How to Toast Pine Nuts – 3 Easy Ways!

Learning how to toast pine nuts is an essential baking technique that elevates your recipes. It’s one of three ways to roast pine nuts, so knowing which works best for different foods will help you create delicious dishes!

Pine nuts are so good! They’re even better when perfectly toasting. But because my children have tree nut allergies, I don’t often eat them myself.

Let’s be honest – they’re already a bit expensive, but are they worth it? Their flavour can enhance even the most straight forward dish, and their texture cannot be replicated by any alternative ingredient. They’re especially good on salads (they go so well with arugula!) and sprinkled on creamy pasta. They’re also fantastic over hummus, of course. I couldn’t have hummus at home either (sesame allergy for my little one), but I am not kidding when I say that I day-night about silky hummus covered with perfectly toasty pine nuts and a drizzling of the best olive oil that I can find. Toasting your pine nuts will also create a surreal dimension to your homemade pesto – try it!

What moral of this tale? Eat all the pine seeds for me and send me pictures of your delicious recipes topped with perfectly toasted seeds, okay? On

But if you don’t know how to make your breadsticks, I am here to help. In this post, I will show you three ways to make them. They are all very simple and quick. Usually, I will do them on my stovetop, but any of these three recipes work well. Also, it just varies depending on how many you want to make at one time. So let’s get started!

PS: If this sounds basic and simple to you guys, that’s awesome! You’re probably already killing it in your kitchens. But when I did my reader surveys, there was a lot of demand for essential recipes like these, so I’ll sprinkle them in here and here. Also, I have another delicious pasta salad coming up soon, and you’ll want perfectly toasted pine nut in it, so I wanted to ensure you could get that part right too!

Here we go!

How to Toast Pine Nuts: Three Ways

Method 1: How to Toast Pine Nuts on the Stove

My favourite way to cook them is in the oven. They take about 15 minutes to roast, so they’re perfect for dinner parties. You can do this in an air fryer, too if you’d instead not heat your kitchen. To make these, combine the ingredients and stir until everything is mixed. Spread out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil and bake for 10–15 minutes at 350°F. Let cool before serving.

Put pine seeds in a dry skillet big enough to hold them in one layer.
Once they’re done cooking, turn the temperature down to low and keep them moving (stir often or continuously) so they don’t stick together.
Transfer them to a cooling rack when they’re just a bit underdone.

Method 2: How to Toast Pine Nuts in the Microwave

Microwaves can be used to heat food without burning it. Toasting peanuts is easy; just put them in a paper bag with aluminium foil tape on one side. Put the bag in the oven and cook until the peanuts are lightly browned.

Spread pine nuts in one layer on a microwavable plate. Microwaving on full power for 1 minute, stirring, and then continuing to microwave and stirring in 30-second intervals until they’re golden brown.
You must watch out for burnt popcorn at the beginning of cooking, but don’t worry too much about it later. Microwaves tend to cook unevenly, so some kernels may get overcooked while others remain undercooked even after you’ve turned off the oven.

Method 3: How to Toast Pine Nuts in the Oven

This is excellent if you want to toast lots of pine seeds at once. Because you can place them all on a single half or quarter-sheet pan, you can easily cover a larger area. For example, if you wanted to toast about 3 cups of pine seeds, you could easily fit them into a 13×9 inch baking dish. If you’re toasting more than two cups of pine seeds, I’d love to stop by. This method produces the most even toasts and colours on all the pine seeds.

Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Put pine nuts in a single thin layer on a rimmed pan.
Bake for 5-15 minutes, stirring every 2-5 minutes, or until golden brown (depending on how thick you want your
Transfer the bread immediately to a cooling rack to cool down before eating.

Storage Notes:

Toasting pine nuts can be done in two ways. You could roast the pine nuts in a dry pan until they start to brown. Or you could place the pine nut into a bowl with oil and heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the pine nut for about 8 minutes. Remove the pine nut from the oven and allow it to cool down. Then transfer the cooled pine nut into an air-tight container.

If you made this recipe, leave a review below and tag me @GreatFoodie on Instagram!

Ingredients

¼ cup raw pine nuts (or almonds, pecans, walnuts,

Instructions

Stove Top Method:

Put the pine nuts into a dry skillet large enough to hold them comfortably in one thin, even, flat, uncrowded, single-layered pile.
Put the pan on medium-low heat and stir the pine nuts regularly or constantly as they get light-coloured.
Transfer nuts from the pan to a cooling rack when golden brown; otherwise, they might burn.

Microwave Method:

Spread pine nuts in one layer on a microwavable dish. Heat on high for 1 minute. Stir and heat in 30-second intervals, stirring every time, until golden brown; serve immediately.
Watch carefully for browning; constantly stir during cooking. Microwaves tend to cook unevenly, so some items may be undercooked while others get burnt if you aren’t careful.
Transfer to another plate for cooling; arrange in a single-layered fashion.

Oven Method (or toaster oven):

Stirring often helps ensure even baking. If you don’t stir often enough, the bottom may burn before the top turns golden brown.
Transfer them immediately to a cooling rack so they don’t keep cooking. Do not leave them in the hot skillet because they will cook further.

Notes

Pine nuts can be quickly roasted in an oven for less than 10 minutes. Toasting more than 1½ cups at once takes longer.
Keep raw and toasting pine nut kernels separately, so they don’t become rancid.
You can use any of these three methods to roast other kinds of nuts and seeds, including peanuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios,

How to toast pine nuts