What to use instead of walnuts
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Toasted crunch and a tannic edge in a bake or salad
Walnut skins carry tannin, which is the faint bitterness that keeps a sweet bake from cloying, and the high oil content is what lets them toast into something aromatic in ten minutes.
PecansRan out
1:1
Sweeter and softer with far less bitterness, so a banana bread loses its counterweight. Toast them two minutes less; they burn sooner.
Hazelnuts, toasted and rubbed of their skinsRan out
1:1
Firmer bite and a sweeter, more perfumed flavour. Rugelach made with them tastes Italian.
Chopped almondsRan out
1:1
Much harder crunch and almost no oiliness, so they stay crisp longer in a wet batter and taste plainer doing it.
Toasted pumpkin seedsNut-free
1:1 by volume
Green, crunchy and a little savoury. They stay separate from the crumb instead of softening into it.
Rolled oats toasted in butter, in cookies and crumblesNut-free
1 cup oats + 1 tbsp butter per 1 cup chopped walnuts
Crunch without the fat or the aroma, and the bake comes out drier, so add 1 tbsp extra liquid.
What doesn't work: Walnut pieces straight from the bag where the recipe says toasted. Raw walnut is tannic and often faintly rancid, since its oil goes off faster than any other nut, and no amount of sugar around it covers that.
Ground into the body of a sauce (fesenjan, muhammara, chiles en nogada)
Blitzed walnut puts fat and protein into suspension, which is what thickens the sauce, and the tannin is what stops a sweet pomegranate sauce tasting like jam.
Ground hazelnutsRan out
1:1 by weight
Sweeter and less bitter, so cut any sugar or molasses by about a quarter. It thickens the sauce to the same degree.
Blanched almonds, groundRan out
1:1 by weight
Paler and much milder, so the sauce loses both its brown colour and its edge. Add 1 tsp pomegranate molasses per cup to put the sourness back.
Cashews, soaked and blendedRan out
1:1 by weight
Creamier and sweeter with no tannin at all. The result is smoother and closer to a korma than a fesenjan.
Toasted sunflower seeds, groundNut-free
1:1 by weight
Close in fat and body, greyer in colour, with a bitterness that actually suits muhammara.
What doesn't work: Walnut oil in place of the ground nuts. The oil is only the fat; there is no protein or solid left to hold the sauce together, so a fesenjan made with it stays thin and slicks over the top of the chicken.
Walnut oil goes rancid faster than any other nut. Buy small quantities, keep them in the freezer, and taste one before committing a tray of baklava to them.