Spring Pesto; Ramps and Garden Pea Pesto

Pesto-ring out of Spring

Wow Spring is almost over! Where did the time go? Can someone please freeze this moment? I just want to hold on to spring for a little while longer. Plus, I have not cooked all my spring produce up-till now and it’s almost over! Do you have a favorite spring produce? Please share and let’s go out of spring in style. For me, the list is so long that it’s so hard to decide. This season is just so full of fresh tender greens and I love them all. I must say though, that Ramps are definitely one of my favorites and also freshly shelled English peas aka garden peas. Since my family is visiting, I decided to stock up on the dips and chutneys before they came so we can all enjoy our snack times or even make quick meals using the dips or chutneys. Garden Peas and Ramp pesto is one of them which I also call a spring pesto. This vegan pesto has become an absolute favorite for my family.

My Pesto Season

When I think of spring, there is always some sort of pesto that comes to my mind. It’s the season of so many fresh ingredients and herbs particularly are most people’s favorite. Few weeks ago I planted an herb garden and I couldn’t wait to start picking them out. I mean nothing beats picking fresh herbs off your very own backyard. This, and some fresh spring ingredients from farmers market, blending them together to make a pesto. It’s absolutely refreshing and irresistible. I am taken with olive pesto but this vegan ramps and pea pesto is my new obsession.

Few weeks ago a local blogger friend put up on Instagram that she has a bag full of ramps for anyone who would be interested. OMG! Who could say no to Ramps. I reached out and after a day I was one happy girl after receiving a huge bag of ramps. My fridge had a very strong ‘Rampsy’ smell, as a consequence. Haha!

It’s a Ramps Affair

What are ramps anyways? I had no idea what they were until 2016. They are not very popular in the west coast; also I moved from a hot desert, where hardly anything grows. So when I first saw ramps, I thought they were a different variety of green onions (I was pretty close); they tasted quite garlicky too so I knew they were along the line of onions. Ramps are wild plants – wild onions or wild leeks. They have this distinct taste of an onion/garlic.

Ramps are the 1st plants you see when the spring starts and they are gone literally with a blink of an eye. Usually, they are in the market for barely 4 weeks. While they are in season, I tend to make the most of it. They are wild and can only grow in certain areas, that makes them a little bit expensive to get if you don’t get them while in season. 

They are really delicious and add tons of flavors to any dish. I have been enjoying ramps on my eggs, or just simply sautéed with vegetables or mushrooms. Since I knew they were short lived, I wanted to preserve them for a longer time if not all year long. I figured pesto would be great as it freezes very well. Pesto is versatile so you can play around with different flavors and not just do the traditional one every time. Well with that in mind you already know how we do it over here right? I mean why not go for the different flavor combinations?

Pea-utiful Spring

Garden peas are an absolute stunning spring produce too. As a child, I used to eat them raw when my mom was shelling them. Now, my other favorite way to have them is by simply boiling them, add salt and eat as snacks. OMG! If you haven’t eaten plain boiled garden peas, then you got to give it a try. You’ll not be disappointed. They are great with steamed rice, and so good in curries.

I decided to boil them and make the pesto using ramps. The only regret I had was that I wish I tripled the recipe, that way I would have had more for longer. I have been using the pesto on toast every morning, and cooking with it too. Well, I am bummed out that it might not last as long as I want it to. Hopefully I’ll save some for late summer and may be bake a tart or make pasta with it.

Pine nuts or nuh?

Instead of pine nuts, I used pistachios in the pesto. Not because I don’t like pine nuts, but because I love pistachios more. Well it’s also because I had severe Pine mouth a few years ago from pine nut. Pine mouth is having a constant bitter or metallic taste lasting from a few days up to 2 weeks; you even hate the taste of water. You get it from eating pine nuts, it is horrible. Since then I am always scared to use them in my dishes. Sometimes I’ll try to put in a little and nothing has ever happened so far. May be that batch was bad, but once it happens then you will want to be careful with them. Now I use other nuts in all my pesto. In olive pesto I used walnuts, but since pistachios have a nice green color, I decided to use them so the pesto stays green and bright. 

Pesto Prep

It’s always a good idea to blanch the greens from the ramps. This prevents the pesto from turning brown. You don’t want to boil them, but dip in hot water for no longer than 15 seconds and quickly transfer the drained greens in ice cold water to stop them from cooking any further. However, the garden peas need to be boiled because they have a slight bitter sweet flavor and boiling them brings out their sweetness.

If the peas are really fresh and tender, it hardly takes 3-5 minutes to boil. They also need to be soaked in ice cold water soon after they are boiled. This not only stops the cooking, but also maintains their bright green color. After they are completely cooled, squeeze the water from the ramp greens and lay them flat on a towel to pat dry them. It might sound like a process but it hardly takes 5-10 minutes to prep them before they go in the blender. 

Bon Appétit

The ramps and garden pea pesto is good on a bruschetta or even as a dip. I am yet to try out few recipes with it; well, that is if I don’t finish it all with my morning toast. It’s refreshing, and loaded with spring flavors. Make a big batch and freeze for later use; you’ll thank me later 🙂 

Do you have a favorite spring produce that you absolutely love? I would love to hear from you. Have an amazing rest of the spring. Much love to you all xoxo

5 from 1 vote

Print

Spring pesto

Ingredients

• 175 grams Ramps
• 175 grams Garden peas
• 100 grams Basil
• 25 grams Mint
• 50 grams Pistachios
• 2-3 green chili
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Clean the ramps thoroughly as they can have a lot of dirt.
2. Cut the greens from the bulbs and set the bulbs aside.
3. Bring a pot of water to boil and add the peas in it. Let it simmer for 5-8 minutes, until the peas are tender. Quickly strain them and put them in Ice cold water.
4. Meanwhile, bring another large pot of water to boil and in another bowl keep ice cold water next to the boiling pot.
5. Switch off the heat and put in the leaves for 10 seconds and transfer them into the bowl with ice cold water.
6. Strain the peas and the leaves.
7. Squeeze the leaves gently to remove all the water in them.
8. Lay them flat on a towel for 8-10 minutes to dry them.
9. Put all the ingredients including the bulbs of the ramps in your blender and blend to desired consistency.
10. You could freeze this in an air tight container for later use.