Winter Pesto from the Edible Garden

Harvesting rocket & winter purslaneWe were visited on wednesday by Edinburgh Community Food’s Talk of the Walk group. The healthy living group for women in North East Edinburgh trekked down to the Botanics on a chilly January morning. We had a whistle stop for a tour of our vegetable garden and despite the cold we managed to find plenty of leaves to harvest.

Taking our bounty into the warm the group got busy with a pestle and mortar to make some delicious fresh pesto. We didn’t follow a particular recipe but the recipe below is a rough guide. You can use all kinds of leafy greens for this dish depending on whatever is available in the garden.

Pesto

3 large handfuls of spinach, rocket, winter purslane and parsley (curly and flat leaf)
1 small handful of sorrel
3 tbsp olive oil
Generous handful pine nuts
Salt and pepper Winter Pesto

Wash the leaves well. Mix all ingredients in a blender and season to taste. If using a pestle and mortar chop the leaves first and add oil at the end. Mix with fresh cooked pasta and serve.

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1 Comment

  1. Yummy!
    I had no idea home-made pesto was so easy! I shall definately be giving this a try.
    Just one question tho, isn’t there usually basil in a pesto sauce?