MIXED GREEN & HERB PESTO

For the pesto you see here, I went out and pulled about a 1/4 lb of greens from the garden.

There was kale, bolted arugula (extra spicy but great for pesto!), basil tops from my disappointing plants, some radish flowers that I used as a garnish and the weeds mentioned above – lamb’s quarters and wood sorrel. Here’s a totally non-exhaustive list of other greens and herbs that I think would be great:

• spinach
• beet greens
• sorrel
• swiss chard
• carrot tops
• radish greens
• collard greens
• oregano
• parsley
• cilantro
• thyme
• mint
• anise hyssop
• etc, etc, etc…..

Traditionally pesto is made with basil, pine nuts, hard cheese (i.e. Parmesan), and olive oil. It’s delicious. But sometimes we don’t have a bucket of basil….and holy shit pine nuts are expensive!…and sometimes we don’t want cheese (did I just say that?). I might disappoint my Italian neighbours on this one, but I really see no need to be traditional here!

Ingredients

• 4oz (~9 cups) of mixed greens and herbs (I used kale, arugula, basil, lamb's quarters, and wood sorrel)
• 2 Tbsp. sunflower seeds
• 1 Tbsp. pine nuts
• 4-5 Brazil nuts
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 1/2 tsp. salt + more to taste
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice + more to taste
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil + more for storage

Instructions

1. In a food processor, pulse the herbs until coarsely chopped. I stuffed my 9-cup food processor to the max, but if you have a smaller one, you may have to do this in batches and then combine the chopped herbs before adding other ingredients.
2. Add the nuts, salt, and lemon jucie and process until creamy.
3. Empty into a bowl and stir in the olive oil (processing olive oil at a high speed can change its flavour, so I prefer to stir it in).
4. Taste and adjust salt and lemon juice, if needed.
5. Store in a jar, topped off with olive oil to prevent surface oxidation.

http://fromthelandweliveon.com/june-garden-tour-do-whatever-you-want-pesto/