Can you eat fresh walnut skins?

Many friends have never seen what fresh walnuts look like. In fact, fresh walnuts look like a green fruit, and the kernel inside is the dried walnut we often eat. The skin of fresh walnuts is actually edible. The arginine it contains has a protective effect on the human cardiovascular system, but you need to be careful about the amount you consume.

Can the skin of fresh walnut kernels be eaten?

1. Of course you can eat it. If you don’t like it, you can soak it in hot water. The most nutritious part of the walnut is the skin, which is the best natural food for the brain development of pregnant women and fetuses. The meat inside the walnut is high in fat, just like peanuts. The nutrition is not as good as the outer skin. Walnuts can be called the "king" of antioxidants. The American Dietetic Association recommends that people eat walnuts two or three times a week, especially middle-aged and elderly people and menopausal women, because the arginine, oleic acid, antioxidants contained in walnuts are beneficial for protecting the cardiovascular system and preventing coronary heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, etc. Don't eat too much at one time, otherwise it will affect digestion. Some people like to peel off the thin brown skin on the surface of the walnut kernel, which will cause the loss of some nutrients, so don't peel off this layer of skin.

2. Yes, but it will affect the taste. The skin of fresh walnuts is relatively rough and a bit astringent. Although the skin of dried walnuts is also a bit astringent, you generally cannot taste the skin. In addition, fresh walnuts are easier to peel, so I usually eat them with the skin removed. But data shows that the skin of walnut kernels has high nutritional value, so try to eat it with the skin.

How to remove the skin of fresh walnut kernels

1. After the walnuts are shelled, there is a layer of skin on the surface of the flesh. This layer has a bitter taste and should be removed. The easiest way to remove the skin is to soak the walnut meat in boiling water, and then pick it with a bamboo stick, so that the skin can be easily peeled off in pieces. If you add some salt to the boiling water, the effect will be better.

2. Place the walnuts in a pot and steam them over high heat for 10 minutes. Immediately soak them in cold water for 3 minutes. Take them out and peel them one by one to get complete kernels. Then blanch the kernels in boiling water for 4 minutes. Gently pinch them with your hands and the skin will fall off.

The walnut skin is a bit astringent, but it is sweet and delicious when peeled. Eating walnut kernels with the skin can nourish the kidneys and remove phlegm, while eating them without the skin can nourish the blood and moisten the intestines, so they are usually eaten without the skin.

When are fresh walnuts available?

Fresh walnuts are available in August and September every year.

Walnut is a deciduous tree, up to 3-5m tall, with grayish white bark with shallow longitudinal fissures, flaky pith of branches, and fine soft hairs at the tips of young branches; 2-year-old branches are often glabrous. The pinnate compound leaves are 25 to 50 cm long, with 5 to 9 leaflets, rarely 13, elliptic-ovate to elliptic, the terminal leaflets are usually larger, 5 to 15 cm long, 3 to 6 cm wide, with acute or acuminate apex, rounded or cuneate base, sometimes heart-shaped, entire or with inconspicuous blunt teeth, dark green and glabrous on the surface, with only fine hairs in the vein axils on the back, and very short or absent petiolules. The male catkins are 5 to 10 cm long, with 6 to 30 stamens in male flowers and a 3-lobed calyx; the female flowers are clustered in 1 to 3 flowers, with a 2-lobed style and a scarlet red color. The fruit is spherical, about 5cm in diameter, and gray-green. It has glandular hairs when young and is hairless when old. The nut inside is spherical, yellowish brown, and has irregular grooves on the surface. The flowering period is from April to May, and the fruit ripens from August to September.