Its that time of the year, when nature comes alive after a long winter. And with spring is also a lot of wild edibles around us which we can forage to add some greens to our diet. Hence, to get some precious greens as early as April, would be to forage and its all free. You can easily forage a few wild edibles and wild garlic is one of them. My favorite way of using this wild edible is with a Wild Garlic Pesto Recipe. Its so easy to make and tastes great.
This post was originally published on 24th March 2020 and has been updated.
Spring is in the air and with the arrival of spring is also the smell of wild garlic. Wild garlic can be found in almost all woods in Northern Europe. They just spread around like beautiful carpets under shady and moist areas. In fact, before we cut down the trees in our backyard, they were also growing wildly in our plot.
HOW TO FORAGE FOR WILD GARLIC
The best time to forage for wild garlic is between mid of March till the first week of April. The leaves will have the maximum flavor before they start flowering. The plants usually grow under damp and shade. You will have to look out for the long leaves with a bright color as shown in the photo.
When you find the plant, pick the long leaves that are bright in color as seen in the photo above. Be sure to carefully pick the leaves from close to the ground but make sure to leave the bulb underground and intact for next year. Look out for leaves without bird droppings.
TIPS FOR PICKING WILD GARLIC
The best way to check that you’ve picked wild garlic is to crush the leaves in the palm and take a sniff. If it smells like garlic, then you’ve picked the right plant.
TOOLS YOU WILL NEED
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Cast Iron Pan
INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING WILD GARLIC PESTO RECIPE
Now that we have picked the wild garlic leaves there are many options on how to use them. We at home personally like Wild garlic pesto. I have already shared a wild garlic pesto recipe in an earlier post. Well this Wild Garlic Pesto recipe differs from the older one, in this recipe I am using cashew nuts instead of sun flower seeds. Other ingredients you will need are olive oil, salt and lemon juice. If you want to spice it up, add one red chilly but that is completely optional. Wild garlic is pungent enough. But I added a couple of pods of garlic to boost our immune system. This is also optional.
WILD GARLIC PESTO SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Wild garlic pesto is ideal for pastas, risotto rice and even as bread spreads. I also serve it as a bread spread for my home baked Spelt Bread . You can also use the leaves mixed with other salad leaves.
HOW TO MAKE WILD GARLIC PESTO RECIPE
Ingredients
- 50 g of Cashew nuts
- 50 g of wild garlic leaves (washed and dried using a salad dryer )
- Juice of a lemon or 1/2 lemon
- 1 red chilly (optional )
- 2 garlic pods
- 100 ml of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of salt
Instructions
- First wash the leaves and dry them using a salad dryer.
- Lightly roast the cashew nuts in a heavy pan without any fat.
- Cool the nuts.
- Blitz all the ingredients in a food processor.
- Store in sterilized glass jars.
Can you freeze or can the pesto?
I haven’t frozen the pesto before. But this year, I wanted to prep some because of the difficult times we are now in. So I froze a small portion of it for later use.
Regarding canning, well since I made a lot of pesto, I thought why not can some of it. After all, when you buy them from the stores they have a longer shelf life. So they are canning them too. Therefore, I have also canned a couple of bottles for trial and test out this method too.
Know more about Wild garlic : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium
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