Last month, Meghan Markle’s lifestyle series With Love, Meghan, dropped on Netflix, and the numerous recipes shared on the show have been taking the internet by storm. One recipe shared on the show, and on Netflix’s website, that caught my eye was Meghan’s carrot top pesto.
As a lover of pesto, I’m yet to have one I’ve not liked (although some are definitely worse than others), and the idea of adding carrot tops to the sauce did intrigue me. However, this was where the problems began. I realised that none of the supermarkets near me stock carrots with their tops. Even taking a trip out of the city to another shop proved unsuccessful.
Eventually, I ordered some from Waitrose online, but I don’t think this is really something I could do every time I fancy having some pesto for my dinner.
It did not taste particularly different from any other homemade pesto. Adding carrot tops will likely be much simpler if you have a vegetable patch or an allotment and are growing your own, or if you have a farmers’ market near your home.
However, this wasn’t my only problem with the dish, as it turned out much more garlicky than other pestos I have had.
While Meghan made her pesto alongside roasted carrots, I kept my carrots for another dish and instead made the classic pesto pasta.
This turned out quite well (although, as said above, quite garlicky), and if I were to make it again, I’d likely add some other ingredients to the dish, serving the pesto pasta with some spinach, tomatoes, and maybe some fried mushrooms.
With that in mind, I wouldn’t necessarily add the carrot tops if making again.
Ingredients
- Two cups of loosely packed carrot tops, thoroughly washed, tough stems removed
- Three cups of tightly packed fresh basil leaves, large stems removed
- Two to three cups of pine nuts, or nuts of choice, toasted
- Four tablespoons of lemon juice
- Four medium cloves of garlic, peeled
- One teaspoon of sea salt
- Four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (plus more as needed)
- Two to four tablespoons water (plus more as needed)
- Parmesan cheese, to taste (¼ cup grated is a good place to start) — skip this if you want to make the pesto vegan
Method
Place the carrot tops, basil leaves, pine nuts, lemon juice, garlic, salt, olive oil, water and some parmesan cheese (if using) in the bowl of a food processor.
Blitz until the ingredients have mixed together, adding olive oil for more richness, lemon juice for brightness, basil if too thin, and water to thin out as needed.
If ready, add the pesto to a jar or directly to your dish. If you want to save some for later, store it in the fridge.
