Foraging is one of the most rewarding things that you can do, especially when you find a huge patch of a highly nutritious plant such as chickweed. While it’s always fun to find and identify a wild edible plant here and there, it can be a rare occasion to be able to harvest enough to actually make something substantial with. This is part of why I love chickweed so much, it grows quite prolifically! It only took a few hefty handfuls to make this delicious superfood chickweed pesto.
Wildcrafting Weeds
If you want to learn more about the edible and medicinal weeds that surround us and how to use them, check out my eBook: Wildcrafting Weeds: 20 Easy to Forage Edible and Medicinal Plants (that might be growing in your backyard)!
Chickweed Pesto Recipe
This recipe is very similar to regular pesto, but it uses chickweed instead of basil. Learn more about foraging for chickweed here.
If you happen to have some fresh basil out in your herb garden, feel free to add in a bit of that as well.
You can also use a mix of wild greens in addition to chickweed if you have access to them, such as purple dead nettle, violet leaves, henbit, miner’s lettuce, or lamb’s quarters.
Dandelion leaves also work nicely, and if you have a lot of them you can make this dandelion pesto recipe! Bolted arugula pesto is also tasty!
Related: What to Forage in Spring: 20 Edible and Medicinal Plants and Fungi
I use walnuts in this recipe and it is delicious, but cashews are another favorite of mine when making pesto. Or you can keep it traditional and use pine nuts.
To make the chickweed pesto, simply place all ingredients into a food processor and process until smooth. A blender can be used instead, but the chickweed should be finely chopped first.
If the pesto is too thick, slowly drizzle in a bit more olive oil.
How to Use Chickweed Pesto
Chickweed is a nutritious plant that is high in vitamin C, vitamin B complex, iron, calcium, magnesium, and zinc. It truly is a superfood! Read more about the benefits and nutrition of chickweed here.
This chickweed pesto is so good! It is very bright and green tasting, just like spring. It’s perfect over pasta or on sourdough pizza (or mini pizzas) and it freezes well too for later use.
If you have a patch of chickweed in your yard, or know a place to forage for some, then you need to make this pesto!
It’s easy, comes together very quickly, and is the perfect way to get some nutritious wild greens into your diet. Yummy!
Happy chickweed foraging and pesto making!
Chickweed Pesto
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup walnuts, cashews, or pine nuts
- 2-3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 cups chickweed loosely packed
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Place all ingredients into a food processor and process until smooth. (A blender can be used instead, but the chickweed should be finely chopped first)
- If it’s too thick, slowly drizzle in a bit more olive oil.
Hi Colleen
Do you have a recipe using purslane?
I would like to do something with the abundance of it that grows in my east side garden
Hi Lois, I don’t have a recipe on the blog for purslane. I like to add it to soups or simply sauté it in olive oil with garlic and seasonal herbs.
I love purslane as either the main or secondary green in fresh salads, excellent with a quick balsamic vinaigrette.
Be careful with any use of purslane that requires it to go into a food processor or blender. It’s extremely mucilaginous and I tried to make chimichurri with it once, resulting in the most horrific Nickelodeon-style texture. Never again. I would not recommend trying this recipe with it for fear of the being that would be born in my food processor.
I have a similar recipe, but add other wild greens such as dandelion leaves, cleavers, miners lettuce and even some greens from the veg garden as well. So yum!
So much yum!
This goes really well as a dipping sauce for wild garlic gnudi.
All this self-isolating is sending me into survival mode! This is a wonderful recipe to have at a time like this. I just put the rough-chopped garlic and everything except the chickweed into my old faithful Cuisinart food processor, packed the well-washed chickweed over, keeping most of the stems which are tender as it hasn’t flowered yet, gave it a few pulses, and voila! Truly delicious! I stirred about half of it into 1/2-lb. linguine, cooked, kept a little of the pasta water, and it was a hearty, satisfying dish serving 2-3, at least as good as any pesto I’ve had. I’m looking forward to using the rest on some homemade pizza. I always get the Parmesan rinds, very cheap, plenty of cheese left on these for grating. Thank you!
Chickweed takes over my garden spaces every spring. I’ve been looking for a way to use this plant for something edible or useful, so thank you for the pesto recipe! Is there a particular way you clean chickweed once you harvest it? Our chickweed lays low to the ground and with all the nooks and crannies of the leaves I want to make sure it has not picked up bugs or dirt. Will rinsing it harm the nutrient value of the chickweed?
The best way to make a weed disappear is find a use for it.
This is awesome. I am trying to learn all about the weeds in our state (Tasmania) in order to do some eating..love your site.
As soon as the snow melts and the chickweed pops up I WILL make this pesto……I too love chickweed in all of its nutritious glory!