Nutty Winner; Phytic Acid Reduced Nut Mixture

    Nuts are a good, healthy snack and we eat a lot of them.  I used to buy the mixed nuts at Costco, but we quickly grew tired of them.  I examined the ingredients and found a cheap oil; canola oil or some other cheap vegetable oil.    "Industral food" preparation does not remove the natural phytic acid present on all nuts that still have their skins on.  I think it was the phytic acid and canola oil that "put us off" to those Costco nuts.  I also noticed that whatever the cheapest nuts are at the time, are the ones that take dominant percentage of the "mixed nuts" and lately it has been the cashews. Peanuts usually serve as filler but we don't eat peanuts at all.    

I have heard a lot of people say that they can't eat nuts because it makes their mouth pucker or tastes bad or something.  It is the phytic acid that does this.  Remove the phytic acid and many of those sensitive folks would be able to eat nuts again.  

   The book, "Cure Tooth Decay" had some suggestions about how to reduce the phytic acid of grains and nuts and seeds.  I decided to put those suggestions to the test. 

     Soaking is first thing to do to reduce phytic acid from the nuts that still have the skins on. 
  I buy our favorite nuts ( walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamia and cashew) in bulk and still they are expensive....except cashews right now.    Walnuts, whole almonds and pecans have skins so these are the ones I soak in a large tub with just plain water for 2 days.   I soak all of them together for 2 days then drain (reserve the water for the garden) and lay them out to dry.  I have an electric dehydrator so I fill up the trays and dry overnight.  
      The next phytic acid reducer is roasting.  Heat will reduce the remaining phytic acid.  I found that  nuts spread out on a cookie sheet and roasted at 400 degrees for 7 minutes works perfectly.  Roasting the skinless nuts (macadamia and cashews)  right along with the dried nuts works just fine. Roasting improves the flavor of all the nuts. 
     The hot nuts are dumped into a large container and allowed to cool.  Next I melt some coconut oil, the kind that tastes like coconuts and drizzle over the whole roasted pile and then I sprinkle some Real Salt over the bunch.

     My selection of nuts is based on taste and on the blood type diet lists.  Walnuts and almonds are listed as "highly beneficial" for Os and Bs so they are the ones we use with added neutrals pecans and macs.....cashews are an avoid but they taste good, so I use a few.  No peanuts for Os and Bs. 

     I keep prepared nuts in large, 2 quart glass jars with lids.  These nuts are very satisfying for snacks, travel and lunch bags.  No phytic acid and  real-good-for-you-oil and high mineral salt; a nutty winner!