Wild Garlic Pesto Pasta With Green And Purple Veg

This dish packs in plenty of veg and flavour whilst still being quick and simple enough to throw together in a rush (given that you've already made some pesto). Sub the wild garlic pesto for any other store bought or homemade dairy free pesto if you have non or if wild garlic is out of season.

Wild garlic pesto pasta with green and purple veg

Serves 2

Ingredients

4 oz dried pasta

2+ tbsp Wild garlic pesto

10 stem purple sprouted broccoli, leaves trimmed and roughly chopped

1/2 cup frozen petit pois

1 courgette, sliced

Large handful purple kale, roughly torn

1 asparagus spears

Oil of choice

Salt and pepper

Optional:

Drizzle of lemon juice.

Method

Boil the pasta in a large saucepan according to the packets instructions, roughly 10 minutes.

Whilst the pasta is boiling gently stir-fry all the veg apart form the asparagus spears in a little oil.

Drain the pasta and return to the pan. Add in the veg and pesto and season with salt and pepper.

Saute the asparagus spears for a couple of minutes with a splash of oil and the optional lemon juice.

Serve the pasta and veg with the asparagus spears on top.

Wild Garlic Pesto

This recipe is actually pretty tricky for me to write even though I've made it loads. I usually make a big batch to fill up a few jars. I start with a basic recipe and just keep adding extra of everything until the food processor is pretty full. Pesto is traditionally made with pine nuts but in the interest of keeping the cost down I usually opt for cashew nuts. Non vegan pesto contains Parmesan, you could sub it for some nutritional yeast if you like but I just miss it out entirely.

Experiment with nuts to give the pesto slightly different flavours, try subbing in some walnuts.

Wild garlic pesto

Ingredients

2 large handfuls of wild garlic leaves

1/2 cup cashew nuts

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice of a lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Add everything to the food processor and blend. I usually start with half of the lemon juice, give it a taste and add more if i feel it needs it (which I usually do, I like lemon!). Adjust the quantities to suit your taste.

If you make enough to fill a few jars you can pour a layer of olive oil over the top to 'seal' the pesto and store in the fridge.