Wild and Conventional Greens Pesto

I was reading through my fourth, yes fourth, general herbal book, and I ran across a recipe that called itself Wild Greens Pesto, which allows you to add any wild green together with garlic, olive oil, nuts and lemon juice to make a pesto. It is from the Book: The Herbal Handbook for Homesteaders, Farmed and Foraged Herbal Remedies and Recipes, by Abby Artemisia

The original recipe calls for a number of wild, foraged greens, and I had some leftover cilantro and other greens in the refrigerator that I wanted to use up so I went ahead and used both wild and store bought.

You will want a lemon juicer, a metal strainer, and a food processor or blender. I used a very small one that comes with my immersion blender which I do not recommend.

Wash and dry the herbs, carefully putting them between towels to pat dry.

The basil pesto that we usually make calls for pine nuts which can be foraged if you are motivated, but I also had a few types of nuts and seeds that I wanted to use up, so used my own blend with guidance from the original recipe.

Wild and Conventional Greens Pesto

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. almonds, raw, unsalted
• 4 Brazil nuts
• 1/3 c. walnuts, unsalted
• 1/2 c. dandelion leaves washed, dried and chopped up
• 1c. cilantro chopped up
• 1/2 c. combo of kale and scallions washed, dried and chopped up
• 1 T fresh dill
• 1 tsp organic garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 6 T olive oil
• 1/4 c. fresh lemon juice

Instructions

1. Wash and dry and cut up all the greens into a single container.
2. add the tsp of garlic powder
3. Process the nuts in the Cuisinart until makes a coarse meal.
4. Add the greens to the nuts in the Cuisinart and continue to process. If you are using the little one you have to stuff the greens in there, and turn them with a spoon a few times to get them all to be chopped up to the same consistency.
5. Add the olive oil and salt and keep processing and turning. It will be an olive oily thick consistency.
6. Transfer to your container and stir in the lemon juice. It lasts for 3-5 days.
7. Can be frozen in an ice cube tray to use in batches as needed.