It is that time of the year again, a short window when the delights of wild garlic can be reaped. Wild garlic starts to appear in patches from around March and last until June. Wild garlic has it strongest flavour when its pretty white flowers are in full bloom. It starts to loose its potentness when the leaves start to turn a yellow shade. Whilst you can normally find wild garlic at local markets and Farm shops it can be hard to come across in super markets as it is rarely commercially grown.
There is an ancient wood near me that not only turns into a sea of bluebells at Easter time but also has a top secret patch of Wild garlic. The large patch is located deep inside the wood and was only stumbled upon by sheer luck. Ever since then, many a pilgrimage has been made to this sacred patch of Wild garlic, carefully only picking enough leaves each time in order to make sure it returns year after year.
Wild garlic is incredibly versatile, excellent with fish it can also be added to tarts and breads and makes a delicious addition to mash potato. After much experimentation I have put together my slightly different wild garlic recipe….I hope you enjoy.
Ingredients
- The juice of 1 lemon
- 300g of toasted almonds (hazelnuts and pine nuts also work well)
- 1 x large bunch of Basil
- 1 x large bunch of wild garlic (half with stalks, half without)
- 100ml olive oil
- Half a table spoon of alt to season
- Pepper to season
- 15g Nutritional yeast
- 200g Parmesan
Directions
- Crush the the almonds (or hazelnuts) with the back of a large knife into small pieces (not into crums) and toast for a couple of minutes over a medium heat. Keep a close eye on them, especially if you are using pine nuts as they are very easy to burn. Once cooked set them aside to cool.
- Grate the Parmesan.
- Wash the wild garlic and basil and remove the tough end of the stems along with any dodgy looking bits or leaves.
- Add the leaves and stems of the wild garlic and basil to you blender and wizz (doesn't need to be fully blended as you will be adding further ingredients)
- Add the toasted nuts, juice of a lemon, parmesan cheese, nutritional yeast, 50ml of olive oil and half a teaspoon of salt and pepper to season.
- Blend away for 30 seconds and then slowly add remaining oil (or as much as you like if you want a more liquidy pesto).
- Taste and add more seasoning or additional cheese / lemon if preferred
Tips:
- If you find your wild garlic is nearing the end of the beginning or end of season and isn’t that pungent then either up your volume of the ingredient or add a couple of cloves of garlic. I would advice doing this at the end once you have tasted it with the quantities above.
- To make the recipe vegan just use extra nutritional yeast instead of the parmesan.
This year our new pup Havoc, yes we were asking for trouble with a name like Havoc, joined us in his first trip to the Wild garlic patch. After having chased the scent of two dears ands an hour and half later and safely on the lead we finally reached the patch. He redeemed himself though by waiting very patiently whilst we picked the garlic.
On our way back we took the opportunity to take a few pictures for the website, he modelled his new Mexican collar effortlessly.
