Go Back
Vegan wild garlic pesto pasta with sautéed courgette slices and nuts, served in a rustic bowl.
Alyssa

Vegan wild garlic pesto pasta

Wild garlic pesto is one of the tastiest nature's gifts. Foraged wild garlic combined with nuts or seeds and oil makes a beautiful pesto which brings bags of flavour to a simple plate of pasta.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings: 3 people
Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Calories: 479
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 100 g wild garlic leaves (or spinach, kale leaves + 2 garlic cloves)
  • 70 g almonds (or walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pistachios, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds)
  • 1 unwaxed lemon, zest and juice
  • 4 tbsp drained capers or green pitted olives (optional)
  • 4 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
  • 120 ml extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and black pepper, to taste
  • 1 large courgette
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 200 g pasta (GF if necessary) or boiled potatoes
  • mild chilli flakes (optional)

Method
 

  1. Wash wild garlic leaves really well and blot them with a kitchen towel or simply leave to air-dry.
  2. Dry-roast your almonds (or any other nuts or seeds). You can either do it on a hot, dry pan making sure you shake it regularly so that they do not burn.
  3. Grind almonds first, then add all the remaining ingredients apart from olive oil and salt and blitz well. Start trickling in olive oil while the motor is going. Taste and add salt to taste.
  4. Slice your courgette really thinly using the lowest setting on a mandolin.
  5. Heat up 2 tsp olive oil on a large steel frying pan and add courgette slices. Sauté lightly until browned.
  6. Cook pasta al dente, reserving a little of the pasta cooking water just before draining.
  7. Coat the drained pasta in a few tablespoons of pesto, adding a little pasta cooking water to loosen things up. Top with courgette slices and toasted nuts/seeds.
  8. Transfer the remainder of your pesto to a clean jar and top with an extra tablespoon of olive oil to prevent mould.

Notes

Store in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.