adding oil will make them a little more greasy.

If you’re on a diet where you want to avoid oil for health reasons, it is also best to dry roast nuts or seeds.

When does it make sense to add oil?

It can make sense to add oil when you want to toast large or uneven nuts, such as walnuts or macadamia nuts, in the pan. The oil covers the whole surface of the nut, allowing for a better heat transfer.

It can also be a good idea to add oil if you want to get a particular flavor. As we said earlier, adding oil will change the flavor of your toasted nuts or seeds. This is in part because of the oil's own flavor, and its tendency to enhance other flavors.

In Thailand, for instance, it is common to roast cashew nuts in the pan with some vegetable oil. This will add flavor to the oil (which is later used for stirring vegetables), and it will enhance the cashew flavor of the nuts (which are later sprinkled on top of the dish).