A naturally gluten free, seasonal recipe that you can make using bought or foraged wild garlic leaves. If you are picking wild garlic and are not sure how to find it check out this Natural Trust Foraging Guide for tips on what you should be picking. You will find it plentiful in many British woodlands in early-mid spring.

Wild Garlic Pesto (Serves 4)

Ingredients

  • 120g wild garlic leaves
  • 60g parmesan cheese
  • 60g hazelnuts
  • Zest 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Black pepper
  • Salt

Method

  1. In a small frying pan, lightly toast the hazelnuts over a medium heat until they have coloured on the outside. If you have skinless hazelnuts, simply set them aside for the moment. If you hazelnuts have skins on, roll them in some kitchen towel while still hot to remove the skins. Remove as much of the skin as possible. Now set the nuts aside and throw away the skins.
  2. Wash the wild garlic leaves really well and pack them into a small blender and blitz. You will have to poke them down a bit to get them blitzed, obviously don’t do the poking while the blender is actively blending! Just pack them down in between blitzes.
  3. Now add the parmesan cheese (chopped into small chunks), the toasted hazelnuts and the lemon zest to the blender. Blitz for a minute.
  4. Finally add the oil and lemon juice and give everything a really good blitz until and large chunks of nut and cheese have been broken down.
  5. Season to taste with some black pepper and a little salt. Then you can either serve straight away, keep in the fridge or store in the freezer for a later date.

This recipe will make approx 300g pesto, which is enough for 4 people. Try my pesto pasta with aubergines and tomatoes if you are looking for a serving suggestion :).

If you enjoyed this recipe why not try one of my other gluten free meal ideas or baking recipes:

Bon appetit! x