Years ago I remember finding a recipe for fresh pesto–using basil. I made it and served it as a side dish for supper–the kids were small and both they and their father tasted it and said “YUK”. How did I know it was supposed to be spread on bread or served with pasta?
Last week one of the farm members asked if there was kale in the box when she picked her share up. I told her yes, and then asked if she didn’t want it. (there’s lot of greens early in the year)…she said “oh yes, I do want it. A friend was telling me about a kale pesto that she made”.
Kale pesto, hmmmmm. I can’t stand the texture of cooked greens so any way to get them in a palatable condition, raw, is interesting to me. Plus, all the vitamins and minerals stay intact when a veggie is raw. I perused the myriad of recipe sites on the net and came up with one that I thought I could work with, as I never have all the ingredients in a recipe “on-the-fly”. Here’s the link to the original recipe:
http://www.theroastedroot.net/kale-pesto/
First off I have one of those really small food processors so I had to really cram the leaves in there. 3 cups of kale were added instead of 5, and just about 1/2 cup basil leaves. A generous handful of walnuts and 5 cloves of garlic were added to the mix. Once all that started moving around in the processor, I drizzled in some unfiltered olive oil until it was the consistency to spread then added salt to taste.
The pesto was spread on cornbread fritters that accompanied a bowl of small red beans with sweet pepper relish on the side.
YUM!
Wild Things Farm 