Can you eat carrot tops?! You bet! Carrot tops are full of flavour and nutrients. Try carrot top pesto and let me know what you think!
Harvest
When thinning or harvesting your carrots, don’t throw away the tops!
Get the skinny on how to thin your carrots here.
Clean
Spray and scrub your carrots outside to get rid of the worst of the dirt and mud.
Heavy Duty Scrub Brush
Gardening is dirty business. Get rid of grime and mud with this heavy duty scrub brush. Great for vegetables, garden tools, and garden features. An essential tool in every gardener’s collection.
Then bring in the house and finish cleaning them in the sink. You don’t want any stray bugs or dirt to contaminate your pesto.
Make a nice white sauce with fresh garden dill to serve over the steamed carrots. Check out my 5 minute cream reduction recipe here.
Trim
Cut the carrot tops down and remove the larger, thick stems.
Dry
Spin the tops dry in a salad spinner or blot well with a towel. If you are blanching, you can skip this step since they will get wet again.
Starfrit Collapsible Salad Spinner
Highly rated, collapsible salad spinner from Starfrit takes up less room than a conventional spinner and can be used as a mixing and serving bowl too.
Blanch
Blanching allows you to freeze the pesto afterwards. If you plan on eating it all up fresh, then you can skip this step. The pesto will have a stronger flavour because the carrot tops taste milder when cooked. Blanch the tops for 45 seconds. Garlic scapes take two minutes. Blanch any added herbs as well. The onions are fine without blanching, same with garlic cloves. Blanch until they are bright green and soft looking. Read this post on How to Blanch Vegetables.
Blend
Use a food processor or blender to mix the ingredients, adding the oil a tablespoon at a time.
Hamilton Beach 10 Cup Food Processor with Bowl Scraper
Amazon Choice! Highly rated!
Bowl Scraping feature allows user to scrape ingredients while processor is running
2 speeds plus pulse and 450 Watts of power
Stainless Steel reversible slicing/shredding disc and chopping blade, dishwasher safe removable parts
Large feed tube fits a whole block of cheese and means less food preparation
Includes a 5 year limited warranty from Hamilton Beach
Eat
Serve with your carrot top pesto with cream cheese or plain on a cracker, mix into your pasta, bake on chicken. Enjoy!
Carrot Top Pesto
Equipment
- Pot for blanching
- Food processor or blender
Ingredients
- 1 cup blanched carrot tops blanch
- 2 garlic scapes chopped or cloves of garlic blanch scapes
- 1/4 cup green onions
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tbsp lemon juice half a fresh lemon squeezed
- 1/2 cup nuts walnuts, pecans, almonds
- 3 tbsp olive oil may need more or less
Instructions
- Blanch carrot tops 45 seconds – squeeze dryBlanch garlic scapes 2 minutes
- Add all ingredients up to oil, plus 1 tbsp of oil to food processor or blender, and pulse, adding oil as needed to make a paste.
