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Salad. We love nuts on salads, and pistachios add some beautiful color, too. Lately it's been mixed greens with slices of peaches or nectarines, pistachios, big shavings of parmesan, and a sweet balsamic vinaigrette.

Sprinkled on roasted squash. Remember our delicata squash from last week? We roasted it, halved, then added salt, pepper, parmesan, and pistachios and scooped it all out together. It was a very satisfying, simple dinner. Since pistachios are a bit chewier than other nuts, they added another texture but weren't too hard with the soft squash.

Stirred into pasta. Again, pistachios are pretty meaty and a little chewy. We think they're good in hot dishes with other strong flavors, like sausage. They'd also be good in a rice salad.

Pesto. We make pesto with walnuts and almonds, why not sub in pistachios for the pine nuts?

On top of fruit. To sweeten them up, try sautéeing some pistachios with butter and brown sugar until they are glazed, then put them over fresh, sliced fruit for dessert.

Any other ideas?

Related: Top 5 Uses for Arugula Besides Salad

(Image: Flickr member Steve Counsell, licensed under Creative Commons)