My husband took me to Umbuntu, a vegetarian restaurant in Napa a few months ago on a date night. So kind of him to take me to a vegetarian restaurant, being a meat eater, himself. Of all the delicious food we had that night, the one thing that stuck out the most to both of us was the appetizer – lavender almonds. They were sweet, yet savory almonds with a hint of lavender. I didn’t think much more about them until I was visiting the St Helena Olive Oil Company and the food-grade lavender just practically jumped out at me into my hands and I knew I needed to try to make them myself. And make them I did. Like usual, I did a bunch of internet browsing and then crafted my own recipe.

They are absolutely delicious. And “step away from the almond bowl” addicting. I pass my addiction onto you cause that’s what I like to do around here…

(I have this bad habit of not taking enough photos because I get too excited about eating and tasting the recipe. I need to get better about that. I don’t have a photo of the finished product. Just this one where the ingredients are sitting ready to be tossed with the almonds. I needed to waste some time while I waited for the almonds to roast. So you have to just use your imagination what the finished product looked like)

Almonds with Sea Salt & Lavender

• 2 cups marcona almonds (I used regular almonds because I didn’t have marcona almonds)
• 1 t dried lavender
• 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp sea salt (I used pink Himalayan)
• 1/2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. roast the almonds on a baking sheet until fragrant, 10-12 minutes.
2. Grind the lavender very fine with a mortar and pestle. (like, really grind it down. I didn’t grind mine well enough and I wish I had. It was still good, but I knew it would be better if it had been ground more fine)
3. In a bowl, toss the almonds with the olive oil. Sprinkle with lavender, sugar, and salt. Toss well to coat.