Tamarind Trail Mix
Ingredients
- 1 pound mixed nuts and seeds (I used walnut halves, cashews, pepitas and sunflower seeds)
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- Large pinch ground cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons tamarind paste*
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped dried mango
Chopped fresh cilantro, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 °F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place nuts, coconut, cayenne, cumin, coriander and kosher salt in a large bowl and have a medium-mesh strainer ready.
- In a medium saucepan, warm butter, honey, brown sugar, tomato paste and tamarind paste over medium heat, stirring until smooth. Don’t worry about any seed particles from the tamarind. They will be strained out. Pour the butter-tamarind mixture through the medium-mesh strainer into the bowl with the nuts. Toss until everything is evenly coated.
- Spread nuts on the prepared baking sheet. Bake the nuts for 25 - 27 minutes, stirring occasionally. The nuts will gradually get darker in color as the sugars caramelize. Take the nuts from the oven and sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt. Let cool completely then toss with dried mango and a sprinkling of chopped fresh cilantro.
Notes
*If your tamarind paste has seed particles in it, be sure to strain them out before adding to the nut mixture. You can also use tamarind concentrate here. Simply substitute 1 1/2 teaspoons of tamarind concentrate for the tamarind paste.