Radish Leaf Pesto

With all the rain we’ve been having I’ve been impatiently waiting for something in my garden that was ready to harvest. This week our radishes started to poke their heads out of the soil! Radishes are a great crop because they are easy to grow and fast producing. If you time it right you can easily get three radish crops per year, if you plant right after you harvest. Oddly enough, I’m not actually a huge fan of radishes and purposely grew this crop to use the leaves to make either soup or pesto. But I have recently discovered that there are many varieties of radishes and not all are crazy spicy. So perhaps next year I’ll grow radishes for the purpose of actually eating the radish!

Pesto is one of my favourite condiments to make. It’s delicious, versatile and freezes very well. We use it on pasta, homemade pizzas, grilled cheese sandwiches and even on crackers! Radish leaf pesto has a bit of spice to it compared to traditional basil pesto, but the flavour is still quite nice.

I doubled the recipe below and I was able to fill five 250 ml jars half way (we would never be able to go through 250ml of pesto before it went bad so I opted for halfway). Personally I would suggest freezing it. You can do what I did and freeze in mason jars or you can do smaller portions in ice cube trays. Both work great. It will keep in the fridge for at least a few weeks after you thaw it.

Traditional pesto calls for pine nuts, but being frugal I opted for almonds. Feel free to substitute in pine nuts, walnuts or cashews.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of coarsely chopped radish tops
  • 1/3 cup of almonds
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4-1/2 cup of olive oil

Instructions:

  • Place all of your ingredients in a food processor (except the olive oil)
  • Blend on high until it’s smooth and a paste like texture
  • While on high, slowly add the olive oil into the pesto via your food processor shute
  • How much olive oil you use will be your personal preference depending on the texture you like. I used 1/2 a cup.
  • Place in jars or ice cube trays.