Wild Garlic Pesto

Various uses of wild garlic pesto

The taste of wild garlic is spicy and aromatic. Being wild garlic, it also has a very garlic-like flavor. Especially if it is eaten raw, as with wild garlic pesto, you should not plan a date afterward. Unless you both eat from it.

I like to eat this vegan wild garlic pesto with spaghetti, tagliatelle or linguine – as a pasta addict, I definitely like to eat it with noodles. In addition to being used for spring pasta, wild garlic pesto also goes wonderfully with a variety of other dishes.

You can use wild garlic pesto like a dip and add falafel or potato pancakes. Also together with vegan feta and tomatoes, or a dollop on top of Hummus (or even mix it in at the same time) or on a bowl, fit perfectly.

You can also easily eat wild garlic pesto with boiled potatoes, oven vegetables or asparagus, or as a spread in a sandwich. Wild garlic pesto can also be baked in bread, for example in a flatbread or on focaccia – nom! I plan to bake puff pastry snails with wild garlic pesto for the first time, it has to taste so good.

As you can see, wild garlic pesto goes well with so many dishes. If you have another idea, feel free to add it in the comments!

Wild garlic with wild garlic and …

This vegan wild garlic pesto is quite compact, because there is a lot of wild garlic in here. So it’s not “thin and oily” like it’s often the case with pesto. This is intentional in this case because that’s how I like it best. I like the intense taste of wild garlic, but I don’t want to completely drown the food in oil.

What else is in the vegan wild garlic pesto, apart from a lot of wild garlic? In any case, vegan wild garlic pesto is not made that much differently than non-vegan. The only difference is in the cheese, because if you prepare wild garlic pesto vegan, of course, no parmesan goes into it.

You will find a number of other good ingredients in this vegan wild garlic pesto, in addition to lots of wild garlic. Oil, olive oil to be precise. You can also replace part of it with pumpkin seed oil, but please do not heat your pesto afterward.

Sunflower seeds and pine nuts are also added to the pesto. You are also welcome to use other nuts such as walnuts or other seeds such as pumpkin seeds. Cashews or almonds would be another option, but I haven’t tried it myself.

Finally, nutritional yeast, and parsley. I think that it gives the wild garlic pesto freshness and rounds off the very intense taste. Oh yes, and salt and pepper, of course.

Fresh & Free

Since I prefer to use lots of wild garlic, and it grows in large quantities, at least here in Vienna, I always pick it myself. It starts in March and by April it’s slowly over.

The best thing: these huge amounts of wild garlic are a hundred times fresher than from the supermarket, but they don’t cost me a cent. In Vienna, picking wild garlic is almost a national sport. You can usually find me at Augarten. But there is also growing a lot at Prater. Or recently I discovered tons in the Pötzleinsdorfer Schlosspark.

Harvesting wild garlic is very easy: “pinch off” the leaves with your fingernail and, ideally, collect it in a cloth sack to take home. At least I wash it at home before I put it to further use. And that brings me to the next final point…

Shelf life of wild garlic pesto

Normally, when making pesto from herbs, they need to be dry, the pesto covered with plenty of oil, and the jar needs to be “sterile” (not surgical-style, but spotless). However, I have never stored a pesto for longer than a few days, simply in a Tupperware box or something similar.

Since I wash the wild garlic from the park anyway, the storage option in the form is out of the question for that reason alone. But it is possible to freeze the wild garlic pesto, namely in ice cube molds. The whole thing is super practical for dosing, similar to the frozen “Spinach Zwutschgerln”. By freezing, you can overwinter your wild garlic pesto until next spring.

But that’s not an option for me either, because I always eat so much wild garlic within a very short time that I don’t want to see it for months anyway, hahaha. I hope that you will love this pesto too, and I wish you bon appétit.

Did you try this recipe?

I would love to see the result – and share it. So please do not forget to tag me on Instagram: @plantbased.redhead.cooks

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