Cashew Piri Piri (Mozambican Cashew Nuts)

Portuguese influence on Mozambican cuisine is heavy, just like Mozambican influence on Portuguese cuisine. The best known example of that influence, is Piri-Piri. Among Piri-Piri there’s chicken piri-piri, but there is so much more (that is so much more vegan as well :-)). Today it’s snack time: we make Cashew Piri-Piri!

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Cashew Piri-Piri from Mozambique is a delicious snack.

Piri-Piri is a type of chili sometimes referred to as bird’s eye chili. It’s not as long as other types of chilies and within the chili-scene it is known to be hot. Véry hot. Perfect for sauces, seasoning or as we do in this recipe: coating for the Cashew Piri Piri.

These chilies are often used to make dried chili powder. Although you can always use real chilies, for today’s recipe we suggest using chili powder as it mixes best with the olive oil. Of course you can also (dry and) chop up (and /or pestle) your own bird’s eye chilies.

Bird's eye chilis and Piri-Piri are the same type of chili
Semi-dried bird’s eye or Piri-Piri chilies

Cashew nuts with Piri-Piri seasoning

This recipe makes for a perfect snack. It easily pimps regular cashew nuts into something more special, more tasty, more adventurous. The crux of this recipe? Patience and moderate to low heat. Still done in 10 minutes though!

Kitchen Utensils

  • Sauce pan

Ingredients

Prep time: 5 min. | Cook time: 10 min.

Cashew nuts, lemon, garlic, salt, chili pepper and olive oil is what is needed for cashew Piri-Piri
  • 150 grams of cashew nuts
  • 1 tablespoon of salt (if you bought salted cashew nuts, omit this)
  • 6 tablespoons of chili powder
  • 120 ml (½ cup) of olive oil
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 3 cloves of garlic, chopped up

How to make Cashew Piri Piri

Prep time: 5 min. | Cook time: 10 min.

  1. Chop up 3 cloves of garlic (or pestle with a tablespoon of olive oil in a mortar).

  2. Add 120 ml (½ cup) of olive oil in a saucepan on moderate heat. Add the juice of 1 lemon, the chopped up garlic, 6 tablespoons of chili powder and a tablespoon of salt to the oil. Stir well. (Skip the salt if you bought salted cashew nuts.)

  3. After having stirred and mixed the oil with all ingredients thoroughly, add the cashew nuts.
Cashew Piri-Piri in the pan
The cashew nuts need to swim around a bit such that the olive oil and spices can find their place around.
  1. Heat on moderate to low heat for some 10 minutes until the oil mixture becomes a coating on the cashew nuts. If it looks like a coating, take the cashew nuts out of the pan using a slotted spoon or colander and put the nuts on a paper towel for a bit (to absorb some of the oil).
Spice up regular cashew nuts by turning them into Piri-Piri

Summary

Recipe: Cashew Piri Piri
Country: Mozambique
Prep: 5 min.
Cook: 10 min.
Total: 15 min.
Ingredients: cashew nuts, chili powder, olive oil, lemon, garlic
Type of meal: snack, appetizer

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Tim Thijssen

Tim Thijssen

Tim likes cooking. A lot. Tim was also 'on his way' to becoming a vegetarian for the better half of the last decade, until he met Jolanda in 2018 and became vegan overnight. Happiest on a food market in Asia, or in any kind of cafe that serves a proper double espresso. Cooking motto: "No garlic, no glory."

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