It's Spring time here in Indiana and tasty edibles are popping up everywhere. One of these tasty edibles is the invasive Garlic Mustard. Walk through any wooded area in the Midwest and you're likely to find this wild food. It has a unique blend of garlic and mustard tastes that give it it's name.
Garlic mustard is rich in Vitamin A and Vitamin C and can be used as a disinfectant, diuretic, or to provide relief to ulcers. Early settlers brought it to the new world to give cooking a garlic flavor. It has been spreading across the continent ever since.
Because this plant is so invasive, feel free to pick and eat lots of it. The small, early varieties are the least bitter, but you can eat them anytime of year. I suggest picking the top portion of each plant as it will be the least fibrous and best tasting. A large handful of these will make about 3-4 cups of pesto.
Once you get them home, rinse them off if you desire, then begin picking the leaves and flowers off of the stem. The large batch I brought home took me about 30 minutes to do. You can use the stem and all, but I like to just use the leaves and flowers for easier blending.
This pesto is great on a Raw Vegan pizza, on Essene bread, or just as a dip for veggies. A great variety for an old favorite.
The pesto recipe I used here is as follows:
Ingredients
- 1 large bunch of garlic mustard leaves (about 10 cups loosely packed)
- 1.5 cups olive oil
- 1.5 cups walnuts or pine nuts
- 3 Tbs nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp garlic powder (you can use two cloves of raw garlic)(optional)
- 2 tsp Himalayan salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 Tbs lemon juice
The process
- Blend nuts in food processor until well chopped not powdered
- Slowly add garlic mustard leaves into the food processor with the nuts. Adding a little at a time to ensure easier blending. Begin adding olive oil as needed to aid in the processing.
- Once all leaves are processed and mixed with the nuts, add all other ingredients and the rest of the olive oil. Blend until well mixed. Stop occasionally to scrape sides of the food processor.
- Transfer to serving dish or storage container. Can be frozen for up to a month.
Music I listened to during this pesto preparation was all reggae. I first listened to Bob Marley's Catch A Fire on vinyl.
Then I spun "In Concert, The Best Of" Jimmy Cliff on my turntable. Blending greens isn't the same as burning them, but I'm still satisfied.