Nut allergies are a fascinating subject. I secretly suspect – safe in the knowledge I’m not a sufferer – that they are evolution’s secret weapon, the tool to eliminate random human specimens thus exercising population control.
Nuts are one of nature’s ready meals so were an original basic foodstuff, together with roots, insects, berries and an odd squirrel the early man managed to clobber. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger so if you were a paleo allergic – tough luck, mate. You survived it or pegged it.
As the human menu and their brain power extended, the choice made it possible for the cleverer ones to suss that eating pecans gave them a dodgy tummy, and they’d better nibble on kibbled grains. You see, gluten intolerance hadn’t been invented back then.
Jesting aside, I fully sympathise with nuts avoiders as I do with anyone who genuinely needs to deprive themselves of the pleasures a food group. The bars below are a nutter’s paradise and a take on the original pecan pie bars from NY Times Cooking. I like nuts but pecans and walnuts are probably my least favourites so I replaced them with what I like best: almonds and pistachios.