Nasturtium Pesto

Nasturtium Plant

Have got a bounty of nasturtium leaves and flowers in the greenhouse beds. Picked an entire bag of nasturtium leaves because I'd seen a blog somewhere that listed making nasturtium pesto. The leaves are too spicy for me in a salad, but I thought mixed with nuts, garlic, cheese and oil they might make a good condiment. I must say for a first foray into making pesto it tastes quite good. A bit on the spicy side, but with a flavor reminiscent of horseradish. Might make a great topping for pasta, vegetables in a pan or a sandwich.

 On the left, if you've never grown nasturtiums, this is what they can look like. This plant is trailing about 3 feet and I have one on each corner of the greenhouse beds. So I've definitely got a surplus of leaves. The flowers are edible as well and are much milder than the leaves and add a great color to salads. They are easy to grow garden flowers and can be started right from seed in the garden in early spring.

Nasturtium flowers

Pesto ingredients

Here is what I used in the pesto. You'll need a boatload of leaves. It seems like a lot, but when you put them in the food processor they break down to almost nothing. I used about 3 cups of leaves, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup walnuts 3 cloves of garlic plus salt and pepper to taste. While you are processing the pesto in the machine, you stream in about 1/3 cup of olive oil - use the good stuff as you'll be tasting it.

 Blend in the processor until smooth. I put the leaves , garlic and walnuts in first, then added the cheese and finally the oil. As you can see that big bunch of leaves barely made a half jar of pesto. So, if you need a lot of pesto - get lots of leaves, this applies to basil as well when you are making the typical stuff.

Top the pesto with a layer of olive oil to seal the top- so the blend won't take on an off color. Stor in the fridge for about a week or put in the freezer for long term storage.

How about that. Quick and easy - I made my first batch of pesto!


 Now linking to Tootsie Time - Fertilizer Fridays a post where a number of bloggers post their flowers and gardens on a Friday. Check out her posts!