If you love pesto sauces, you are probably already making delicious pestos with all sorts of greens, from this classic vegan basil pesto to fennel fronds pesto and carrot top pesto. Add to that list this yummy green garlic pesto. Like all pestos this is an easy sauce to make and it comes together in minutes in a food processor. The challenging part could be finding the green garlic if you aren’t growing your own as most supermarkets don’t carry green garlic (at least not where I live). But you can find it at specialty foods and health food stores or at farmers’ markets – they look a lot like scallions, only with bigger bulbs. Look for greens that are fresh and green and not wilted or woody. If you love garlic (I do!) this could be a sauce right up your alley. It is infused with garlic flavor through and through, although I do use a handful of sweet basil to tamp down some of the pungency. You might want to use more basil and reduce the quantity of the garlic green bulbs if you plan on feeding this to children.
Why you’ll love this recipe
The vibrant garlic flavor in this pesto is quite amazing. I love garlicky dishes and this sauce infuses your pasta, or anything you are adding it to, with that wonderful flavor of fresh, green garlic. Green garlic is a wonderfully healthy – and seasonal – food to eat. Spring is the season to harvest and eat green garlic. The young stalks and bulbs have the same benefits as the more mature garlic bulbs. They contain tons of allicin, a sulfur compound that is an antioxidant and can help reduce cholesterol and prevent inflammation in the body. The pesto takes just minutes to make. Just add everything to the food processor and hit the button. There’s no cooking required. Everyone can eat this pesto because it’s gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free and vegan. If you are on a low-carb diet add this to zucchini noodles or zoodles or to a bean-based pasta, like chickpea pasta or black bean pasta.
Ingredients
How to make green garlic pesto
Place all pesto ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor. Pulse the ingredients 5-10 times so they are coarsely chopped. Next, with the blade running, pour the olive oil through the feed tube until a coarse but homogenous paste forms. You may need to add a few tablespoons of water to break down the green garlic and to form a paste. Keep in mind that the garlic greens might take some time to process, so you would need to run the processor longer than you would for, say, a basil pesto. Check salt and add more if needed.
Storage instructions
Refrigerate: You can refrigerate pesto sauce for up to a week. Freeze: Pesto freezes nicely in an airtight container. Eat it within four months. Defrost: Let the frozen pesto thaw completely before you eat.
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