Seasonal Recipe: Carrot Top Pesto

One of my favorite summer-into-autumn recipes is apparently little known, and with the First International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste* just around the corner, it seems an appropriate time to share my recipe for carrot top pesto.

I first starting making this a couple of years ago when I was pulling up what should have been sizeable carrots and turned out to be tiny carrots — actual baby carrots — with lush and abundant greens in my school garden. I had also harvested some late summer basil, but not enough to make a batch of pesto. I got to thinking: I have already adapted the classic basil-only pesto recipe using spinach, swiss chard, or kale in the past, why not carrot tops? So I tried it… and have not composted carrot tops since!

Pesto will keep for a week in your fridge. It’s great as a dip for raw veggies, as a sandwich spread, as a pizza sauce, or tossed with cooked noodles. It also freezes well, in case you want to tuck a little bit of summer to pull out and enjoy in the dead of winter.

Here is the basic recipe — you can add more or less of any ingredient to your taste:

INGREDIENTS

1. A bunch of carrot tops, well washed then roughly chopped

2. A good handful of fresh basil

3. 1-2 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled

4. 1-2 handfuls of nuts or seeds (I often use walnuts, but have also used pecans, cashews, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds)

5. a handful of grated parmesan (or omit this to make it vegan)

6. 1/4 cup or more of olive oil (depending on how thick you like your pesto)

7. 1-2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

8. Salt, optional, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put everything except the olive oil in a food processor. (I first tried this in a blender, but it didn’t work well. If I had a vitamix, it would probably be strong enough.)

2. With the engine running on medium, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Add additional olive oil or a few spoonfuls of water until you achieve the desired consistency..

Do YOU have a great recipe that uses ingredients that might otherwise be tossed? Send us a note on social media!

*In case you want to join the Food Waste conversations this Tuesday, September 29, here are a couple of options:

1. To rethink the ways in which we produce and handle our food, and to highlight actions and solutions to reduce food loss and waste, FAO North America and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) will host a twitter chat (#FLWChat) on the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste.

2. You are kindly invited to join us in a global virtual meeting aimed at sharing experiences and opportunities for the reduction of food losses and waste. Heads of FAO and United Nations Environment Programme will share their perspectives on the issues and actions required to stem the problem. A high-level panel will provide their perspectives, and two Ted-style talks will seek to provoke greater thought on the issues. Roundtable panelists from across the food system will discuss critical  issues and challenges as well as opportunities to accelerate action to reduce food loss and waste. Government representatives from each of the five developing regions will also share their consolidated views and perspectives on the issues and progress to address them. Details are here.