A 16 oz bag of cashews holds about 4 cups. Cashews weigh about 113 g per cup — the same as walnuts — so a pound bag gives four cups. Four cups is a generous amount: it covers a cashew cream, a stir-fry, a batch of cookies and a snack bowl, and the 16 oz bag is the size most recipes assume. Cashews are unusual among nuts in that they are almost always sold shelled and usually roasted, which makes the cup figure reliable.
How many cups in a 16 oz bag?
A 16 oz bag of cashews holds about 4 cups (454 g ÷ 113 g per cup).
| Amount | Cups | Grams | Tablespoons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full 16 oz bag | 4 | 454 | 64 |
| Half 16 oz bag | 2 | 227 | 32 |
| Quarter 16 oz bag | 1 | 113.5 | 16 |
| 1 tablespoon | 0.06 | 7.06 | 1 |
The table gives the full package, half a package and a quarter of a package, plus a single tablespoon, so you can scale the answer to whatever your recipe asks for. If your packet is a different size from the one on this page, the same per-cup figure still applies — divide your packet's weight by the grams per cup, or its volume by 236.6 ml per cup, and you have your answer.
Worked examples
Cashew cream that needs a cup and a half
A batch of cashew cream takes about 1 and a half cups of cashews — 170 g — soaked in water for four hours, then blended with 1/2 cup of fresh water and a pinch of salt until completely smooth. A cup and a half is just over a third of the bag, leaving about two and a half cups for other dishes. Soaking is essential: unsoaked cashews blend grainy, while soaked ones turn silky. Use raw cashews, not roasted — roasted cashews give the cream a savoury, brown flavour that does not suit desserts.
Stir-fry that needs a cup
A stir-fry for four takes about 1 cup of cashews — 113 g — tossed in at the end with the vegetables and sauce. One cup is a quarter of the bag, so a single bag covers four stir-fries. Add the cashews last and cook them for only a minute: longer and they soften and lose their crunch. Toasted cashews hold up better in a stir-fry than raw ones, and their flavour stands up to a strong sauce.
Cookies that need half a cup
A batch of cookies takes about 1/2 cup of cashews — 57 g — roughly chopped and folded into a dough with 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of butter. Half a cup is an eighth of the bag, so one bag covers about eight batches of cookies. Chop the cashews coarsely: fine pieces disappear into the dough, while coarse pieces give the cookie its character. Salted cashews work here if you reduce the salt in the dough by a pinch.
How the figure was measured
The weight figure on this page comes from King Arthur Baking: cashews weighs 113 g per cup, measured spooned and levelled, and that figure carries high confidence in CookScale's 120-ingredient table. Every cup-based result on this page is approximate, because a cup measures volume and the weight depends on how the ingredient settles, how it was measured, and how fresh it is. When the amount matters — a cake, a cheesecake, a sauce that must set — weigh the ingredient on a kitchen scale instead of trusting the cup. Package sizes vary by brand and region, so check the weight printed on your own packet before planning a recipe around this page.
How to measure it
Nuts are spooned into a dry cup measure and levelled, never packed — pressing them down crushes the pieces and fits far more weight into the same cup. Whole nuts, halves and chopped pieces all measure differently in the same cup: a cup of whole almonds weighs more than a cup of chopped almonds, because the pieces settle differently and the air gaps change. That is why the weight figures on this page are the anchor, not the cup. If a recipe says '1 cup chopped walnuts', chop first and then measure; if it says '1 cup walnuts, chopped', measure first and then chop. The difference is real — about a quarter of a cup in a batch of brownies. When it matters, weigh: 142 g of almonds is 142 g however you chop them.
Practical guidance
Nuts go rancid faster than almost anything else in the pantry because their oils are exposed to air. A bag opened in January and still sitting in a warm cupboard in June will taste stale and a little bitter, and no recipe can hide it. Store opened nuts in a sealed jar in the fridge, or in the freezer for months — they thaw in minutes and toast straight from frozen. Taste one before baking with an old bag: fresh nuts taste sweet and clean, stale ones taste like old oil. Toasting revives nuts that are merely flat, but it cannot rescue ones that have turned. Buy smaller bags more often rather than one huge bag that sits open.
Four cups is the figure, and the raw-versus-roasted question is the practical one: the weight per cup is the same either way, but the use is different, and buying the wrong kind means a second trip. Raw cashews are for blending and baking; roasted are for eating and stir-fries. The bag size is the other variable — 8 oz bags hold about 2 cups, 12 oz bags about 3 cups — and the same 113 g per cup applies throughout. And check whether your bag is salted: salted cashews add roughly a quarter of a teaspoon of salt per half cup, which matters in a recipe that is already seasoned.
Frequently asked questions
How many tablespoons are in a 16 oz bag of cashews?
There are 64 tablespoons in a 16 oz bag of cashews, because the bag holds about 4 cups and there are 16 tablespoons in a cup. A tablespoon of cashews weighs about 7.1 g. For a stir-fry, 2 to 3 tablespoons per serving is the usual amount, so a bag covers roughly two dozen servings.
Should I use raw or roasted cashews for cooking?
It depends on the dish. Raw cashews are for blending — cashew cream, vegan cheese sauces, desserts — because they blend smooth and taste neutral. Roasted cashews are for eating as they are and for dishes where the nut stays whole, like a stir-fry or a salad, because their flavour is deeper and they hold their crunch. They weigh the same per cup, so the measure does not change either way.
Can I substitute cashews for walnuts cup-for-cup?
Yes. Cashews and walnuts both weigh about 113 g per cup, so a cup-for-cup swap is exact. The texture is different — cashews are softer and creamier, walnuts are firmer and more bitter — so the dish changes character, but the amount does not. In a stir-fry or a cookie the swap works well; in a salad where crunch matters, walnuts hold up better.
Why do cashews need soaking for cashew cream?
Soaking softens the cashews so they blend completely smooth. Unsoaked cashews, even after long blending, leave a grainy texture in the cream. Four hours in cold water is the standard soak; an hour in boiling water works if you are short on time. Drain and rinse before blending, and add fresh water — the soaking water tastes bitter.
How long does an opened bag of cashews last?
An opened bag of cashews lasts about three months in a cool cupboard and six months in the fridge. Store them in a sealed jar, not the open bag. Cashews go rancid more slowly than walnuts but faster than almonds, so taste one before cooking with an old bag. Roasted cashews keep slightly longer than raw ones because the roasting drives off moisture.