Super easy homemade pistachio paste. Sharing my proven tips to get a smooth texture and vibrant green color every time!
To make the most incredibly gorgeous pistachio paste, you only need ONE ingredient: pistachios!
Would you believe this beautiful nut butter has zero food coloring? True story!
And the color wasn’t even painted in Photoshop. I promise! It’s naturally this vibrant green! And oh my goodness, so deliciously pistachio-y!
WHAT KIND OF PISTACHIOS TO USE FOR PISTACHIO PASTE?
It all starts with the right kind of pistachios! If you want bright green pistachio paste, you need raw pistachios.
Raw pistachios = unsalted and not roasted.
You can buy either shelled or unshelled. But if you’re like me, you’d appreciate shelled raw pistachios. I bought a bag from Amazon, and I’m very much happy with this brand. (<- affiliate link)
Next, we need to get the skin off of those raw pistachios.
THE SECRET FOR VIBRANT GREEN PISTACHIO PASTE
Here’s the thing… You can skip this step and go right ahead with just raw shelled pistachios, or even with roasted shelled pistachios, but you won’t get that smooth vibrant green paste that you see above!
Look at this photo below…
Roasted shelled pistachios with skin-on yields brown paste, super unappealing, I might say. Frankly, it does taste good. But the beautiful green one is 100% better!
Keep on reading, and I’ll show you super easy trick to remove the skin real easy!
HOW TO REMOVE BROWN SKIN OFF OF PISTACHIOS:
- Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- Remove from heat and add pistachios. Let it sit for 1-2 minutes.
- Drain and transfer the blanched pistachios onto a clean kitchen towel.
- Gently rub and skin will simply separate. You may need to help some stubborn ones.
You see, how the color just becomes so much more vibrant after blanching? And skin practically falls off on its own!
A plate of pure joy!
Now the easy part.
HOW TO MAKE PISTACHIO PASTE:
- Add the prepared pistachios into a food processor
- Process until nice and smooth, adding a little bit of water to get things going smoother.
It goes through stages: whole nuts -> crumbs -> powder -> paste. And the entire process takes less than 5 minutes!
Voila!
Cost effective, incredibly delicious, healthy homemade pistachio paste!
HOW TO USE PISTACHIO PASTE:
This flavorful pistachio butter can be used in so many delicious desserts, like my pistachio macarons, pistachio ice cream, pistachio buttercream, and so much more.
I can’t wait to make amazing desserts incorporating this tasty nut butter. What would you like to see first, pistachio cake or pistachio tart?
Pistachio paste also makes an awesome snack! Spread it on a toast, or cracker, or just grab a spoon and dig in.
HOW TO STORE HOMEMADE PISTACHIO PASTE:
Store pistachio paste in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months.
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Homemade Pistachio Paste
Ingredients
- 1 cup (120g) raw shelled pistachios
Instructions
- To remove brown skin, bring a pot of water to a boil. Add pistachios and remove from heat. Let sit for 1-2 minutes and drain. Remove the blanched pistachios onto a clean kitchen towel. Rub it gently and peel off the brown skin.
- In a food processor, put cleaned pistachios and process for 2 minutes, until pastey.
- Add ¼ cup of water and continue to process for another minute, or until nice and smooth.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 weeks, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutrition Facts:
This recipe was originally published on March 6, 2015.
DB says
Can this be made with pistachio flour? Thank you.
Emily says
I need the paste to be thinner and more liquidy. What can I do?
Leela says
What the difference between pistachio paste and pistachio butter?
Shinee says
Hi, Leela. I don’t believe there is a different between the two.
Chris Schmidt says
I made this recipe with roasted shelled pistachios. I’ll have to try it with raw next time since my final color was a lot less green, but still more green than not removing the skins. It was definitely more work to remove the skins than I expected, but maybe that had to do with the roasted pistachios. I might also work in smaller batches (1/2 cup at a time) next so the blanched pistachios have more chance to rub against the towel. Thank you for posting this recipe!
Shinee says
Thanks so much for your feedback, Chris!
Sonja Moser says
I was so relieved to find this recipe! I needed pistachio paste for a ricotta cheesecake I had planned to make for Easter, but had forgotten to obtain by the time Saturday rolled around and I needed to do the baking. To all those who only have roasted pistachios on hand (as was the case with me): worry not! I saw another comment posted that the roasted nuts are indeed still green, so I forged ahead. As the author of the recipe notes, roasting actually gives the nuts MORE flavor, and as I experienced, shelling the nuts causes much of the skin to come off (and if you rub even a little more, can be almost totally removed). With much less work or time than going through the blanching process (or running out to the store in search of raw pistachios) I had perfectly green, tasty pistachio paste to use in this recipe – which worked perfectly. Thank you!
Shinee says
I’m so happy that roasted nuts worked for you! Thank you so much for sharing your tips and feedback, Sonja!!!