Recipe Wild Garlic Pesto (Vegan)

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

nice and easy - makes lots.

several handfuls of Wild garlic leaves (you can inlude the buds, its not a problem).
200g of pinenuts
200ml extra virgin olive oil (need a good quality olive oil)
sea salt (to taste and it needs plenty).
1 clove crushed garlic (optional).

This is pretty easy - chop the wild garlic leaves roughly. add entire lot to a food processor (hold back a small handful of pinenuts if you like the pinenuts roughly chopped/visible in a pesto). whiz/process until smooth (and add those remaining pinenuts and process to the texture you want).
add enough salt to bring out the flavours - and it does need a lot more than you realise.

Serve over hot pasta.

(any extra freezes well, so freeze in small batches).

(you can use basil leaves instead of wild garlic leaves if they are not available, but you will need to add 2 cloves of garlic - don't over do the garlic, raw garlic is much more potent).

 

[Lullabelle]

Last year we planted wild garlic seeds, shortly afterwards we had a lot of rain and the poor things were lost. We will have to start again, I rather enjoyed wild garlic soup we had in Wengen a couple of years ago.

 

[zestery]

This sounds delicious, and I love that it freezes. I've become a little obsessed with freezing things ever since I learnt you could do it with cilantro.

 

[MyDigitalpoint]

Personally I'm not began, but this recipe sound so tasty that I have to tried it this weekend.

Besides, I must admit that I simply love garlic!

 

[MoniqueS]

Very happy to see a vegan recipe here! I try to primarily eat vegan, but can't always sustain it since a lot of the cooking I eat is out of my control. I haven't really cooked much with garlic leaves before. I would add the buds for familiarity. But serving this over some brown rice fettuccine or even spaghetti squash would be amazing!

 

[Berties]

Just used the last of the wild garlic gnocchi out of the freezer ,seems ages ago we put it down,though it was a short season this year

 

[isabbbela]

garlic leaves, really? I don't know if I ever had them before! I don't even know what they look like! I always did pesto with basil!
But it's so awesome that this can be frozen, since pesto is really hard to freeze!

 

[Tara]

I have never heard of garlic leaves either. But I'm going to see if my favorite stores carry them. This recipe sounds divine. I love garlic. A garlic pesto recipe is just too good for me to pass up.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

garlic leaves, really? I don't know if I ever had them before! I don't even know what they look like! I always did pesto with basil!
But it's so awesome that this can be frozen, since pesto is really hard to freeze!

I have never heard of garlic leaves either. But I'm going to see if my favorite stores carry them. This recipe sounds divine. I love garlic. A garlic pesto recipe is just too good for me to pass up.

Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum or Ramsons, broad-leaved garlic, buckrams, wood garlic) is a plant that grows wild in the UK. I understand it is native to Europe & Asia so you may struggle to find it in the Americas. We can't purchase it here in the UK. It is just one of those plants that grows wild in certain places (usually woodland or damp hollows). More info can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_ursinum . You might stand more chance of growing it yourself if you were to try to obtain either the seeds or bulbs (or even a plant) from a garden centre.

 

[Tara]

I checked three local stores and no one knew what I was talking about. I did a little online search and discovered that it's not indigenous to the US. The seeds are available for purchase at Amazon and on eBay.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

So this season for wild garlic is underway and I have just made a treble batch of the wild garlic pesto.

Growing wild, this is my 'local' patch which I forage in. Everything green on the ground (with the sole exception of the bottom right hand corner) is wild garlic and this is around 1/50th of what is in this patch. It is also a very typical area for where it grows. Damp hollows in the ground, around a stream and now is the best time to be picking it - should you live in Europe or Asia that is.

Bottom centre is what the leaves look like and below for a closer up view. As you can see the flowers have yet to happen.

Back at home, and the new food processor is christened - plasters were handy as well - yep I got my thumb somehow!

And the homemade finished product which is vibrant green and has gone straight into the freezer for preserving - plus a sample left aside for my evening meal

 

[Hacienda71]

Mmm might pop down to the woods this weekend to see if our local patch is sprouting yet.