Wild Garlic Pesto

Wild GarlicI like making pesto with basil, but it’s not really in season at the moment, so I used some wild leaves I collected. I used mostly wild garlic (pictured) (Edit: this is not actually wild garlic, it’s Wild Leek. Photos of wild garlic here.), a few chives and a few sorrel leaves. I ground up a couple of handfuls of pine nuts, then added the leaves and some flax oil and blended. It had a strong flavour, delicious on a green salad of dandelion leaves and other wild greens.

14 thoughts on “Wild Garlic Pesto

  1. This photograph is not the wild garlic which grows in shady places throughout Europe which has shorter broader leaves. This photo could mislead someone into trying out a plant with strap like leaves, many of which are poisonous.

  2. Jean, there is more than one type of wild garlic. This one also grows in many places throughout Europe. Obviously you shouldn’t go picking wild food unless you know exactly what you are picking.

  3. I live near a forest and it is covered in wild garlic. The smells are very pungent and I was wondering if the seeds can be used for flavour or indeed can wild garlic be used. I presume the bulb in the same as cultivated garlic and below the strap-like leaves.

  4. I recognise the broad leaved wild garlic but the other one with the narrower leaves, is that garlic too? The ground is covered in what looks like that narrow leaved plant, all over the shady place in which my doggies are buried. The flower on it is more white harebell like in appearance although the scent is strong onion-y garlic and, as the flower dies, small shiny green bulbous forms are appearing.

  5. I have something that looks just like the picture above and I thought it was ramps but they don’t have the oval leaves. I thought that ramps were wild leeks and they had oval leaves? So the “ramps” as I know them with the oval leaves are actually wild garlic and the stuff I have with the narrow leaves are wild leeks? Do the wild leeks pictured above have a purplish tinge on their bulb?

    • Trying to identify plants using their common names is proving to be a bit pointless as they are called different things in different places, with the name “wild garlic” used for many different plants. As far as I know, the plant in the photo above is Allium triquetrum, or Three Cornered Leek. I don’t know about the bulbs, I only pick the leaves.

      • That would be awesome if it were wild leek because we have about a gazillion plants growing at the farm along a creek. I bet they would dehydrate well.

  6. i have a plant growing in my garden smells like onion with yellow flowers it comes up every summer any ideas what it is i know its not chives

    • It can be difficult to identify plants from photos, to me it looks like something not edible, but if it smells of garlic then it is probably the same plant as in my photo above, which is wild leek, or three cornered leek – Allium triquetrum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_triquetrum
      Generally these kinds of plants are used for their leaves rather than bulbs – the bulbs are much smaller than the cultivated varieties.

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