Carrot top pesto

Carrot top pesto is the perfect solution for whenever you have a bunch of carrots with the greens still attached. Don't throw them away, but instead make them into a really easy, tasty sauce! Similar to a classic pesto, but with a little extra 'bite', and adaptable, too. Perfect with pasta, over roast carrots and more.

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It's becoming more and more common to find carrots with their greens attached, particularly if you get them at a farmers market or in a farm share box. You might think this is only done to show they are freshly picked or to look a little prettier.

But don't be in a hurry to just throw the greens away. Not only are they edible, they can be delicious! So you get in effect two ingredients from one, and less waste as well.

What do carrot greens taste like?

Carrot tops or carrot greens are the leaves that grow above ground on carrots. They have a lovely bright green color and feathery appearance. Despite some misconceptions, you can use the greens in cooking just as readily as the carrots themselves.

The greens taste a little like a cross between parsley and other leafy greens like chard, with a slight carrot-flavored undertone. In other words much as you might expect!

While they do have a slight bitterness compared to, say, spinach, you can reduce this in a couple of ways. Blanching, cooking with garlic and/or adding lemon juice are all tricks to bring down the bitterness of leafy greens, and I use these with chard in a few of my recipes, like my creamy chard pesto and Catalan-style sauteéd chard with raisins and pine nuts. 

This variation on pesto makes use of one of these little tricks by adding a little lemon. I also mix the carrot tops with basil to give a bit of balance in flavor. The combination works so well. 

Preparing the carrot greens for pesto

When you are ready to use them, remove the feathery leaves from the tougher stems - you only want to use the softer carrot leaves for this. The carrot stem can be thrown away. 

Once you have separated the greens, place them in a bowl of cold water and let them sit a few minutes, agitating now and then to help them clean. Growing so close to the ground, you have a good chance they will be dirty so clean them really well.

After a couple minutes, remove the greens from the water, rinse off then squeeze out the excess water. Discard the water you washed them in and any dirt that came out of the greens.

After that, you are ready to make the pesto.

How to make carrot top pesto

Preparing the greens is probably the hardest part of this recipe, it's that simple! While traditionally pestos are pounded by hand, these days most people let the food processor do the hard work of chopping everything up and creating a smooth texture.

The only thing you need to bear in mind is you want to first chop the greens to make sure they are in small pieces. Then, add the nuts so that they, too, are chopped up. After that, add the parmesan and lemon, as well as as garlic if you are using. While a little garlic is typical in a traditional pesto, I think this version works well without it. So as you prefer.

Finally, once everything is broken up and mixed, add the olive oil. Ideally, you add it in a steady stream with the motor running, but if that isn't an option, add a little, mix, then add more. The oil helps to emulsify the mixture and make it into a wonderfully smooth, creamy sauce. It might sound like a few steps but it all happens in mere minutes.

Substitutes and variations

Apart from using a mix of carrot greens and basil, as well as adding a little lemon, as I explain above, I have otherwise kept to the pretty standard ingredients of a classic pesto Genovese. The other ingredients of pine nuts, parmesan cheese and extra virgin olive oil are all a great pairing and work well.

However, if you like, you could make a couple adaptations such as:

• Try other nuts instead of pine nuts such as almonds or pistachios.
• If you want to make a vegan sauce, add some nutritional yeast instead of the parmesan cheese or use vegan cheese.
• While parmesan is the most traditional, pecorino or even other less typical hard cheeses like gruyere could work here.
• If you don't have any basil, you could use some parsley or arugula (rocket) in with the carrot tops instead.

Can you freeze carrot greens pesto?

Yes you can! As with other pestos, you can store this pest in the fridge for a few days (around 3, possibly more) by packing the pesto down into a container, smoothing the surface and adding a thin layer of oil over the top. The oil helps stop the sauce from spoiling.

Use this same preparation with any pesto that you want to freeze. Bear in mind you don't have to freeze it all together - you can either freeze a batch in a larger container if you plan to use all at once, but if you will use a smaller amount, you can add spoonfuls to an ice cube tray, flatten then top with oil. Place the tray in a freezer bag to help them keep better.

Then, defrost in the fridge before using as usual - just stir the oil layer on the top into the pesto.

Uses for carrot top pesto

You can use this sauce in pretty much the same way as any other pesto, but bearing in mind the slight carrot-y taste, you might want to use some with some veggies.

• Stir it into pasta (you can make the pesto quicker than it takes to boil water and cook pasta!)
• Use it as a spread in sandwiches (especially good with tomato and mozzarella, such as my Caprese focaccia sandwich).
• Drizzle it over roasted carrots (the flavor goes so well).
• Add a drizzle to vegetable soups, especially root vegetable varieties.
• Add some extra oil to make it more of a dressing for salads and potatoes.

It's really very versatile, so worth trying in a whole range of ways.

Carrot top pesto is not only a great carrot greens recipe that helps to avoid wasting those leaves on top of your carrots, it's also a really tasty version on pesto. The carrot greens add an extra brightness to the sauce, with a slightly stronger flavor that's packed with tasty flavor. So next time you get some carrot greens, put them to use and enjoy.

Try these other tasty sauces great with pasta:

• Pesto alla Trapanese (a traditional pesto from Sicily made with almonds and tomato)
• Butternut squash pasta sauce (a great use of squash - smooth, creamy, easy and delicious)
• Walnut sauce (another traditional sauce, but unusually made without greens but instead walnuts, bread and more)
• Plus get more sauce, jam and other condiment recipes in the archives.

See some of my favorite cooking tools and ingredients in the Caroline's Cooking Amazon store. 

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