Easy Vegan Wild Garlic Pesto

This is an updated wild garlic pesto recipe from a post initially made in 2009.

Spring is in full swing with the daffodils come and nearly gone. Summer is on its way and, despite my constant complaints of Southeast England's too-cool summers, I'm still happy to see it coming. The days are longer (have I mentioned the day the clocks go forward is my favourite of the year?) and the extra light has an enthusiastic effect on my desire to cook. How could it not? Light makes me happy.

Back in 2009, when I first wrote this post, I received a small quantity of wild garlic leaves in a veg subscription box. Unsure what to do with them, I made pesto. Years later, armed with more knowledge, I hit up some Sussex woodlands and find myself with kilos of the stuff every year.

Wild garlic pesto recipe notes

It's far easier to make this wild garlic pesto in a food processor or a blender, but you can also use a pestle and mortar if you want or need to take some frustrations out on a pungent perennial.

Feel free to swap up the nuts. Walnuts and pine nuts also work. Substitute some of the almonds for their smoked brethren if that's your jam.

I can't be arsed to peel almonds, so I toasted them and chuck them in as-is, but you may want to discard the skins. The easiest way to de-skin almonds is to place them in boiling water for a few minutes. After you drain them you'll see the almonds pop easily out of their skin. A warning I feel a responsibility to impart based on personal experience is to be careful of how far and fast almonds travel across kitchens when squeezing them out of their skins.

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Vegan Wild Garlic Pesto Recipe

Ingredients

• 130 grams toasted almonds
• 150 grams wild garlic leaves
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1-1½ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon lemon zest
• ¼ teaspoon mustard powder (optional)
• 125 millilitres olive oil ½ cup

Instructions

• Add the almonds to your food processor and pulse to break them up.
• Add wild garlic, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of the salt, lemon juice and mustard powder (optional) and whiz it all together into a paste.
• Finally, add the olive oil and pulse through. Taste for seasoning and add the additional salt if necessary.