More Spring

Greetings all:

We've had a few requests for a recipe for Spring Baby Carrot Top Pesto since we have decided our baby carrots are ready for our Member's Choice Members. We made some tonight and mixed it with a bit of hummus to dip the baby carrots into and mix into some barely, potato soup. Scroll to the bottom for my basic recipe or read on for a bit more information.

Our recipe is simply a regular basil pesto recipe and we substitute a like amount of carrot greens. We love pesto so much and have it so regularly (we froze over 45 servings last fall and still have a couple bags in the freezer) that I no longer need, look at, nor remember the exact quantities of the recipe. However, you could perform a google search for pesto and substitute the greens of the carrot tops.
We also substitute garlic greens fresh from the garden for the garlic cloves. We love garlic too and go through it too quickly to have any left by this time in the spring. Luckily, the garlic greens are up and at-em and when those are gone we will probably have scapes.

In that photo above you can see the tools that are required for an easy pesto recipe. If you would like you can certainly leave the peels on and you could of course make the pesto in a mortar and pestle. Below is my basic recipe for carrot top pesto. Delicious!

Items you will need:

One bunch baby spring carrots. One bunch garlic greens or 2-3 cloves garlic to taste. Some sort of nut. If pine nuts aren't available we use walnuts. If neither is available we skip them but you can use anything. Pecans however, are particularly high in oil. A good, quality, great tasting olive oil (or another oil of which you like the taste).

To prepare:

Remove the tops from the carrots by using a pair of scissors and snipping them near the base into a food processor. Save the carrots to use as you like. Place the bunch of garlic greens or 2-3 cloves of garlic (once the papery skin is removed) on top of the greens in the food processor. Add some oil 'to taste' (this is in quotes because I don't know how much we use. I usually put in slightly less than I think it will require depending upon the amount of greens, blend it up and then pour more oil into the top port on the food processor while it's blending until it looks right. It should take on a creamy texture and lighten in color slightly.) Add a little salt and pepper if you like. Blend until smooth. Unplug the processor, remove the top and scrape the sides with a wooden spoon to get any greens that are stuck up high and not getting mixed. Plug it back in and blend some more. Unplug and remove the pesto from the processor and then either mix in some freshly grated, local cheese or skip that step if you like. Then your pesto is ready to put onto any dish you like. We like it on pasta and tonight we individually mixed it into some barley soup and it gave the soup a creamy, springtime texture and taste. Enjoy!