Making Pistachio Butter

Making pistachio butter is easy, once you have a pistachio supplier. It will be tastier, healthier and probably cheaper than the store bought. More importantly, you can adjust it to your preference in terms of texture, and flavour.

1. Soak the pistachio overnight, by adding it to a bowl of warm water and a pinch of salt.
   
   This is an optional step but some folks (like myself) believe it is important to soak nuts, seeds and grains, to make it more easily digestible, get more nutrients from these foods and remove some nutrients that can prevent the absorption of others).
2. Peel the pistachios. Depending on the pistachios you got, they might have their peel on. While they are wet, they are very easy to peel, and you just need to roll them in your hands - the peels will stick to your skin. Alternatively, you can place the pistachios in a tea towel, wrap the towel around them and roll/rub the towel.
   
   You can also peel after dehydrating, but it will be a bit more labour intensive. Finally, leaving the peel will make the butter less smooth and rich in colour but still very tasty and keep more nutrients.
   
3. Dehydrate the pistachios again, to bring them back to (close to) their original texture and moisture level.
   
   I do this with a dehydrator, but you can also leave it in an open space, preferentially with some sun, to speed it up. Some like to use the oven. If so, use it at the lowest setting (40C) or just with the light on, so you don't cook them
   
4. Blend the pistachios. I have not had good results with a food processor, but only with a blender. If the blender is very powerful (nutribullet, vitamix) you just gradually increase the speed and be patient, scraping the nuts down the sides, if needed. Less powerful blenders will take more time and might overheat - if that is the case, you can run the blender for a few minutes, stop the machine to let it cool and then restart.

And that is it.

If you want to personalize your butter and adjust it to your taste, you can consider adding:

• a pinch of good salt
• a sweetener (dates, dry plums, honey or agave)
• a bit of liquid fat (avocado oil or coconut oil), especially if using a solid sweetener.
• if you are feeling adventurous, I would just say that mint and pistachio is an incredible pairing