Serves: 4
Approx cost: €2
Approx calories (per serving with 60g dried Pasta): ~560
Approx preparation and cooking time: 20 mins
A couple of years ago I’d bought a great big bunch of carrots still with the greens attached from my local market. After returning home and eating a couple of the carrots (why do carrots with greens attached taste so damn good? – I guess they must be significantly fresher) I looked at the giant mess of leaves and stalks on the counter top and I pondered if there wasn’t something that could be done with it. Sure enough, a few minutes of searching later it seems that Carrot Top pesto is quite popular. Here’s my own take on this dish as today’s post! The tops can be a little bitter – not unpleasantly so, but let’s face it… it’s not basil! – so I add a decent amount of nuts and parmesan. The result is a deliciously creamy, and rather fun, dish which you can either serve the traditional way, with pasta, or smother in a sandwich or use as a dip.
In other news, I realised today that I’m a mere 15 posts (including this one) from the big “100” mark. The wonderful thing about writing a food blog, as well as getting to know so many wonderful people who stop by my little niche on the web here, is the fact that it forces you to be adventurous. No-one wants to read a blog with a hundred different recipe posts based solely around tomato and minced beef sauces (well, very few people I’d wager!). I love food, but I will admit that before I was writing these posts I would often cycle through the same 40 or 50 recipes, simply out of ease. I don’t think I’ve had a single repeat recipe in the last 6 months which is a lot of fun! Anyway, the big 100 will be coming up in just a few weeks – the 2nd of August if my calculations are correct, based on my current post schedule of one post every 3 days, so I think I’ll start planning a little celebration 😉 In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy today’s recipe!
Ingredients
– One large bunch of Carrots, still with the greens attached
– 70g Walnuts
– 70g Parmesan
– 1 large Onion
– 4-5 cloves of Garlic
– 4 tbsps Olive Oil
– Juice from half a Lemon
– Salt
– Pepper
You’ll also need
– A Food Processor
Instructions
- Start off by peeling the onion and garlic and chop roughly. Put 1 tbsp of Olive Oil in a pan and heat up. Cut off the green tops of the carrots, discard any especially thick pieces of stalk, chop into sections and transfer to a colander or sieve and rinse thoroughly. Store the carrots away for use in a soup or salad or something later!
- Add the onion and garlic into the hot oil and fry lightly for a minute or so, until the onion starts to become translucent. Add the washed carrot tops into the pan and fry lightly, stirring well, for only about 30 seconds, just until the stalks and leaves begin to wilt slightly.
- Place the greens, onion and garlic into a Food Processor. Grate the parmesan cheese finely and add this in to the carrot-tops with the walnuts, some freshly ground salt and pepper and the remaining Olive Oil and lemon juice. Turn on the mixer and chop well for around 2 minutes, or until quite smooth. You may need to scrape away the build-up from the edges of the bowl, and add more Olive Oil if necessary.
- Serve with pasta, as a dip, or on a sandwich… or basically any way you please, and enjoy!
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