This radish top pesto recipe makes good use of the edible radish leaves that often get discarded once they’re separated from the root. The end result is a twist on a classic basil pesto recipe with a little extra spice from the peppery radish greens. A great addition to all your summer snacking!
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I’ve never been a big fan of radishes, to be honest. I find them just a little too spicy and a little too bland all at the same time. But last year, a friend gave me some radish seeds she had saved from one of her plants, and I decided it would be a waste not to plant them.
I was amazed at how fast they grew in my spring garden, and how quickly and beautifully they fill in a space with their lush, green tops. In fact, it only takes about three weeks from the time you sow radish seeds until you have a bunch of radishes big enough to harvest. They’ve now turned out to be one of my favourite things to grow in our spring garden.
I’ve now learned to enjoy radishes (roasted radishes are my favourite!) But I’ve always found it rather wasteful to just discard the luscious leafy green tops, especially considering they’re fully edible and packed with nutrients like vitamins A, B6 and C, as well as iron, protein, calcium, fibre, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous and folic acid (source).
You can sauté them or add them to soups and stews, but at this time of year we don’t tend to be making such things. And they’re a bit too spicy and poky-textured to eat raw in salads (for our family, anyway). So usually we just compost them or feed them to our rabbits.
But this year I wanted to find a way to use them that we would actually enjoy, while avoiding food waste, so I decided to blend them up with some garlic cloves, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and parmesan cheese and turn them into a delicious pesto!
The end result was a slightly spicy twist on classic pesto with a peppery bite that we’ve been enjoying on top of roasted potatoes, as a spread on our burgers and sandwiches, as a dipping sauce for veggies, and a as a sauce for our pasta dishes. Plus, I know it’s as healthy and organic as pesto gets because the radishes are homegrown and fresh-picked and the pesto is homemade the same day.
Easy Radish Top Pesto Recipe
This radish top pesto recipe is super easy to prepare. Simply cut or break off the radish leaves, rinse off any dirt and bugs under cold water, and pat dry with a paper towel (or spin through a salad spinner). Toss radish tops in a blender with your pesto ingredients – a handful of parmesan cheese, some pine nuts, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Add a dash of salt and black pepper and blend until well combined.
You can use any blender or food processor, but for my sauces and condiments I love my Breville Control Grip hand blender. It blends small batches evenly and is great for thick sauces and condiments like pesto and almond butter because it’s easier than a regular blender to pick up, tilt and move around to make sure everything makes it down to the blade. This model also comes with a whisk attachment and an immersion blender, which I use to make my homemade mayo.
Don’t forget to put some up for later!
Radish top pesto is also a great way to preserve radish tops as they wilt quickly, especially once they’ve been removed from the radish roots. I made this batch of pesto about 5 days ago and it’s still fresh. I would venture to guess that it will keep well in the fridge for up to about two weeks or so when stored in an airtight container. But if you want to preserve it for longer, just stick it in the freezer and it will be good for at least three or four months… probably longer.
If you choose to freeze it, you can freeze in a container or jar or stop pesto into an ice cube tray and freeze. Once frozen, pop the “pesto cubes” out of the tray and store in a container or freezer bag. This is a good option as you can simply pull out how ever many cubes you need at a time instead of having to defrost an entire jar.
And that’s about it! I mean, there’s only so mush you can say about pesto. And in all honesty, you probably just skipped over all of my rambling anyway to get right to the recipe card. So here it is:)
Radish Top Pesto Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups packed radish tops/greens
- 2 large garlic cloves
- ½ cup pine nuts or other tree nuts (ie. almonds or walnuts work well too)
- ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
- Juice from half a lemon (or 1 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice)
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add all pesto ingredients to a blender and blend on high until smooth (divide up ingredients and blend in batches if they won't all fit in your blender at once).
- Transfer to a Mason jar and serve fresh, or store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to two weeks. Alternately, you can freeze for up to 3 or 4 months.
Wishing you homemade, homegrown, homestead happiness 🙂
I love this recipe! Great way to use my garden radish greens and it is amazing on everything, even chips! Thank you!
Fabulous, I used greens from my Icicle radishes and Watermelon radishes. My daughter came out and was like what is that great smell. So I toasted some baguette and she asked if we had more jars ??. Of course those radish leaves were a huge pile but they made 1 pint when prepared- I say they will be gone in a few days. Thanks for sharing, I love not having to toss any parent of a plant I grow.
We tried this using daikon radish tops and only needed 1/4 cup olive oil. Thanks for the recipe!
While searching for radish recipes, I stumbled upon radish top pesto and boy I’m glad I did! This is fabulous!! And I love using all the pets of the plant. Thank you so much for sharing.