Our best pistachio recipes collection includes an aromatic Middle Eastern rice textured with pistachios, cashews and raisins; warm cumin-spiced chickpeas spooned over pita crisps, drizzled with a lemony-garlic yogurt sauce and sprinkled with pistachios; salads showered with pistachios, such as a vibrant pearl couscous, pomegranate and pistachio salad; and a snack of spiced pan-fried cauliflower with chickpeas and pistachios on flatbreads. Pistachios make everything better.
Pistachios have been trending in recent years thanks to the ‘Dubai chocolate’ trend. If you’ve been living off the grid: an artisanal made-in-Dubai chocolate bar with a green pistachio cream and crispy kataifi pastry filling went viral on social media becoming the world’s most covetable confectionary, and everyone began making Dubai chocolate copycat recipes, from leading chocolate brands to food bloggers.
As a consequence, we’ve all been going nuts for pistachios, and the popularity of pistachios as an ingredient has surged. Pistachios have popped up in everything from croissants to cocktails, and recipes for dishes with pistachios, both sweet and savoury, have appeared absolutely everywhere, from morning TV cooking show segments to countless magazine spreads. It’s nuts. (Sorry.) But it’s a good excuse to cook with pistachios.
We’ve long been pistachio lovers. The pistachio is one of our favourite ingredients, especially after living in the Middle East for so many years. So we thought it time we shared our best pistachio recipes for you to try — which are some of our best recipes with nuts — as long as you can get hold of some pistachios that is. Apparently there’s a global pistachio shortage and the price of pistachios have also soared — although they’re plentiful here and very reasonably.
Before you scroll down to our best pistachio recipes, if you don’t find cooking inspiration in this collection, do browse our recipe archives, which are brimming with 15 years of recipes we’ve cooked around the world, from places we’ve lived, travelled and loved. Click on the heart on the right of any post and you can save them in a private account. Or check out our compilation of the most popular recipes of April, which are the recipes our readers searched for, spent time on, and hopefully cooked.
Now before I tell you more about our pistachio recipes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers or picnic lovers; or booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay extra. Now let’s tell you all about our pistachio recipes.
Pistachio Recipes from Rice Dishes to Salads and Vegetable Sides
Our best pistachio recipes include everything from our Middle Eastern spiced rice with nuts and dried fruit to our recipe for crispy pita with spiced chickpeas, nuts and a garlicky sauce for fatteh. A tip: pistachios are at their crunchiest when they’re quickly pan-roasted in a little extra virgin olive oil in one of these adorable little fry pans.
Middle Eastern Rice Recipe with Spices, Pistachios, Cashews and Raisins
We lived in the Middle East for almost ten years and Arabic cuisine is one of our favourite cuisines. My Middle Eastern rice recipe with spices, nuts and raisins makes a spiced rice dish inspired by the myriad Arabic rice dishes from the Middle East that we loved to eat when we lived there, such as Arabian machboos and kabsa, Palestinian qidreh and Syrian maqluba. It’s one of our best pistachio recipes and one of our best Middle Eastern recipes.
While my Middle Eastern rice recipe is authentic in taste – there are few more quintessential Middle Eastern spice blends than the ‘seven spice’ mix known as ‘baharat’ and nuts such as pistachios, pine nuts and cashews – the technique I use is completely inauthentic. Instead of the pilaf method, I use the speedier Asian stir-fry method to use up leftover rice. (More leftover rice recipes here.)
This rice dish is fantastic with smoky kofta kebab, garlicky shish tawook, and salads such as fatoush and tabbouleh. The next day I combine any leftover Middle Eastern spiced rice with leftover kofta kebab meat or garlicky chicken leftovers, which I break up into bite-sized pieces and quickly stir-fry again. The result is a wonderful rice dish that makes an easy yet comforting meal for a filling lunch or casual dinner.
Middle Eastern Rice Recipe with Spices, Pistachios, Cashews and Raisins
Crispy Pita, Spiced Chickpeas and Yoghurt Sauce for Middle Eastern Fatteh
Our recipe for crispy pita with spiced chickpeas makes fatteh, a shared, rustic, home-style Middle Eastern breakfast dish comprised mainly of leftovers. Stale pita bread is toasted to create crispy pita chips. Warm cumin-spiced chickpeas are spooned over the pita crisps, and a lemony-garlic yogurt sauce is drizzled over the chickpeas.
Pan-roasted nuts are sprinkled on top of the lot. We use pistachios, pine nuts and cashews, making it one of our best recipes with nuts and one of our best pistachio recipes. It’s also one of our best chickpea recipes and one of my favourite Middle Eastern recipes.
I’ve long called fatteh the Middle Eastern nachos, although a Middle Eastern chilaquiles is probably more accurate, as fatteh is a breakfast dish created to use up leftovers – stale pita bread, leftover chickpeas, and yogurt leftover from other dishes. My recipe is based on the Syrian fatteh we used to eat years ago when we lived in the Middle East.
Crispy Pita, Spiced Chickpeas and Yoghurt Sauce for Middle Eastern Fatteh
Roasted Pumpkin Recipe with Yoghurt Garlic Lemon Sauce and Dukkah
This roasted pumpkin recipe makes a delicious Middle Eastern side dish of sweet roast pumpkin doused in a delightfully tangy yoghurt, garlic and lemon sauce, generously sprinkled with dukkah and sumac, scattered with toasted cashews and pistachios, and garnished with fresh dill. The dukkah and nuts add texture, while sumac gives the dish a distinctively Middle Eastern flavour.
This roast pumpkin recipe is one of my favourite Middle Eastern recipes and one of our best pistachio recipes. We lived in the Middle East for eight years, travelled the region for even longer as travel and food writers, and adore Middle Eastern food. We’re especially fond of the Levantine cuisines of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, where grilled and roasted vegetable dishes are often served with a tangy yoghurt sauce.
Like our Middle Eastern spiced rice with nuts and raisins, this roasted pumpkin dish makes a fantastic side for mains such as garlicky shish tawook, kofta kebabs and kofta meatballs. Kick off the meal with mezze such as hummus, muhammara and baba ganoush and serve with Middle Eastern salads tabbouleh and fatoush and you have a proper Middle Eastern feast.
If you adore pumpkins as much as I do – I love anything made with pumpkin, whether savoury or sweet; pumpkin soup, pumpkin hummus, pumpkin salads, pumpkin desserts, any kind of pumpkins – know that you can use any variety of pumpkin or squash for this roasted pumpkin recipe, but it’s best with a sweet deeply flavoured pumpkin.
Roasted Pumpkin Recipe with Yoghurt Garlic Lemon Sauce and Dukkah
Pearl Couscous Salad Recipe with Pomegranate, Pistachios and Fresh Herbs
This pearl couscous salad with pomegranate, pistachios and fresh herbs makes another of our best pistachio recipes. It’s one of my favourite Middle Eastern salads, alongside a farmers salad or salata falahiyeh – also called a village salad, Palestinian salad, Arabic salad, and chopped salad or salata na’ameh – and fattoush, like a farmers salad but with the addition of pomegranate seeds and/or pomegranate molasses and homemade crispy pita chips.
Traditional farmers salads or village salads are found right across the Middle East and Europe and, like my Russian family’s garden salad, consist of classic salad ingredients – tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, maybe capsicums (bell peppers) or olives, fresh herbs (which vary according to what’s grown in the region) salt and pepper, and a simple dressing of olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice. Although I use this classic French vinaigrette on most of my salads.
This pearl couscous salad – which is made with tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, shallots or purple/red onions, pomegranate seeds, pistachios, and plenty of flat-leaf parsley dominating that mix of fresh herbs – shares elements with that other popular Middle Eastern salad, tabbouleh. While a traditional tabbouleh is made with bulgur, I often use couscous, which is wonderful in this salad.
Pearl Couscous Salad Recipe with Pomegranate, Pistachios and Fresh Herbs
Pumpkin Lentil Salad Recipe with Beetroot, Goat Cheese, Pistachios and Poppy Seeds
Our pumpkin lentil salad recipe with beetroot, goat cheese and pistachios is packed with texture and flavour. Butternut pumpkin and lentils are pan-fried in cumin, arranged on mixed salad leaves, topped with baby beetroots and goat’s cheese pearls, sprinkled with crunchy pistachios, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and fresh mint, and dressed with a fig balsamic vinegar dressing.
You’ll love this recipe if you’ve enjoyed our other pumpkin and beetroot salad recipes, such as this beetroot arugula salad with walnuts and feta on butter bean puree, our roast beetroot salad with feta, rucola and pistachios on cumin-spiced carrot hummus, this beet carrot salad with goat cheese, arugula and radish, or pumpkin beetroot salad on whipped feta with pistachios and fresh mint.
My inspiration was the salads of the Mediterranean and Middle East, where we lived, worked, travelled and wrote about for a decade – salads such as our Antalya style Turkish white bean salad, Arabic balela salad on soupy chickpeas, baby corn on creamy white beans, my roasted cauliflower on hummus, and this eggplant salad with pomegranate, sesame and parsley on hummus.
While you can easily eat this salad as a light meal on its own, it also makes a fantastic side salad to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern mains, such as Lebanese shish tawook (garlicky chicken), beef kofta kebabs, spicy potatoes, kofta meatballs, or Greek chicken souvlaki.
Pumpkin Lentil Salad Recipe with Beetroot, Goat Cheese, Pistachios and Poppy Seeds
Grilled Baby Corn Recipe with Creamy Butter Beans, Caramelised Shallots and Crispy Pistachios
This grilled baby corn recipe with creamy butter beans, caramelised shallots and crispy pistachios is one of our best recipes with nuts and another of our best pistachio recipes. The crunchy pistachios are fantastic with the crispy baby corn. You’re going to love this dish if you enjoyed our spiced oven-roasted cauliflower florets piled onto creamy hummus, topped with fried chickpeas, zingy pickled shallots and fresh mint. They’re siblings.
I’m a little bit obsessed with creating these Middle East-inspired creamy bean-based salads and vegetable sides, textured with nuts and infused with spiced oils. I’ve been motivated partly by a desire to incorporate more veggies and beans into our diets and partly by a longing for the Middle Eastern cuisines we used to eat almost daily for the nearly eight years we lived in the region.
If you’re a lover of corn salads, please try my Middle Eastern inspired corn salad with bacon, pearl couscous, parsley, and fried shallots on yoghurt, this Thai corn salad with tomatoes, green beans and peanuts, our Mexican grilled corn salad with Mexican cheese, chilli, coriander, and lime, and this Thai take on an American cobb salad by Thai chef Ian Kittichai.
Grilled Baby Corn Recipe with Creamy Butter Beans, Caramelised Shallots and Crispy Pistachios
Pumpkin Beetroot Salad on Creamy Whipped Feta with Pistachios and Mint
Our pumpkin beetroot salad on whipped feta with pistachios and fresh mint comes together quickly and is loaded with flavour. A bed of homemade whipped feta is topped with cumin-spiced pan-roasted butternut pumpkin pieces and baby beetroots, sprinkled with crunchy pistachios and fresh mint leaves, and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
Pumpkin and beetroot and are one of those great ingredient combinations – like tomato and buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto and melon, cucumber and yoghurt, and asparagus and mushrooms. You can’t go wrong with those classic ingredient pairings. And a sprinkle of crunchy pistachios adds texture and crunch and takes things to a whole other level.
It’s a very Middle Eastern style of presentation, like this roasted cauliflower on hummus and baby corn on creamy white beans. My inspiration is always the balela salad, a Levantine salad spread on soupy chickpeas that we used to eat regularly when we lived in the region, and this Antalya version of the Turkish white bean salad, in which the salad is also piled onto the creamy white beans.
We love to serve this pumpkin beetroot salad with toasted sourdough, homemade croutons, cheese sticks, crunchy pita crisps, or crispy crackers for dipping and scooping. This is not only one of our best pistachio recipes, it’s one of our best recipes with nuts and one of our best beetroot recipes.
Pumpkin Beetroot Salad on Creamy Whipped Feta with Pistachios and Mint
Roast Beetroot Salad Recipe with Feta, Rucola and Pistachios on Cumin Spiced Carrot Hummus
This roast beetroot salad recipe with feta, rucola and pistachios on cumin-spiced carrot hummus makes my twist on a classic salad that takes inspiration from the Middle East, our home for many years. The bed of carrot hummus adds another dimension of flavour and texture, while pistachios add crunch and are better suited to this version than walnuts.
It makes a fantastic starter, salad or side and it’s another of our best pistachio recipes, one of our best nut recipes, one of our best beetroot recipes, and another of our best Middle Eastern style dishes, because my inspiration is the Middle Eastern balela salad spread on soupy chickpeas, and the Antalya version of a Turkish white bean salad, in which the salad is piled onto creamy white beans.
My pumpkin beetroot salad on whipped feta with pistachios and fresh mint, roasted cauliflower on hummus, and baby corn on creamy white beans are in the same style. I can’t get enough of these dishes that are part dip, part salad, and can be served as a snack, starter or side.
And if you’re a fan of this flavour combination, try these recipes for a beetroot feta arugula salad with walnuts on butter bean puree, a pumpkin lentil salad with beetroot, goat cheese and poppy seeds, beet and carrot salad with goat cheese, arugula and radish.
Roast Beetroot Salad Recipe with Feta, Rucola and Pistachios on Cumin Spiced Carrot Hummus
Spiced Pan Fried Cauliflower, Chickpeas, Pistachios on Flatbread with Yogurt Sauce
If you’re a fan of Middle Eastern food, you’ll love this recipe for spiced pan fried cauliflower, chickpeas and pistachios on flatbreads, which are warmed and spread with hummus or baba ganoush, drizzled with garlic yoghurt sauce, and sprinkled with pistachios, sumac and flat-leaf parsley or coriander.
While this is a fantastic filling snack, lunch or light dinner, you could serve it as a vegetarian main or vegetable side arranged on a plate like this smoky char-grilled eggplant salad or roasted cauliflower florets on hummus, with crispy fried chickpeas, pickled shallots and fresh mint – which was partly the inspiration. Mexican tacos and Middle Eastern shawarma were also inspirations.
If you’re doing some casual entertaining, make a big batch and serve it up as part of a proper Middle Eastern feast alongside mezze such as muhammara and salads such as this farmers salad, fatoush or tabbouleh before serving warm dishes like kofta kebabs, spiced meatballs, shish tawook (garlicky chicken), and spiced rice.
If you’re a fan of this style of dish, try our grilled baby carrots on dill yoghurt with dukkah and herbs, cucumber salad on creamy white bean purée, this char grilled baby corn on creamy butter beans with caramelised shallots and crispy pistachios, and corn salad with bacon, pearl couscous, parsley and fried shallots.
Spiced Pan Fried Cauliflower, Chickpeas, Pistachios on Flatbread with Yogurt Sauce
Please do let us know if you make any of our best pistachio recipes, as we’d love to hear how they turn out for you.
