Sriracha Lime Nuts

I've been playing with a recipe for spicy nuts for a while now, and finally settled on this. I tried various combinations of spices and peppers, but ended up settling on one of the simplest ones... sriracha and lime with a little extra kick, courtesy of smoked paprika. While these are not as spicy as I was envisioning, they pack a lot of flavor so I'm happy munching on them.

Ingredients

1/4 cup sriracha sauce

2 tbsp lime juice and zest from the lime

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tbsp sea salt1 tsp smoked paprika (optional)

4 cups nuts, lightly toasted (use any combination you like- I do 1 cup each of walnuts, almonds, cashews, and peanuts)

1/4 tsp sea salt to sprinkle on top when finished

Directions

1.  Mix the sriracha sauce, lime juice, lime zest, olive oil, and 1/2 tbsp sea salt together in a large bowl until it is uniform.

2.  Mix in the nuts and stir, making sure each nut is coated with the sriracha mix.  Let this sit for 15 minutes so the sriracha and lime soaks into the nuts.  Mix it once or twice during this time since the sriracha mix settles to the bottom and you want all the nuts to get the flavor.

3.  Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet (I line mine with a Silpat for easy cleaning).  Bake at 300 for 40 mins, stirring them once at the 15 minute mark, and again at the 30 minute mark.

4.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with the 1/4 tsp sea salt. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet before transferring to an air tight container for storage.