grinding nuts and seeds

[beauty4ashes]

Thank you everyone who answered Tracie's soaking nuts thread. That was extremely helpful Rawpriestess.
I have a question about grinding seeds and nuts like cashews, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. Also flax seeds. If we just grind them rather than soak them take the time for them to dry, then grind them, are they less digestable? I know we're suppose to get rid of the enzyme inhibiters in the soft shell nuts and seeds, so we soak them, otherwise they are hard to digest. Sorry if this is redundant, but if we just plain grind them, what about the enzyme inhibitors? Aren't they still there?
Thank you in advance for any one who can answer this.

[RawTruth]

If we just grind them rather than soak them take the time for them to dry, then grind them, are they less digestable?


Sorry, but I don't understand what you're asking here. Can you restate it?

[PixieGreen]

Grinding does not activate enzymes, therefore it is better to soak and dehydrate before grinding, although I suppose if you soak the ground seeds in the wet ingredients of your recipe before using it would serve the same purpose [?]. I'm getting in the habit of soaking and dehydrating my nuts and seeds when I buy them so they are ready to prepare.

I do not personally soak walnuts, though I don't use them often. I soak cashews and almonds. When I cook with sesame seeds I soak them in the "wet" ingredients for at least 15 minutes before use.

Hope this helps,

Christa

[beauty4ashes]

Thanks for answering Raw truth and Pixie green. Yes that helps! Raw truth what I was trying to say was that I didn't like the hassle of soaking, drying, then grinding. I just wanted to be able to grind! But that was before I read another post, and what Raw truth reinforced here. The answer is to do it ahead of time, so we don't have to do it in increments of whatever amount of nuts the recipe calls for. Soak all the nuts and dehydrate. I never thought to dehydrate them. Thanks tons.

[RawTruth]

Well, actually, you only need to dehydrate them if you're going to be eating them out of hand ... or for the odd recipe that needs them crunchy. For most of them, though, they don't need dehydrating -- in fact, it's the softer quality that's desirable. So, just soaked & sprouted nuts handy in the fridge is the way to go.

[beauty4ashes]

OK, thanks. So what about just throwing them in the dehydrator to dry them out quickly. How do you store them in the fridge? I hear the term air tight canning jars, and I use those, but there is so much air in them when you put the top on. I just don't want cashews and almonds to go rancid. I know the raw gourmet says she keeps soaked almonds in the water and changes the water every day. I need to go back and read what Alyssa says in her book. I tried to find it just now, but couldn't. When I get my kids to bed, I'll go back and look.

[RawTruth]

Emily, I just spread drain them in a colander, then spread them out on a dishtowel. I don't keep them for more than a week in the fridge. (I don't know who the raw gourmet is ...?) I would think that keeping them in water would leach out the nutrients, but I have no real idea about this. When I was starting, I'd check stuff like this out in all the raw books, and, while there were slight variations, they'd usually all say basically the same thing. Do you have books other than Alissa's?

[rawpriestess]

Hi,

when you soak nuts the enzyme inhibitors are in the water, so you toss out the water, again and again, but if you allow them to soak in their recipes, the enzyme inhibitors are in the recipes, not good, they won't digest because they will inhibit their own enzymes and this is what raw food is all about.

Hope this helps.

PS, Nomi Shanon wrote the uncook book Raw Gourmet, is this who you mean?

[beauty4ashes]

Yes, I have others, I homeschool and have a baby so I forget what it is I need to do in the raw food world. The more I take these baby steps the more recipes I'll be able to prepare. Now I need to ask about flax seeds. I think I'll start a new thread on them. Thanks so much!