In this blog post, you'll learn everything you need to know about hazelnuts. Find out what nutritional values the hazelnut has, where it comes from, how healthy hazelnuts are, and in which dishes hazelnuts are used.
Learn a lot about the handling of nuts and why they are the perfect nerve food. Find out here why nuts are generally good for you and your body.
The Hazelnut Shrub – Hazelnuts
The shrub on which the hazelnut grows is the so-called "common hazelnut" or "hazelnut shrub." It belongs to the birch family, reaches a height of about 5 meters, and can live up to 100 years.
The hazelnut shrub originally comes from Asia Minor, but also from Europe. Today, there are hazelnuts and shrubs in Europe, Asia, and the USA. The hazelnut is a very robust plant and can also be found in Austria. Hazelnuts are even considered one of the oldest plants in Europe.
The hazelnut is in season from September to January. The fruits are not ripe until they have taken on a brown color and fall to the ground on their own. The shrub does not bloom in spring like most plants but from February to March.
The hazelnut product has a good CO 2 balance. The CO 2 balance includes the production location, production method, transport, storage, processing, and packaging of the hazelnuts.
Why are hazelnuts so healthy?
Hazelnuts, like so many other types of nuts, are also considered nerve foods and are therefore often part of student food. But why are the little nuts so healthy for the brain? Hazelnuts contain a high content of lecithin, which has a positive influence on nerve function and memory. The content of magnesium, fatty acids, vitamin E, and niacin is also important for the nerves and the brain.
Hazelnuts also contain fatty acids and vitamins such as calcium, phosphorus, and iron. The two minerals calcium and phosphorus strengthen our bones and ensure healthy teeth. The increased iron content is also clearly a great feature of the nut.
The hazelnut also has a relatively high fiber content, which has a positive effect on digestion.
In addition to the positive effect on memory, the intake of hazelnuts also positively affects cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Hazelnuts are also true vitamin miracles. 50 grams of hazelnuts cover the daily requirement of vitamin E. Vitamin E mainly has an antioxidant effect in the body, but also has an anti-inflammatory effect and supports the immune system. Therefore, in hazelnuts, vitamin E serves an important function.
The heart and blood vessels are strengthened by the unsaturated fatty acids in the nuts. These fatty acids in hazelnuts have some benefits. Unsaturated fatty acids can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
However, hazelnuts also have a lot of calories due to their high fat content. Hazelnuts are a real calorie bomb. So if you want to lose weight, you should ensure you only eat small amounts of the small nuts. In general, however, hazelnuts are healthy for the body and mind.
With a protein content of 12 g per 100 g, the hazelnut is also rich in protein. But the hazelnut is also rich in fatty acids. This is especially interesting for a vegan and vegetarian diet.
If you want to learn more about different nuts and their positive properties, click here.
The Nutritional Value of Hazelnut
Are hazelnuts suitable for nut allergy sufferers ?
Especially nut allergy sufferers should not let the hazelnut taste carelessly, as it can trigger allergies. Especially people who are allergic to birch pollen should be careful, as this can lead to cross-reactions.
Possible symptoms may include swollen eyes and lips or an irritated stomach. Unfortunately, the intake of hazelnuts can also have life-threatening consequences in extreme cases.
Handling the hazelnut
We recommend buying organic quality hazelnuts, such as our hazelnuts. Our hazelnuts are 100% (100 percent) organically grown. They are ideal for vegetarians and vegans.
The nuts generally tend to mold or go rancid quickly. The latter is mainly due to the high fat content (it contains unsaturated fatty acids). You can recognize rancid nuts by smell or taste. If hazelnuts are moldy, they taste bitter.
Therefore, it is particularly important to store the hazelnut properly. Proper storage for hazelnuts means storing the nuts locked in a dry, cool, and dark place. Ground or planed hazelnuts should be consumed quickly. If the nuts are stored properly, they should have a shelf life of one year.
So if I buy hazelnuts, how can I be sure they're not bad yet? For whole nuts in the shell, there is the so-called shake test. To do this, shake the nuts, and if it rustles, it means that the hazelnut is no longer good. A fresh hazelnut is attached to the skin.
Open hazelnuts
I found a hazelnut with a shell, but no nutcracker at home, how can I open the nut? It is best to wrap the hazelnut in a towel, place a noodle walker or a cooking spoon on it, and hit it with your flat hand. Then the bowl should be open. After the fresh hazelnut has been cracked, the hazelnuts should dry for another 4-6 weeks.
How can I prepare hazelnuts?
The hazelnut is indispensable in the kitchen. We use hazelnuts in so many different recipes, such as cakes, chocolate, biscuits, or even as a mush. However, hazelnuts can also simply be used as a snack between meals.
There are so many different uses for the small nut. In most recipes, hazelnuts are used roasted or ground, especially for baking and decoration. For example, we use grated hazelnuts in our recipe: gluten-free Bircher buffers.
Recipe: Bircher buffer
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 250 g stoppers
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 200 g Verival Bircher Porridge
- 50 g grated hazelnuts
- 600 g apples
- Oil
- Cinnamon, fruit, yoghurt, applesauce of your choice
Preparation
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Beat the eggs, potatoes, and honey until creamy.
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Stir in Bircher porridge and hazelnuts.
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Let the dough steep for 20 minutes.
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Grate and mix apples.
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Shape the buffer and fry in oil.
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Serve the buffer with cinnamon, fruit, yoghurt, or applesauce.
Nutritional values
You can also use the nuts as a topping with oatmeal for our muesli , porridge or granola . A healthy breakfast . Hazelnut oil is also particularly popular.
However, hazelnuts can also be used for spicy dishes, for example for bread, in pesto instead of pine nuts, or in dishes with chicken.
The hazelnut cream is also highly recommended. And if you want to do without palm oil and therefore do not want to resort to the well-known hazelnut cream: there are numerous alternatives here. You can also make your own healthy and vegan hazelnut chocolate spread.
Healthy vegan hazelnut chocolate spread
Accessories
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Blender
Ingredients
- 90 g hazelnuts
- 120 ml plant milk
- 15 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp agave syrup or maple syrup
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Preparation
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First, put the hazelnuts in your blender or food processor and chop them up.
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Then add the remaining ingredients to the blender until a creamy mixture is formed.
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You can eat the vegan hazelnut cream immediately. For example, you can use it as a spread for your breakfast bread or to refine your porridge or overnight oats.
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It's best to keep the spread in a mason jar. It will be there for about 3-4 days.
Nutritional values
The hazelnut milk
Since many people nowadays do without cow's milk, there are already many plant-based alternatives. In addition to soy, oat, and rice milk, there are also many nut-based drinks, such as almond milk or cashew milk.
In this case, the nut drinks do not contain milk. A delicious hazelnut milk can also be made from the hazelnut. Due to its sweetness, it can be used well for desserts. However, the hazelnut drink is also suitable for cappuccinos, as it can be frothed very well.
You can also make your vegan hazelnut milk yourself. To do this, soak about 100g of hazelnuts in water overnight. After the hazelnuts are nice and soft, you can drain the water.
The hazelnuts come with a sweetening variant of your choice (you can use dates, agave syrup, or date syrup, for example) and 1l of water in the blender. Blend the ingredients well until they have become a fine milk.
Finally, run the hazelnut milk through a sieve or alternatively use a nut milk bag to remove small pieces from your milk.
Here's how to make other plant-based drinks yourself.
Our Verival hazelnuts
The hazelnut variety we source has the beautiful name Atababa. It is an old variety that is less susceptible to pests. The shrubs are between 4 and 15 years old. Find out now where our hazelnuts come from and in which products we use hazelnuts.
Where do our hazelnuts come from?
For a long time, we imported our hazelnuts from Turkey. Now, however, we buy them from a German company that buys the products from Azerbaijan. The company supports small hazelnut farmers there. The hazelnut fields are located in the Caucasus or in the part of Azerbaijan that borders Russia and Georgia.
So why Azerbaijan and not Turkey? The country in the Middle East is climatically very favorable for hazelnuts. In Turkey, there is the problem that frost often sets in relatively late, which impairs the growth of hazelnuts. This problem does not exist in Azerbaijan. In addition, the shell of our current hazelnut type adheres better, making it less susceptible to becoming rancid or moldy.
Our hazelnuts are collected partly by hand and partly by a kind of vacuum cleaner, which immediately frees them of branches and leaves. The nuts are then dried, and only when our German supplier requests the nuts are they freshly cracked. Then they are delivered to Germany, where our partner either delivers the nuts directly to us or processes them into ground nuts, for example.
In which Verival products can hazelnuts be found?
At Verival, too, we value the benefits of hazelnut and have therefore integrated it into some of our products. Hazelnuts, for example, are included in our Nut Fruit Urkorn Muesli and in our Bircher Muesli . Our Grain Free Sport Muesli Almond Fig, a gluten-free and vegan muesli made from kernels, nuts, and fruits, also contains hazelnuts.
But it's not just some of our cereals that contain hazelnuts. Our Early Bird and Smart Start nut mixes, as well as our Good Morning Energy Kick, are also partly made of hazelnuts.
