Pesto with carrot leaves is a grandma’s recipe. If you are lucky enough to have a vegetable garden or shop at a farmer’s market, make sure not to discard carrot leaves as they are edible. You can make many recipes with carrot leaves, like in my case, carrot top pesto. The pesto with carrot tops can be used both to season pasta and to spread on bread for delicious crostini. Carrot tops need to be washed very well because they have a lot of dirt. It’s better to soak them and change the water frequently. Another recycling recipe I recommend is Radish leaf pesto. Now let’s see how to make pesto with carrot leaves, and if you try it, let me know. Barbara
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients to prepare the pesto with carrot leaves
- 2 cups carrot leaves
- 1/3 cup almonds
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste water
Tools
- 1 Blender
How to prepare pesto with carrot leaves
Let’s start preparing the Pesto with carrot leaves. Remove the small leaves from the carrot tops, the stem is tougher and shouldn’t be used.
Soak them, move them often, and change the water several times because they are dirty with soil. When you see the water is clear, dry them with paper towels or a cloth.
Place them in the blender glass,
add the garlic clove cut in half,
the almonds,
the pine nuts,
a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
and a little bit of water.
Blend intermittently until you get a creamy pesto. Add another teaspoon of water if needed.
Then pour the pesto into a bowl or a jar.
Use the Pesto with carrot leaves as pasta dressing or spread on bread.
How to store pesto with carrot leaves
Store it in the refrigerator in a glass jar with a lid. To prevent the pesto from molding, I recommend covering the pesto with extra virgin olive oil. This way, the oil will protect it. It keeps in the refrigerator for 5/6 days. You can freeze it, preferably already in portions suitable for your needs.
