{RECIPE} CARROT TOP PESTO

          Look, I have to confess something.
          I suck at math.

          I actually have a learning disability with numbers (so fun in this day and age of math/science first, art last) and my most hated above all of them are fractions. I hate fractions. So when I find recipes with easy numbers, you bet I'm going to prioritize those first. Not that numbers matter too much since I end up doctoring the recipes anyway but....you get my drift.

         The point is, this carrot-top pesto is easy to make. There's literally only one fraction! And why was I looking for carrot top pesto recipes? Because I had to pull all my carrots!

         I'm breaking ground on my summer garden tomorrow and planting corn for my Three Sisters raised bed (Corn, beans, squash), which means my remaining carrots and my massive kale plants have to go, which I hate because I love my kale! But it's getting hot and within a couple of weeks that kale will turn bitter or get fried.

          Thankfully my carrots survived a random heatwave and didn't turn bitter on me! Phew! But looking at all my carrots and the carrot greens I recalled that carrots are part of the same family as parsley and can be used just like parsley! And well, I hate wasting things from my garden and I try my best to use every single part of a plant that I can. For instance when I make tomato sauce in the summer I take the leftover skins, bake them in the oven until they're brittle, and then pulverize them into power for seasoning or crumble them along with thyme and oregano to make a seasoned salt rub! So I knew there had to be another way to use carrot greens other than as a parsley garnish.

         And lo, there was carrot-top pesto!

         I found this recipe from Elsie Bauer here, and lemme tell you, I looked through a LOT of recipes. This was the easiest and most delicious sounding one. I uh...may have also doctored it a bit with what I had on hand at my house. But lemme tell you.

         It's freaking amazing. 

         The one thing that I noticed none of the recipes had was a little ingredient that I add to basically everything. LEMON. Not in a single recipe did anyone include lemon--which brightens up flavors and adds freshness to them. And if carrot-top greens aren't fresh and light I dunno what is! Plus, the acid in the lemon will help keep the pesto green! I tried it without the lemon and it was....fine. I tried it with the lemon and it was AWESOME. So there's my secret ingredient for you all. Use lemon!

         I should also note that you shouldn't do what I did and get distracted by music and forget that you're toasting your walnuts in a pan and therefore burn some of them. Don't do that. It turns out that slightly burnt walnuts definitely make it taste a little bitter (thank the fruit gods above lemon was able to tone that down!). I recommend toast it in an oven as opposed to dry roasting it on a stove. Just saying. 


         So what can you do with this carrot top pesto? Why lots! You can add it to carrot soup (that's what I'm going to do later this week!), cook up some white bean and toss some in for a cold bean salad (yummm), or roast your carrots and toss them in the pesto, or really just use it as you would use your pesto normally! It's SO good guys!

          Here's what you do. First you rough chop the carrot greens, spinach, and walnuts. Then while they're going into shock at what you've just done to them, put on some cheerful music and toast your walnuts. The reason you toast your walnuts is so your pesto doesn't come out bitter (which you don't want.) 

          Now that you've done that you toss it all in a food processor along with some lemon juice, salt, and pepper (no need to chop up to garlic cloves!) 

         Then pulse it until looks grainy and less scared: Like this!

          After this you flick on the food processor on 'on' and slowly pour in a steady stream of the olive oil and like magic you get something like this in less than 1 minute!

          Once it looks like this, put it in a jar and then use it withing 4 to 5 days and you're good to go! Put it on salad if you want (you can thin it out by adding more olive oil), in your soup, on your eggs, on your toast, in a sandwich...the possibilities are endless AND delicious!

    CARROT TOP PESTO

Ingredients

1 cup carrot greens
1 cup spinach
1/2 cup walnuts (toasted)
2 garlic cloves (medium sized)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/2 a lemon

Directions:
- Toast your walnuts until golden brown in a pan on the stove (or toast them in an oven)- Get rid of any thick parts of the carrot tops if there are any, and give them a quick rough chop- In a food processor put in the carrot tops, spinach, walnuts, salt, pepper, and juice from half a small lemon- Pulse and occasionally scrape down the sides until everything is mixed and a bit crumbly looking- Put your food processor to 'on' and slowly add in a steady stream of  the olive oil until it's all combined. Pesto shouldn't be 'smooth' it's good for it to look a little grainy (but not dry).
- Adjust seasoning to taste (I may have added a little more lemon, so sue me!), put in jar, and enjoy! It lasts 3-4 days in the fridge, but it's so good I'm sure it'll be gone before you know it (or you can just cut this recipe in half!)