Wild garlic pesto

Name: Wild garlic pesto
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: Makes about 700g
Cuisine: Italian recipes
Ingredients: 150ml olive oil; 1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 200g wild garlic leaves (or spinach, see Know-how); 20g fresh chives, snipped; 100g pine nuts; 100g finely grated parmesan or vegetarian alternative; 1 tsp caster sugar

Portion size: Makes about 700g
Ready in 15 min
Difficulty: easy

Vegetarian

Debbie Major

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Swap your traditional pesto for this wild garlic recipe during the spring while the leafy plants are in season and ready to be foraged.

Quick and easy: Just 15 minutes are needed to whizz together this recipe, made with olive oil, pine nuts and parmesan.
Preserve the bounty: The pesto can be frozen in an ice cube tray, ready to add to recipes, or keeps in the fridge for a few weeks – see Make Ahead.
Delicious in all types of recipes: Stir through pasta for a speedy and satisfying dinner or add to lasagne, serve with vegetables or dot on a chicken traybake.

Try it in this spring pasta dish with asparagus and peas.

Before you start

Follow our guide to foraging for wild garlic.

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Ingredients

150ml olive oil
1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
200g wild garlic leaves (or spinach, see Know-how)
20g fresh chives, snipped
100g pine nuts
100g finely grated parmesan or vegetarian alternative
1 tsp caster sugar

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Method

Heat 3 tbsp of the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the spring onions and half the crushed garlic, then cook gently for 2 minutes or until softened. Transfer to a food processor and leave to cool.
Meanwhile, slice the wild garlic leaves (or spinach) into thin strips (see Know-how). Add them to the food processor with the remaining crushed garlic, the snipped chives, pine nuts and the rest of the olive oil, then blend to a paste.
Spoon into a bowl, then stir in the parmesan, sugar and some salt to taste.
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FAQs

Wild garlic appears as early as late February (depending on the weather) but reaches its peak in early April when it may be flowering.

The leaves have a fresh garlicky taste that’s punchy when raw but mellows when cooked.

Nutrition

189kcal Calories
18g (3.7g saturated) Fat
4.5g Protein
1.7g (2.4g sugars) Carbs
0.6g Fibre
0.14g Salt

Make Ahead

Freeze in ice cube trays and then transfer to resealable plastic bags. One cube is about 1 tbsp. Alternatively, store leftovers in a jar in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Pour a thin layer of olive oil on top before sealing.

Cook smarter

If you can’t get hold of wild garlic (some greengrocers sell it in season) you can use the same weight in spinach leaves, but add 1-2 fat garlic cloves per 250g leaves. Try to get mature large-leaf spinach, not the small baby leaves.

To quickly and evenly slice leaves such as wild garlic or spinach, neatly layer up a stack of leaves – as many as you can control with your non-cutting hand – on the chopping board, then slice them all at the same time.