Carrot Top Pesto

We’re enjoying fresh summer vegetables from our garden, and our favorite farm stand. Did you know you can eat carrot tops? Stop by to learn how to make our delicious carrot top pesto!

This carrot topped pesto is so versatile!

Pair it with pasta for an easy summer dinner, serve it with pita chips or fresh veggies for a crudité or top warm crusty bread and add some mozzarella cheese.

We like to keep things simple here by the sea so we can spend our time enjoying the sunshine, the beach, or swimming in the pool. This also means simple recipes and cooking. I’m also trying to teach our kids that you can sometimes eat the greens on certain plants. We have an account with Holly Hill Farm and love picking up fresh produce and cheeses at the farm stand. If you’re local and haven’t been you must  check it out. Jon Belber runs a wonderful farm program for children and teens and there are animals you can visit and beautiful trails you can walk along.

The boys and I actually did a quest there the other day.

I’m always so inspired when we visit the farm. On our last trip we picked up the most beautiful carrots, some were the usual orange while others were rainbow. The greens were beautiful and we decided to make a pesto with them.

It really was so easy to blend this delicious pesto and it has a faint taste of carrot to it. My boys love carrots.

Carrot Top Pesto

Ingredients

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 6 cups of carrot tops
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup toasted walnuts
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 5 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

Method

Toast the walnuts by placing them in a cast iron pan. Don’t put any cooking spray or oil in the pan. Keep an eye on the pan as the nuts can toast pretty quickly. Toasting the walnuts brings out the flavor of the nut. Once toasted set aside to cool.

Cut the carrot tops off your carrots and wash them, discard any greens that have gone brown.

In a food processor pulse to combine the carrot tops, fresh basil, lemon juice, garlic, toasted walnuts, and parmesan cheese. While the food processor is mixing slowly add the olive oil.

You can make this ahead and store in the fridge for a couple of days.

I’m not sure the pesto would last that long in our home. The day I made this the boys had it like this atop pasta. I chopped up fresh tomatoes and sliced lemon on the side.

My boys absolutely loved the flavor, the faint carrot, the basil and the nutty taste of the walnuts.

While they enjoyed the pasta Luke and I had our pesto on crusty bread with marinated mozzeralla cheese.

The bread is from a local bakery here in Scituate, Mainstay Bakery, and is the best bread we’ve ever eaten. If you’re local you need to check them out.

The marinated mozzarella is from Trader Joe’s. I bought two packages of it and I wish I bought 5! It’s amazing. I love it in a tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad too.

Oh, and these plates were from Whole Foods – can you believe they’re bamboo. I thought they’d be fun out in the pool area.

I hope you’re enjoying fresh summer vegetables and I hope you’ll try our recipe.