I once made the grave mistake of confusing the pecan with the walnut. This disgusted my friend J. who is a foodie.
“Aren’t they just like walnuts?” I had said. “All wrinkly and stuff?”
“Walnuts are thick and bulbous and have an acidic bitter skin and aftertaste and grow in the North. Pecans are thinner and have a buttery flavor and grow in the South. Do you mean they’re the same in that they’re completely different?”
Alright, alright, okay, jeez. God love J., but see what I mean about foodies? On the other hand, he is right–walnuts and pecans are different. For one, walnuts are healthier. They have at least 6 times the amount of omega-3s that pecans do. That’s not to say that pecans are unhealthy–they do contain some omega-3s, vitamin E, and monounsaturated fats. But like everything else in life, nothing is perfect and if, like most people, you prefer the decadence of pecan’s smooth flavor to the kink of a walnut’s taste, it’s been preordained that the one that pleases you more is not going to do you as many favors healthwise. Pecans are sort of the Marilyn Monroe of nuts–not exactly sinful, not particularly complicated, just about one thing–that richness, the indulgence–that they do really, really, spectacularly well.
Again, this is not to say that pecans in themselves are unhealthy, but look at the ways pecans and walnuts are used in cooking: walnuts get thrown into salad and baked into bread. Pecans are baked into pies and cookies and toasted with sugar. I suppose this might be because if you’ve ever eaten a pecan, they are like eating toasted butter with a sweet finish. Anti-sugar fanatics insist that once you stop eating sugar, nuts taste sweet. I can attest that this is true, which would make the pecan, among all other “sweet” nuts, the equivalent of double-down-death-by-chocolate–the best Mexican flan compared to vanilla instant pudding that is walnut (sorry to the walnut fants, but walnuts do have a bit of a bite that makes them less suited for sweetness than the pecan).
Nevertheless, pecans can round out healthy savory dishes, like give a little crunch to your salads or depth to your green beans (green beans with lemon juice, olive oil, a little mustard, and chopped pecans? Yes, please). Used sparingly, they are a wonderful, coy pick-me-up–like the buxom girl who grins at you and fannies down the stairs on the subway with Marilyn’s smile.
RECIPE: Lentil Pecan Pate
Filed under: Clean Food Daily, nuts, pecans, walnuts
