Pesto recipes: ways to eat your greens

Our garden is full of food. Maybe it’s not obvious at first sight but it’s there, in abundance. All that’s needed is the right recipes.

Perennial vegetables include forgotten crops, also underrated ones. This is in part down to the needs of agricultural systems and limits of mechanical harvesting. Also, perhaps down to a change in tastes, as we’re offered ultraprocessed products, high in salt, fat, sugar. Yum! It makes ‘wild’/untamed greens seem bitter or spicy or…weird.

Cari Aitken co-authored a delightful cookbook with Martin Crawford, Food From Your Forest Garden. Looking at the pdf preview on that page reminds me to make more fritters. The elderflower cordial was bottled today.

The recipes I’m sharing today take less time and cooking. It’s straightforward and adaptable to what you have. I encourage you to try different herbs and greens, depending on what you have. And add more diversity but be thoughtful on the flavour combinations.

A twist on classic green pesto

To enjoy stirred through pasta, to top a pizza, or as a snack on crackers.

Method

Essentially, you’re going to put it all in a blender and blend it up. Having a good amount of liquid helps the consistency.

Chop any larger leaves with a knife or scissors first to help the blender. You can also use a knife and pestle and mortar.

Ingredients

Visit your garden and harvest what you have. If your garden is lacking in edible plants, you should get more from us.

The basics

• Sunflower seeds (because we don’t grow pine nuts) 30g
• Olive/hemp/walnut oil 5tbsp
• Hard cheese 30g (optional). If not using cheese, maybe you would like to add half a teaspoon of nutritional yeast for flavour
• Salt to flavour

And for the greens. Combo 1 – keep it simple:

• Kale
• Oregano
• Basil mint

Combo 2 – variety is the spice of life

• Kales
• Turkish rocket leaves
• Dandelion leaves
• Plantain leaves
• Wild leek
• Fennel fronds
• Scorzonera leaves
• Good King Henry leaves

If you’re not going to eat it all right away, store in a small sterilised jar, top with a little oil to stop moulds growing, and refrigerate.

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Ryan Sandford-Blackburn is a Director, grower and educator at Earthed Up! Ryan will be presenting a workshop on food fermentation at Timber Festival, which takes place 5-7 July 2024.

At our Midlands Permaculture Festival on 21 September you can tour our garden to learn about perennial edibles and many more topics. The programme is live now and tickets on sale!