They may not have been very good walnuts -- or I just don't like walnuts in food very much. I bought a whole pound of nuts in the shell, and I've been experimenting with various other recipes that use them, such as Georgian bean salad https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/222572/georgian-bean-salad/ and pasta tossed in melted butter and chopped walnuts, and I haven't got on with any of them. The nicest thing to do is simply to crack the shells with the haft of a knife and eat the nuts as a snack...

I might try one more recipe, which is a squash risotto with toasted walnuts; toasting them should intensify the flavour.