Don’t toss the tops! Save your radish greens to make this delicious, fresh pesto to use with your favorite spring dishes.
I’ve recently taken to using lots of different spring greens to make pestos, and my recent CSA delivery had me thinking harder about how to use the beautiful radish greens while they are in peak season here. Pestos are so easy and versatile, and making use of the often-discard radish leaves is a great way to reduce food waste
Here are just a few ways you can use radish greens pesto:
- Stir a spoonful into a salad dressing
- Toss on to roasted vegetables
- Spoon it over roasted meat or broiled fish
- As a bread topping with cheese
- As a pizza topping
- Combined with your favorite pasta — a classic!
Even though basil is probably the most recognizable component to a standard pesto, any kind of green or mixture of greens can work equally well. If you don’t have enough radish greens, you can add in another green to make up the volume. Spinach works well and really punches up the vibrant green color!
Got lots of tops? Double the batch and freeze any extra. Pesto freezes very well and is great to keep on hand to use in a meal. I like to freeze some in ice cube trays — it’s the prefect amount to defrost for a quick pita pizza!
- 2 cup Radish Greens washed well
- 1/4 cup nuts or seeds (pine nuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, almonds are all good choices)
- 1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
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Add the greens, garlic, and nuts/seeds to the bowl of the food processor. Process on high for about 15 seconds, open lid and scrape down the sizes, and then blend for another 15 seconds. Repeat until the greens and nuts/seeds are finely chopped.
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Secure the lid of the food processor, and with the blade running, slowly pour in the olive oil. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again.
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Add the parmesean and lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste, and then continue to blend about 20 seconds more. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Note that this recipe is for roughly one bunch of radish greens if you were to buy a bunch from the grocery store or farmer’s market. I know the amount can vary depending on the source, but its ok if the amounts are not exact. The idea is that if you have one bunch of greens, you can make one batch of this pesto!
I hope you’ll give this radish greens pesto recipe a try! If you’ve tried this recipe then please make sure to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. You can also FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST. I would love to hear from you!
Be sure to check out my recipe for Tangy Potato Salad with Leeks.
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