I made some wild garlic pesto after I went foraging for some the other day. It is also known as Ramsons, wood garlic is common in Europe and parts of the US. You can find them in many public parks in the UK and the majority of places allow you to forage them responsibility.
I live in Nottingham, there are quite a few parks near me that have wild garlic, but my favourite place to go to for foraging is definitely Lady Spencer’s wood. They are everywhere in that wood.
The whole plant is eatable. You can start picking leaves around March when they are young, it is the best time. We use wild garlic to make wild Garlic Pesto, fry it with eggs, or mix it with minced pork to use as dumpling fillings. Trust me it is super delicious. The flowers emerge from April for around 2 months, flowers are delicious but the garlic punch is much less compared to the leaves, it is perfect to add into salads and sandwiches.
I first find out wild garlic because I was craving for Chinese Garlic Chives (韭菜). It is one of my favourite vegetables growing up in China. However, it is very difficult to buy in the UK. Some Chinese supermarket does sale them but it tends to be quite expensive. After roaming on the internet for days, trying to find a cheaper place that carries this vegetable, I stumbled upon wild garlic. Personally, I think it tastes better than Chinese garlic chives because the garlic punch is a little bit stronger. However, if you cannot forage them where you live, you can also make this recipe with Chinese garlic chives, it tastes equally delicious, I have tried it.
Equipment used for making this recipe
Blender & Cheese grater – fine
Wild Garlic Pesto
Ingredients
- 300 gram wild garlic leaves
- 180 gram olive oil
- 1 garlic glove
- 75 gram pine nut
- 75 gram parmesan cheese finely grated
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Roast pine nuts in a pan on low to medium heat till nuts turn brown. Do not add any oil, dry roast only. Be patient, it takes a while for all the nuts to turn brown.
- Put garlic, parmesan, olive oil, roasted pine nuts in a food processor, add wild garlic leaves in batches to process.Add salt to taste.
A few things that help
- You can replace wild garlic leaves with basil leaves for basil pesto.
- You can add this directly to salad, cooked meat, or simply on top of toasted bread. My favourite is to spread a generous amount on top of toasted multi-seeded sandwich bread, then layer with fried crispy bacon, topped with a fried egg and another toasted multi-seeded sandwich bread. Yummy! You should really try it.
Have you read my previous recipe –Teriyaki Beef Stir Fry? It is one of my favorite weekday quick meals to make. You can get the full recipe here.
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