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WILD GREENS PESTO

Add some mineral-rich, free, tasty, and local WILD greens to your traditional basil pesto! It can be pesto-time year round if you know which edible weeds to harvest Here is a fun recipe to diversify your diet and connect with the abundance of Nature. Be sure you are able to positively identify your wild plant friends. Join me on my next plant walk to deepen your foraging knowledge.

Ingredients:

3 medium garlic cloves

1/2 cup walnuts (or pine nuts, or almonds)

3 cups firmly packed greens (any combo of seasonal wild & cultivated herbs, see list below)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon ume plum vinegar (or sea salt to taste)

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (I prefer this to parmesan cheese for a dairy-free option)

Preparation:

1.  Blend garlic and nuts in food processor until coarsely chopped.

2.  Add remainder of ingredients to food processor and blend till desired smoothness. Yields approximately one cup.

3.  Eat on crackers, mixed into pasta, smeared on a frittata or fried egg sandwhich, spread on nori rolls or pizza, get creative!

4.  Any leftovers will keep in the fridge for a week or more.  I like to triple the recipe and freeze some Wild Green Pesto in half pint (8oz.) glass mason jars.

Wild Summer Greens of the NC Piedmont that can be added raw to your pesto (to name a few):  lambsquarter, common evening primrose leaves, dandelion leaves, plantain leaves, tender yellow dock leaves, violet leaves, wood sorrel leaves, green or red shiso (aka perilla), knotweed, wood nettle.

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