Greens on Greens: Collard Greens Pesto
This “recipe” for making pesto can be utilized for any type of green! In fact, it’s one of our favorite ways to eat dark leafy greens (bonus if it comes on some starchy vehicle).
Once you’ve decided on your greens (or had your refrigerator’s stock decide for you…) and have them out at the ready, you just need a few additional ingredients, a pot of boiling water, and a blender or food processor.
Got the greens! Now just a few quick steps to pesto…
Ingredients:
1 bunch of collard greens (see note below)
3-4 cloves of garlic depending on their size (or as many as you’re comfortable with)
1 handful (about ¼ cup) of almonds (see note below)
Many “glugs” of olive oil (or any cooking oil you prefer – about ¼ - ½ cup)
Parmesan cheese (½ - 1 cup; optional, but strongly encouraged)
Salt
Pepper
Process:
Bring a pot of salted water to boil. While you wait, prepare the other ingredients as follows:
Place the almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in a 350ºF oven; check and watch carefully after about 5 minutes, they should be done around 10 minutes, but they will go from “perfect” to “smoke alarm” very quickly (when they’re approaching “perfect” you’ll notice a delightfully toasty smell and they’ll puff up a bit). Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
Add the almonds and garlic cloves to a food processor or blender and pulse until they become very crumbly, almost starting to come together as a paste. Set this aside while you prepare the greens.
Now we wilt the greens: Strip the leaves of the greens from their thick stem (discard the stem, we only want the tender part of the leaves). Place the greens in your boiling water and cook until just wilted (this should take no more than a minute or two. We are aiming for “silky” and tender, but want them to remain “bright”).
Pull the greens out of the water once they’re wilted and add to the food processor with the nut/garlic blend, along with several good “glugs” of olive oil. Pulse/blend all the ingredients until they come together, creating a thick sauce. If the ingredients are not blending well, or you’d like it to be “saucier” loosen it up by adding more oil until you get a consistency you’re happy with.
Add in some grated parmesan cheese (another good handful here), salt, pepper, and if you’re feeling wild maybe some spices (pepper flakes?). Enjoy!
Notes:
We ate the collard greens pesto over some grilled baby bok choy the other day (greens on greens: delicious!), but it is also FANTASTIC on pasta. To use as a pasta sauce, cook the pasta in the boiling water after you remove the greens (while you finish the sauce). You’ll want to save some pasta water to use to loosen up the pesto when you stir it into the pasta, enough to make the sauce “silky” or “creamy” enough to coat the pasta.
This pesto could also be great with meats, roasted vegetables, on toast, in a sandwich or wrap, dolloped in with a hearty salad, as part of a cheese plate….any other ideas?
And now, time to experiment! You can really make this with ANY greens like arugula, spinach, radish tops, carrot tops, herbs, beet greens…a mix of any of the aforementioned green things?! If you’re using a green that is generally eaten fresh (like arugula), you may want to skip the wilting step and just blend them up fresh. You can also substitute the almonds for your favorite nut or seed (sesame? walnut? peanut? pistachio?), and you can use them raw or toasted. It all just depends on what you have and what you like!