Frugal Foraged Nasturtium Pesto in a Jiffy – GWC Mag

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This week, I made tasty nasturtium leaf pesto from plants that, during severe storms, grew almost completely across a heavily trafficked walkway. Before our feet could stomp the plants into mush, I wanted to bring the leaves into the kitchen to cook.

I thought about prepping infused oil but have run low on olive oil. Infused vinegar would also be nice but generally, that calls for nasturtium flowers, which won’t appear until next month. And besides, I wanted instant gratification—oils and vinegars need time to infuse. Then, while reading The Dish: The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food, by Andrew Friedman, I found my answer!

The Dish focuses on one course served at Wherewithall, an upscale Chicago restaurant, on a hot summer night in 2021, shortly after the city emerged from Covid lockdowns. From the servers to the cooks to the farmers to the delivery people to the dishwashers and beyond, dozens and dozens (or more) people work behind the scenes to make this one dish possible.

In the book, Friedman relays a brainstorming session between one of the chef owners and his chef de cuisine as they plan the following week’s menu. One course will involve nasturtium pesto. Aha! I would make that with my unruly nasturtiums!

I enjoyed this insightful, fascinating and humorous look into the restaurant industry and our food supply chain. If our society respected and understood just how much labor goes into producing what sustains us, less food would go to waste, we would treat food service workers much better and we’d bow down at farmers’ feet.

Nasturtium overload

If you grow even a few nasturtiums, these self-seeding plants will quickly spread. In some areas, nasturtiums are invasive. Not until I harvested leaves for this pesto did I notice the nasturtiums had encroached upon several native wildflower seedlings. Whether you pull nasturtiums in an attempt to eradicate them (good luck) or you just want to thin them out, eat these peppery plants! All parts are edible and contain vitamin C, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper and iron.

The nasturtium pesto ingredients

To balance the peppery leaves, I added an equivalent amount of spinach. If you want your pesto more peppery, add less spinach or omit it altogether and double the nasturtium leaves. Process all the greens with garlic, toasted nuts, salt and olive oil. For a cheesy flavor, add parmesan cheese or, if you’d like to keep it vegan, nutritional yeast to taste.

This recipe includes only the nasturtium leaves because our plants have yet to blossom. Those edible flowers would also taste delicious in the pesto. Or garnish a plate of pesto pasta with nasturtium flowers for a beautiful yet frugal presentation.

Measuring the greens

Measuring leaves by volume is very subjective. One person’s full cup of packed leaves may be another’s three-quarter cup. A scale renders more accurate results. But then again, you can’t really go wrong making pesto. Taste as you go and adjust the ingredients until you like the flavor.

The nuts: save money, how to save time

If you’d like to splurge, choose pine nuts, not walnuts. If you want to save even more money, swap out the walnuts for sunflower seeds. If you do use walnuts, consider breaking them up with your fingers before toasting. You can do that in mere minutes, nuts won’t fly all over the place and you won’t dirty a knife or cutting board. I love the fruits of my cooking labor but not so much the cleaning up. (Go here for strategies to wash fewer dishes.)

Serving suggestions for nasturtium pesto

Swirl the pesto onto pizza or a calzone. Top gnocchi with it. Slather it onto sandwich bread or a pita before adding toppings. Thin it out to make salad dressing. Dip roasted or raw vegetables or bread into it. It will disappear quickly. Thanks to this prolific plant, you’ll be able to make lots more!

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