Nutritious and delicious, walnuts are a perfect ingredient to add flavour and crunch to recipes. Here are five reasons why you should always have walnuts on-hand.
Walnuts offer a mild, slightly sweet flavour and a satisfying crunch, making them ideal for snacking or adding to recipes. They work in both sweet and savoury dishes, and in cooking or baking. Adding walnuts provides flavour, texture, and a host of essential nutrients to meals and snacks.
A 30-gram serving of walnuts (about 12-14 walnut halves) is a source of fibre, iron, zinc, and omega-3 polyunsaturates. In fact, walnuts are the only tree nut that are a source of omega-3 fats, with 2.5 g per 30 g serving.
Decades of clinical research support walnuts as part of an overall heart-healthy eating plan. The benefits likely come from a combination of good fats, fibre, potassium, magnesium, and other important nutrients in walnuts.
Walnuts are naturally salt-free and sugar-free, so they align with heart-healthy Mediterranean and DASH diets. They also fit well into keto, vegetarian, and vegan eating patterns. Plus, walnuts are gluten-free and suitable for people with celiac disease.
When paired together, the healthy fats in walnuts help your body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins and antioxidants found in vegetables and fruits. Use walnuts as crunchy croutons atop salads and soups, add them to fruit platters, and toss them in your stir-fries to get the most nutritional value from your recipes.
