Top 5: Quick Uses for Pistachio Nuts

Elizabeth Passarella
Elizabeth Passarella
Elizabeth Passarella is the author of the essay collection Good Apple and a contributing editor at Southern Living. A former editor at Real Simple and Vogue, she has spent more than 20 years writing about food, travel, home design, and parenting in outlets including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Parents, Martha Stewart Weddings, Coastal Living, Airbnb, and The Kitchn. Elizabeth grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and now lives with her husband and three children in New York City.
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updated May 3, 2019
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We recently made pistachio ice cream, using Jeni Britton’s no-egg method (loving it), and we had a bunch of shelled pistachio nuts left over. Days went by, and there was no time for baking pistachio biscotti or pistachio cookies, and snacking on them while cooking dinner wasn’t depleting the supply very fast.

Here’s how we’ve been using them up in fast, savory ways…

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)

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