Carrot Top Pesto

Vegetables are amazing and often the entire plant can be used.  If you grow carrots or grow carrots with the greens attached you can use the greens to make a light pesto. I made my pesto nut free, but you can add pine nuts or walnuts if you prefer.

Recipe adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:

Carrot tops from 1 large bunch of carrots, washed, and stems trimmed off

3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

¼ cup shredded Italian cheese

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Juice from ½ lemon

1/3-2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (I used a basil infused oil)

Directions:

1. Add carrot tops, cheese, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes to food processor.  Pulse to mix.  Scrape down the sides.
2. Add olive oil while pulsing.  Scrape down the sides occasionally to test the consistency.  Add olive oil until you are happy with the texture of the pesto.
3. Use pesto as a vegetable dip, on pizza, or on top of cooked chicken, fish, pork, etc…