Wild Garlic & Walnut Pesto

5 from 5 votes

This Wild Garlic & Walnut Pesto is such a versatile sauce with pungent wild garlic notes coming through beautifully! Wonderfully seasonal, wholesome & delicious. Perfect with pasta, stirred through soups & stews or as a marinade.

Course Dip, Marinade, Sauce

Cuisine British, Italian

Keyword Pesto, walnuts, wild garlic

Prep Time 15

Total Time 15

Servings 125ml (½ cup) jars

Calories 771kcal

Author Jo Allison

Ingredients

100 g wild garlic washed and dried
50 g toasted walnuts feel free to use different nuts
100 ml extra virgin olive oil (+ little extra for the jars)
30 g grated parmesan see notes
small bunch of parsley stalks optional
salt & pepper to taste
juice of half a lemon optional
water to adjust consistency if required

Vegan Option

4 tablespoon nutritional yeast to replace parmesan

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Toast walnuts in a dry pan for couple of minutes until fragrant but not coloured. Make sure you give a pan a little shake every so often.
Pop toasted walnuts in a food processor and blend them until they have sand like consistency. Add wild garlic, parsley stalks and lemon juice (if using) and blend until mixture resembles paste.
If you're making vegan version you would add nutritional yeast at this stage as well.
With food processor running, very slowly pour in the olive oil (trickle it in) which will help to emulsify and loosen up the garlic & walnut paste.
Add grated cheese, salt & pepper and give your mixture one last quick blitz. At this stage you can also adjust consistency to your liking by adding a little bit of water.
Transfer to jars & cover with extra drizzle of olive oil to help and preserve your pesto in the fridge.

Notes

Nutritional values are approximate and per 125ml (½ cup) jar of pesto.
Store in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months.
Substitute parmesan with nutritional yeast for vegan version.

TIPS:

I like using some leftover fresh parsley stalks whenever I've got them handy. They add extra goodness but also help to preserve the lovely green colour.
Add some lemon juice to your pesto for that extra zing and again to preserve the lovely green colour.
Feel free to use less wild garlic and make up the amount with other herbs (basil would be great here).
Once in jars pour a little extra virgin olive oil over your pesto to help preserve it that bit longer.
Feel free to adjust consistency of your pesto with some water.

Nutrition