With an abundance of wild garlic growing in the countryside at the moment, why not pick some while you’re out on your daily walk for this easy and delicious homemade pesto recipe. Perfect with pasta, as a salad dressing, in soups or as a condiment to chicken – the options are endless.
Ingredients
150 g wild garlic leaves, washed
50 g parmesan or vegan hard strong cheese, finely grated
50 g pine nuts
1 garlic clove chopped
1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
150 ml rapeseed or olive oil
Salt and pepper
Method
- Rinse the wild garlic leaves well and roughly chop.
- Blitz the wild garlic, parmesan, garlic clove, lemon zest and pine nuts together in a food processor to a rough paste. Gradually add the oil and lemon juice and mix in until it is all combined.
- Season to taste.
- Store in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Tips
If you can’t find much wild garlic you can replace some or all of it with young nettles for a similar result. Either should be well rinsed in cold water before use.
The flowers of the wild garlic can also be eaten, and are delicious in salads, tasting very similar to a spring onion.
The pine nuts can be replaced with any other nuts, but be aware that if you're using salted nuts you may not need to add salt when seasoning.
The parmesan can be replaced with any strong flavoured hard cheese, finely grated.
Makes one large jar.
* Contains nuts.