Pistachios are amazing! We want even more of them…
Pistachios may well be the most delicious way to ruin your manicure, and you should also look at it this way: this is seriously mindful eating, with all the effort and concentration it takes to get one of those nuts into your mouth! For these and other reasons, today we’re putting the spotlight on: green gold, or pistachios.
Because they’re an incredibly delicious nut to eat as they are, or in yogurt, but they’re also wonderful in sweets (hello pistachio-cardamom cake!), and paired with savory flavors like those of halloumi or lamb chops.
An old favorite
Pistachio ice cream was one of the most popular flavors at the ice cream parlor in The Hague we used to visit, and although there’s now fierce competition in the ice cream department from trend-conscious newcomers like crunchy pecan salted caramel with a swirl of pretzel peanut butter running through it (and more of that kind of hip stuff), pistachio remains a (green) golden classic. By the way, you can whip up a quick pistachio mousse with crunchy pieces of nut yourself in no time, delish…
A more environmentally friendly choice
What surprises us somewhat is that pistachios haven’t yet been embraced more by the plant-based milk industry. This may be because they’re a relatively expensive nut, and a consistent supply chain hasn’t yet been established on an industrial scale. But if you compare them with almonds (which have by now become a very common alternative for making milk and are available on almost every shelf): growing and harvesting the almonds needed to make one liter of almond milk requires over 900 liters of water. Um… that’s naturally a sensitive issue, especially for sunny and therefore dry California, where the vast majority of almonds are grown. Growing pistachios requires 75% less water!
Naturally rich in fat
Many people therefore avoid almond milk precisely because of its aforementioned environmental impact and choose oat milk instead… But many major producers of oat milk add fats such as rapeseed oil, which also isn’t something you want to consume in large quantities while drinking coffee. Truly good pistachio milk wouldn’t need added oil because of its natural fat content, according to the founder of American pistachio milk company Taché (sadly not yet available in the Netherlands).
By now, we know that patience often pays off. So we’re calmly counting down the days until pistachio milk is also easily available here. And then we’ll go all out! Pistachio lattes every day! Until then: shell and snack away, as long as you promise that you’ll neeeever, out of sheer desperation, try to crack open that last nut with your teeth… (we’ve all been there!)
Read also:
- Banana bread with raspberry and pistachio
- How to choose a plant-based milk
- So hypocritical: we really don’t understand this story about Oatly
Source: Refinery29
