"pistachio" news and stories

Happy National Pistachio Day!

The delicious little nuggets of protein not only taste good, but are good for you: Proven to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, reduce stress-related blood pressure levels, supply minerals, anti-oxidants and protein, the pistachio is a healthy snack. And if you're located in the U.S., chances are the pistachios you nibble upon were grown in San Joaquin, California, the second largest producer of pistachios worldwide (Iran and Turkey are also leading growers).

Tasty raw or roasted, salted or unsalted, we can devour the nuts by the fistful when seasoned -- even Trader Joe's has caught on to the trend, with a chile-lime variety. Roast your own batch with this recipe, or create a unique flavor palate catering to your own tastes and preferences.

If you're growing weary of rolling and cutting out batch after batch of holiday cookie, the blogger at A Dash of Sass has the perfect solution with these festive Cranberry Pistachio Blondies. The mix of cranberries and pistachios not only give the blondies colorful punches of red and green, they pack these blondies with tart and nutty flavors plus a great mingling of sweet and salty.

The blogger promises that these bars are "crazy simple" to make. A look at the recipe backs up the promise down to the foolproof frosting. Zigzagging icing across the top is infinitely easier than piping and flooding Santa hats and snowflakes onto sugar cookies.

Set out a plate for Santa -- I'm sure you'll be the only ones on your block tempting him with this creative take on classic holiday cookies.

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While I can't really try this exact recipe for myself, since it includes nuts, I was completely charmed by the above recipe for Stuffed Quail with Pancetta, Butternut, and Leeks with Pistachio Pesto Sauce -- led by Executive Chef David McMillan. It not only looks and sound delicious, but there's also a lot of great tips and techniques inside the 11-minute video.

It outlines how to prep the stuffing, the ingredients (butternut squash and garlic), plus all the finer points of those tiny quail and how to whip up a single-serving pesto with a mortar and pestle.

The best recipes and videos are the ones that give you more information than merely a simple recipe -- extra tips, food intricacies, cooking techniques -- and this flick definitely delivers.

I love pistachio nuts. I can eat an entire bag (and I'm talking about those big 1 lb bags, not the little ones) in one evening. Give me a bag of pistachio nuts and a TV and I'm happy.

Today is National Pistachio Day, and that involves not just the nuts but the other foods that contain pistachio. Here's a recipe for Pistachio Ice Cream from Epicurious, and here's a recipe for Pistachio Crusted Chicken from AllRecipes. Here's one for Pistachio Chicken Salad. Here are the seductive Pistachio Date Sticky Buns that Nicole posted about a while back.

And don't forget that eating pistachios (in moderation) can lower cholesterol.

Larabar specializes in making healthy, delicious snack bars from a blend of fruits, nuts and spices. Their energy bars are completely unprocessed, uncooked, non GMA, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegan and kosher - and despite their simple makeup (each has less than six ingredients) they taste great thanks to the natural sweetness of the high-quality ingredients that they use.

Last year, they added Lemon Bar and Cinnamon Roll to their lineup of bars, bringing the total number of bars in the line to ten for a few months, but the reaction was so positive that they just announced that another pair of new flavors are being launched on March 5th: Key Lime Pie and Pistachio. Hopefully, the Key Lime Pie will have the same bright, almost juicy flavor that the excellent Lemon Bar does.

The other recent addition to Larabar's offerings is the Jocalat line. Jocalat has evolved from the Maya bars that the company was offering last year and are a more candy-like product than the standard Larabars because they use fair trade certified organic chocolate in each one, in addition to their standard fruits and nuts. The bars are available in Chocolate, Chocolate Orange, Chocolate Coffee and Chocolate Mint (the coffee is my favorite) and each has just 190 calories, in addition to being entirely organic, high in fiber, protein, good fats and antioxidants.