what to do with all the stuff you grew in your garden this year
I have a garden. I am very lucky to have some soil to grow some stuff in a city where green space is a prize.
I love growing something that is truly yours and putting it on the table to feed people.
Every year I plant some staple plants, like tomatoes, herbs, beans and lettuce. I also throw in a few experimental things to grow each year, to see how it will go
My experimental plants this year consisted of carrots, fennel and cucumber. Two of the 3 plants were planted by seed and turned out quite well! Success! the other experimental place was rapini and it was a fail. You win some and you loose some
When I plant something I also like to use parts of the plant that normally would be trimmed. This year I dried the flowers from the fennel to use in cooking. I also took the tops of the carrots and turned them into pesto. The flowers from the zucchini plants, I usually fry or cut up and saute into some scramble eggs. The flowers from the nasturtium and chives, I will use in salads
With that being said, today I'm giving you a recipe for an easy pesto, made from the tops of the carrots!
I honestly never thought of using them until maybe 5 or 6 years ago when a chef I was working with, had a pasta with carrot top pesto on the summer menu. Chef's naturally want to get all they can out of the food they buy to see their dollar go further. By getting 2 different uses out of one product, this makes a chef very happy
The flavour of the leaves are kind of like parsley with a little bit more bite. You can add this to so many things when cooking or just use it as a light sauce for a pasta
Carrot Top Pesto
ingredients
the tops of 10 bunches of carrots
one heaping handful of pepita (pumpkin) seeds
3 whole cloves of garlic
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
zest of 1 lemon
750 ml of olive oil (you may need more, depending on the consistency)
salt and freshly cracked pepper
method
wash carrot tops thoroughly. they will most likely have a lot of dirt on them
spin in a salad spinner to dry off the water
using a food processor, place half of carrot tops inside and turn on high
while the processor is on, add half of the oil in a stream
add the other half of the carrot tops and blend thoroughly
add garlic, cheese, seeds and lemon zest
while the food processor is on, add the rest of the oil to make a sauce like consistency
season with salt and pepper
*this recipe can be made in a large batch and frozen in small containers
Enjoy!
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