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In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day coming up soon we’ve got some green deliciousness for you this morning in the form of these delicious pistachio muffins with chai glaze. We had a wonderful weekend with Cade’s 6th birthday (what!? SIX!) and a lovely time with family (Poppie flew in from California). So, it’s after a weekend like this, filled with birthday treats, that you really need a good, healthy recipe. We didn’t eat a lot of pistachios growing up and I’m not exactly sure why because they’re delicious. But the subtle nuttiness, not to mention perfect green color, felt ideal in a St Patty’s day muffin and these were some fun ones to think up.

I couldn’t find raw pistachios at the store so I opted for lightly salted, roasted ones on the recommendation of several customers in the nut aisle of WholeFoods. And to add some additional nutrition to these beauties, we added a large handful of spinach. It upped both the green color without dye and nutrition, a win-win in my mom / dietitian book.

INGREDIENTS

2 C Flour (1 C whole wheat, 1 C all purpose flour)

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

2/3 C Lightly Salted, Roasted Pistachios

1 C Fresh Spinach

1/2 C Maple Syrup

1 1/4 C Oat Milk

1/4 C Walnut Oil

1 Large Egg

1/4 tsp Almond Extract

1/2 C Powder Sugar (for the glaze)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin tin with paper baking cups available here. I give them a light spritz with Trader Joe’s olive oil spray just to be sure none of the goodness sticks to them.

2. Mix dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl (the flours, baking powder, salt) and set aside.

3. In a blender combine pistachios, spinach, maple syrup, walnut oil, almond extract, egg and 1 cup of oat milk. Puree until finely blended. My kiddos don’t like “bits” so we really go to town on this step. They’ll eat “overall” green no problem but specks of green or “bits” are clearly unacceptable to their sophisticated palates.

4. I make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients from the blender in making sure to scrape the blender down with a spatula.

5. Mix together just until batter is blended with some lumps, I avoid over-mixing to give the muffins a softer texture. Fill muffin tins 2/3 of the way full and bake for roughly 12-15 minutes until barely brown or a toothpick comes out clean. Watch them because everyone’s oven is slightly different.

6. Let them cool on a wire rack while you whip up some delicious glaze.

CHAI GLAZE

Holy yum. In a small saucepan heat 1/4 cup of oat milk and once scalded, add chai tea bag. Set aside to steep for 5 minutes. In a small bowl, mix the 1/2 C powdered sugar with a tablespoon or two of the chai-infused oat milk until you get a nice runny glaze.

We don’t go to town on the glaze trying to keep these muffins on the healthier side for little fingers but a light drizzle makes all the difference.

I hope you enjoy these! They were a fun one to create and were captured ever-so-beautifully by my friend and official recipe taster, Ruth Eileen Photography. They’d be perfect for many occasions–from brunch to a grab-and-go treat and look beautiful on a table with neutral colors–from the woven placemats to the grey stripes. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day friends.