Recipe: A garden lover’s pesto

Basil, parsley, rocket – use whatever greens you have growing in your garden to make this zesty pesto.

Recipe: Jane Bellerby

This is our version of a pesto, using interchangeable greens and herbs – it’s a flexible and fluid recipe limited only by your imagination, resources and tastebuds! What attracts me is that it is a good way of harvesting plants that I might not use vast amounts of but which are prolific in their growth. Try it over baked potatoes, hard boiled eggs, stirred through rice or pasta, thinned as a dressing, as a spread with bread and cheese, or any other way your household likes it.

INGREDIENTS

½ cup olive oil
½ cup cider vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp honey or brown sugar
Several cloves of finely chopped or crushed garlic
1 or more cups of seasonal greens such as parsley, rocket, basil, coriander, dill, sorrel, silver beet, chickweed, beetroot tops, mint, cleavers, watercress, and always rosemary, thyme and a couple of leaves of sage.

METHOD

Chop everything as finely as you wish and mix into the oil and vinegar. It will keep for a week or more in a lidded jar in the fridge. Add citrus juices and zest and chillies etc for more zing.