Glossary of food terms: W
Walnut
A creamy-coloured nut with an edible light-brown skin enclosed in a knobbly beige shell.
Walnuts are very versatile and good to cook with. Ground and chopped walnuts make a delicious addition to cakes, biscuits, buns and breads. The flavour is also exquisite in ice cream, toffee, fudge and other confectionery, such as walnut brittle or praline. New-season walnuts are delicious eaten with cheese, especially soft goats' cheese or cream cheese. Very young walnuts that are still green and in their shells can be salted and pickled to serve with a cheeseboard or with cold meats.
Walnuts have a short shelf life once shelled, so they're best kept in the fridge in an airtight container. For longer-term storage, it's best to buy walnuts in shells and shell them as you need them. If the shell is firmly sealed you can store them for a few months. Never keep nuts from one year to the next because the flavour and quality quickly deteriorate, and they may become rancid. Walnut halves or roughly chopped nuts can add crunch to salads laced with walnut oil dressing.
Add them to noodles, use with chicken in Chinese dishes, or chop them into stuffings. Push walnut pieces into dates as an after-dinner sweetmeat, or just enjoy a bowl of walnuts with a glass of tawny port.
You can find out more about cooking with nuts and seeds in our Cook's Guide.
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