Beet Green Recipe: Easy, Delicious Pesto! Did you know you can save time and money by using food scraps for other, healthy recipes like pesto? Homemade pesto can be made with veggie scraps like beet greens, carrot greens, and ramps.
You can also save veggie scraps to make broth or chopped up leafy greens and sauté in a little garlic and olive oil.
But before I get into this today’s beet green recipe, allow me to geek out on food waste in the US, a topic I’ve been learning about in my nutrition course and feel is important to share.
American households throw-out about $2,000 worth of food per year? (mind blown!) Most of us don’t realize how much food we throw away every day — from uneaten leftovers to spoiled or unused produce, so much food goes to waste.
Tips for Reducing or Eliminating Food Waste
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Fortunately, there are many things we can do at home to reduce or eliminate food waste. Here are some tips:
Green juice, veggie broth and herb cubes can be made from veggie scraps. After you strip the leaves off of dark leafy greens like kale, Swiss chard or collards, use the stems for cooking or juice them.
Sometimes we can’t get through a bunch of parsley or cilantro. Finely chop your herbs, place them in an ice cube tray, pour olive oil over the top and freeze. So simple and easy!
Ok, now the good stuff! I don’t know about you Joe and I LOVE.PESTO and most veggie tops like carrot tops, ramps and beet greens make the most delicious pesto! Plus it’s easy to make and stores well in the Fridge.
We are loving beet green pesto these days, maybe it’s because I buy beets often so the tops are always around. Either way, it’s delicious and simple to make!
Joe loves to dip radishes in beet green pesto. I like to spread it over crackers and also add it to my pasta.
Bonus: beet greens are loaded with antioxidants and are high in vitamins and minerals.
This beet green recipe is for pesto but beet greens are also delicious when sautéed. Tip: you can blanch beet greens to remove some of the bitterness but I don’t consider beet greens to be all that bitter and often skip this step.
I hope you enjoy the recipe and hope this blog post encourages you to eliminate food waste by using more of your veggies + healthy food scraps you would otherwise throw-out! Every little bit helps!
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday weekend! Caro and I are off to Puerto Rico for a short trip! Looking forward to warner weather and a short digital detox (more on this soon).
Till next time, friends!
Ingredients
4 cups of beet greens, stems removed
1/2 cup of pine nuts (walnuts or some of other but can also work)
3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese (or nutritional yeast for a dairy-free version)
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of fresh black pepper
1/4 cup of avocado oil (olive oil works too)
Instructions
1. In a food processor, combine all of the ingredients minus the olive oil. Begin to blend while slowly adding in the olive oil until the mixture is fully blended and the olive oil is fully added.
2. Serve over toast, mixed in with pasta, as a dip for chips, and ENJOY!!