GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: pesto recipe

  • Kale Pesto Recipe – GF Video

    Kale Pesto Recipe – GF Video

    A new kale pesto recipe, one that is simply and brilliant and why didn’t I think of this earlier. Kale pesto. Easy to make and a new way to get more green superfoods into your diet. Here we go.

    This kale pesto recipe is a classic GardenFork ‘Use What You Got’ kine of meal. The short version is take kale, make pesto, mix into pasta, dollop into soup, or spread on toast. This recipe makes a big batch which you can use for a pasta dinner, and then use the remaining pesto for lunch or enhance dinner the next night or two.

    This kale pesto goes nicely mixed into our White Bean Soup recipe. The smooth flavor of the white beans gets spiked with this greens & cheese mix. Nice.

    Kale Pesto Recipe

    In this recipe video I show how we stem the kale. I don’t use a knife,  just stripping the stems off with your hands saves time. I think I learned this technique from watching Sarah Moulton do it on one of her cooking shows.

    You can use whatever kale you have on hand or that is in your garden. I grow a classic green curly kale, and a red russian kale, which has a flat leaf. For this video, I added both into the food processor. Lacinato kale, aka dinosaur kale, also works. Wash off the kale before you start!

    Kale Pesto Recipe

     

    Key here is to use a good quality extra virgin olive oil. Buy the real thing. Cheap extra virgin probably isn’t the real deal, in my opinion. I like to use Pecorino Romano cheese, which has a nice saltiness to it. You can also use Parmesan, but don’t buy any pre-grated cheese, it tastes like stale cardboard.

    Start out with one medium clove of garlic, the garlic flavor will grow if you store the pesto. I like to let the minced or pressed garlic sit out on cutting board for a while before adding it into the processor, I believe it mellows out the bite a bit.

    If you are using this new kale recipe with pasta, drizzle some olive oil over the pasta and pesto just before serving. Make it all work that much better.

    Easy Kale Recipe

    Thanks to Sarah Moulton for the kale stemming tip, you can check out one her cookbooks here:

    Kale Pesto Recipe
    Cuisine: Italian
    Author: Eric Rochow
    Prep time:
    Cook time:
    Total time:
    Serves: 2 cups
    A kale recipe that is a no-brainer but one I had not thought of before. Easy to make and one more way to get your family to eat kale and like it.
    Ingredients
    • 1 good bunch of kale, Stems removed, Enough to fill your food processor.
    • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 cup walnuts
    • 1 1/2 cups of Pecorino Romano cheese
    • 1 medium clove garlic
    Instructions
    1. Mince or press the garlic clove and let it sit while prepping the other ingredients.
    2. If you have time, toast the walnuts in a pan on the stove, toss a few times. Pay attention so you don’t burn them. You can also toast them in the oven
    3. Wash and remove the stems from the kale. Dry the kale as best you can.
    4. Put the kale leaves in the food processor and pour the oil over the leaves.
    5. Process for about 15 seconds and then press the leaves down with a rubber spatula, process again to get the leaves roughly chopped.
    6. Add to the processor the cheese, walnuts, and garlic
    7. Process again, stopping to use the spatula to get everything mixed well.
    8. I prefer a coarse chopped pesto, but process to the consistency you prefer.
  • Foraging: Garlic Mustard & Nettle Pesto Recipe : GF Video

    Foraging: Garlic Mustard & Nettle Pesto Recipe : GF Video

    Foraging was on our minds this weekend, seeing some edible wild plants in our yard, after listening to this NPR story on eating and cooking wild foods like edible Garlic Mustard and Nettles.

    Yes, you can eat nettles, despite the fact that the stems of the nettle plant have tiny barbs that sting if you grab Nettles without gloves. The secret is blanching before eating the nettles.

    Garlic Mustard is an edible wild green, its leaves have hint of Garlic taste, though the mustard leaf taste is more prominent. Garlic Mustard is a non-native invasive plant that crowds out woodland native flowers like trilliums, bloodroot, etc. When harvesting Garlic Mustard, be sure to remove the entire root base, so it doesn’t grow back.

    Our Wild Edible Plant Pesto Recipe made with Stinging Nettles and Garlic Mustard is inspired by an NPR interview of Leah Lizarondo whose food blog is Brazen Kitchen. A big thank you to Larkin Page-Jacobs of NPR and Leah.

    Please tell us about your foraging recipes and tips below the recipe, thanks.

    Foraging Videos & Edible Plant Identification:

    Here are other plant identification foraging videos we have done:

     Dandelion, How to find, forage, and cook Dandelion Video

     

    Lambsquarter, Foraging and Cooking Lambsquarter Video

    Click for photos of Garlic Mustard and Stinging Nettles for plant identification.

     

    Garlic Mustard & Nettle Pesto Recipe
    Recipe Type: pesto
    Author: Eric Rochow
    Prep time:
    Cook time:
    Total time:
    Serves: 2 cups
    A simple pesto recipe made from foraged edible plants, Garlic Mustard, Stinging Nettles and Dandelion
    Ingredients
    • 1 cup Blanched Nettles
    • 3 cups Garlic Mustard Leaves
    • 1 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
    • 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
    • 1 cup Dandelion Leaves ( optional )
    • 1/2 lemon
    • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
    • 1 cup toasted walnuts
    • 2 medium cloves garlic
    Instructions
    1. Wash all greens in a salad spinner – wear gloves when handling stinging nettles.
    2. Take 2 large handfuls of nettles – wear gloves! and blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain in a colander.
    3. Grate 1 cup of cheese using the large holes on a box grater, don\\\\\\\’t buy the pre-grated cheese, it tastes awful.
    4. Toast the walnuts in a fry pan on the stove, keep an eye on them, the burn easily.
    5. Place the greens, walnuts, cheese, garlic in a food processor, pour olive oil over the ingredients in the food processor.
    6. Add lemon zest and the juice from half a lemon.
    7. Turn on the food processor and watch the fun, you want the greens to become a roughly chopped paste, but not turn to mush.
    8. Serve this over pasta ( whole wheat pasta goes well with these flavors ) or in white bean soup, or on bread, its great.