About two weeks ago I went into a preserving frenzy. I pulled a lot of swiss chard, beets, and carrots from my garden. There is just something about growing your own food that for me, makes it so hard to throw any little bit away. Not only did I use the beets on my current menu and can some of them but I also pickled and canned the stems. I used the swiss chard on my menu as well, a touch for my own consumption, made sorbet, pickled and canned stems, and gave some to my neighbors. The carrots I pickled and preservered. They were so tiny and cute. They look beautiful in the Ball Mason Jars, swimming in an orange tinted liquid with coriander seeds. The tops were so lovely, green and vibrant there was no way in hell I could toss them in the trash so I made pesto. This pesto is the loveliest I have ever had. Ever, I think.
So here is what I did. I took about three cups of carrot tops, cleaned and roughly chopped.
I added them to the food processor with two peels cloves of garlic, about a cup of cashews and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. As usual please excuse my recipe explanation as I do eyeball everything, so just taste as you go. So the I processed it, adding grapeseed oil as it spun, until it moved freely and had the consistency of pesto. Also just before that point I added a dash of lemon oil for an acidic touch that would not turn it brown. However I did can a small jar which did discolor it a touch. I also served some of it at my dinners on my dish appropriately titled "Carrots and Cashews." But for everyday use it is amazing on steak, fish or pasta.
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