If you're looking for a tasty and healthy alternative to walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pecans, and other common nuts, consider the pistachio. This humble nut can be used in a variety of ways to enhance everyday meals, desserts, and snacks. Following are five reasons why you should consider replacing your normal nuts with pistachios.
Use Them in Scones, Muffins, and Bread
Simply stir a handful or two of chopped pistachios into scone, muffin, or bread dough to enhance the flavor of your everyday baked goods. Pistachios make a particularly delicious addition to cinnamon swirl bread that is used for French toast. Some home cooks like to sprinkle crushed pistachios over loaves of bread and onto the tops of muffins.
Use as Breading for Poultry or Fish
Crushed pistachios also make an excellent addition to the breading used for roasting and frying poultry and for pan frying fish fillets. Mixed with equal amounts of flour and corn meal with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, crushed pistachios add a unique, earthy element to the mixture that blends well with white meat.
Sprinkle into Salads
You can use pistachios as an ingredient in any type of salad, from simple green dinner salads all the way up to complicated gourmet salads. They make an excellent substitute for walnuts in traditional apple and walnut salad, and you can also stir pistachios into warm orzo and chicken salad for added flavor and crunch.
Make Pistachio Brittle
If you think peanut brittle is fabulous, wait until you try pistachio brittle. This is a delicious candy that's ideal for holidays or any other time you want something tasty. It's easy and fun to make and provides a perfect way to get children involved in learning how to cook.
Use it to Make Trail Mix
Pistachios make an excellent addition to trail mix. They are nutritious and delicious and provide a perfect complement to granola, chocolate or carob chips, sunflower seeds, and all other trail mix staples. Trail mix is an excellent option to pack on hikes or other outdoor outings or as a healthy alternative to standard snack foods such as candy bars and chips.
Brownies!
Pistachios add a tasty accent to brownies that provides an excellent alternative to traditional walnuts. Depending on personal tastes, pistachios can be chopped, halved, or added whole to brownies simply by stirring them into the batter prior to baking. You can also sprinkle them over the batter right before you place the pan in the oven to bake.
To purchase pistachios for any of these ideas, go to websites that sell them fresh.
