Wild Garlic
- Latin: Allium ursinum
- Gaelic: Creamh
Wild garlic grows in wooded areas. It has long, flat, rubbery-feeling deep green leaves and around comes into flower around the end of April. You are a likely to notice wild garlic by its smell as by its appearance, as it gives off a pungent garlicky aroma which you can’t miss as you walk by.
You can pick wild garlic leaves and use them in all of your recipes – add to soups, chop finely for salads, add to stir-fries, really, anything where you might add tasty leafy greens.
The best known use for wild garlic is in pesto! The freshly-picked leaves will blow your socks off and make a seriously tasty sauce for pasta.
Wild garlic pesto recipe
Ingredients
- A big handful of wild garlic leaves
- About 150g nuts or seeds (you can use any nuts or seeds: I used a mixture of hazelnuts, cashews and ground almonds because that was what was in the cupboard.)
- Olive oil
- Sea salt (optional)
- Engevita yeast flakes (optional but very tasty)
Method is simple. Chop your wild garlic and put it in a food processor/blender along with the nuts. Whizz til finely chopped.
Stir the mixture and cover completely with olive oil. Add the salt and yeast flakes if using and give another short whizz.
Pop it into jars and keep in the fridge, or you can freeze it.
Gorgeous stirred through pasta, spread it on your toast, or use as a dip!
Shared by Beth Maiden.