Wild Garlic Pesto (for a Quick and Easy Midweek Meal)

Wild garlic pesto is a highly aromatic and delicious, speedy recipe that requires only a few ingredients and will be a life saver in planning your meals!

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Wild Garlic Pesto
Wild Garlic Pesto
wild garlic leaves with flowers
wild garlic leaves with flowers

What is Wild Garlic?

Wild garlic is a perennial flowering plant that is a member of the allium family, along with onions, leeks and garlic. Allium ursinum in Latin, it is also commonly known as ramson and has been used in cooking for hundreds of years, both for its flavour as well as its medicinal properties.

Native to Britain and other parts of temperate Europe and Asia, wild garlic is the star attraction in springtime foraging. It covers forest floors with its pointy and fragrant leaves from March to late May.

cluster of wild garlic flowers
cluster of wild garlic flowers

Every single part of the plant is edible, and I use it in so many different ways in the kitchen.

  • today’s pesto
  • in salads
  • to make pickles and kimchi
  • and also in stir fries
  • it adds a wonderful flavour to omelettes and breads, and pretty much anything else!
wild garlic pesto with pasta in a white plate
wild garlic pesto with pasta

Wild Garlic Pesto Recipe

We’re coming to the end of the season now, so perhaps just enough time for today’s wild garlic pesto recipe. I may just be able to squeeze another one in, if I’m quick!

So, today’s pesto recipe is pretty easy, like traditional pesto, it only needs a few ingredients:

  • wild garlic
  • olive oil
  • pine nuts
  • parmesan
  • lemon juice
  • tiny, tiny amount of basil
  • salt and pepper

The wild garlic is the main attraction, and everything else needs to play second fiddle for you to fully appreciate its flavour. So I’m using a smaller amount of parmesan and pine nuts than I usually would when making basil pesto.

I also find that adding just a few Basil leaves enhances its overall flavour. Too much, and it overshadows the wild garlic, which surprisingly, isn’t as powerful as you might expect.

Parsley, to me, completely obliterates the wild garlic, so I stay clear of it.

wild garlic pesto with linguine
pasta is naturally, always great with it

How to use Wild Garlic Pesto?

If you’ve been a longtime follower of LinsFood, you’ll know that I love my pesto – both green and red and of different flavours! And I use it in sooo many different ways.

So, our wild garlic pesto can be used in any of the ways you see below, besides with the obvious pasta. It is also fantastic in flavouring your usual potato salad, or any salad, for that matter.

And on that note, shall we get our aprons on?

Recipe Ideas

If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!

And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor.

Lin xx

Wild garlic pesto in a jar

Wild Garlic Pesto Recipe

Quick and easy wild garlic pesto, a wonderful springtime recipe that can be served with pasta or used to add flavour to almost any dish!
5 from 8 votes
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Course: Sauces
Cuisine: Italian/British Fusion
Keyword: pesto
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 6 (makes about 300g/10.5 oz)
Calories: 285kcal
Author: Azlin Bloor

Equipment

  • Knife and chopping board
  • kitchen paper
  • chopper
  • jar for the pesto (350ml/12 fl oz capacity)
  • spoon

Ingredients

  • 150 g wild garlic leaves more or less is fine
  • 3 large basil leaves
  • 30 g parmesan
  • 30 g pine nuts
  • 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 150 ml EV olive oil how much you use will depend on how thick you like your pesto
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  • Rinse your wild garlic leaves and pat dry with kitchen paper.
  • Either roughly chop the leaves and stalks or just tear them up with your hands and place them in your chopper.
  • Add the basil leaves, cheese, nuts, lemon juice and about ⅔ of the olive oil. Follow this with the salt and some pepper. Place the chopper lid on and blitz everything to a fairly smooth paste. Add more oil if you need it, or if you want a runnier pesto.
    You will also have to scrape down the sides of your chopper a couple of times during the process, to ensure that everything is chopped up well.
    If you have a chopper with a funner, you can also drizzle the olive oil in as you are chopping everything up.
  • Taste, and add more salt if you want to. Store in a clean jar for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.

Nutrition

Calories: 285kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 3mg | Sodium: 179mg | Potassium: 121mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 543IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 181mg | Iron: 1mg
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5 thoughts on “Wild Garlic Pesto (for a Quick and Easy Midweek Meal)”

  1. 5 stars
    Azlin, what I like whenever I visit your blog is that I get to learn about a totally new ingredient. Today it is wild garlic. Using it to make a pesto and pairing it with a pasta, brilliant idea.

  2. I have never seen wild garlic but I love garlic in my pastas, soups and pesto. Do you think the green garlic that we get here in winters would help in creating this beautiful pesto. I learn so much everyday from you ,Azlin. Thank you for sharing this .

  3. 5 stars
    I’ve never seen wild garlic here but I’m such a huge fan of strong garlicky flavour and this pesto looks absolutely delicious. Wish I could make it. Do you think regular garlic would do?

  4. 5 stars
    I now wish I had collected leaves from the wild garlic I saw in the forest when I was out hiking today! To tell you the honest truth, I didn’t know what it was when I was out there, but then I came home and saw your post, so now I do! There was enough where we were to make bucket loads of pesto. I wish I’d picked some!

  5. 5 stars
    I recently got wild garlic here and used it in place of normal garlic and as you said in a savoury bread too. Loved the flavours. I would love to try this pesto with some noodles or pasta… But I think I have to wait till next year now.

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