When our week 3 CSA box arrived I was determined to use every bit of the animal – um, I meant vegetable – to the fullest. That meant getting creative with root vegetable greens, the fresh leafy tops from the radishes and carrots in the box. How cool would it be, I thought, to make pesto?

I looked around online and found Chocolate & Zucchini had already pioneered that territory with radish greens alone. I followed the basic proportions of her recipe, improvising mostly by mixing up the greens and doubling up on the garlic. Here’s my version of the recipe; by the way, it’s not only deeply green but gluten free and vegetarian, too:

Carrot and Radish Leaf Pesto

Life in a Skillet
Radish leaf and carrot top pesto, adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini's Radish Leaf Pesto recipe. This recipe makes approximately 8 ounces.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course condiment, sauce

Ingredients
  

  • - 2 large handfuls fresh radish leaves thick main stems removed
  • - 1 small handful carrot tops thick main stems removed
  • - 1 ounce grated pecorino cheese
  • - 1 ounce toasted pine nuts
  • - 2 cloves garlic germ removed, cut in four
  • - 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • - salt and freshly ground lemon pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Toss all the ingredients in a blender and pulse in short bursts.
  • Scrape the sides of the bowl and repeat until you have a finely textured paste.
  • Spoon out into a glass jar and keep refrigerated.

 

Don’t wait for pizza night; this deserves to be sampled immediately. This is what we made; a perfectly composed bit of garlicky, savory, salty, chewy, crunchy, and spicy goodness.

Everything is better with prosciutto. And overall, a successful Farm Fresh box. I may get the hang of this yet.

By the way, you will want one of these KitchenAid hand blender/chopper combos to make the whole process easier. Seriously.