Tuesday 18 June 2013

Radishes ... and Poor Man's Pesto


I picked another bunch of Radishes from the Tin Bath yesterday, they are now swelling up juicily with all this rain we have been having and keeping us totally supplied to go with all our salads.  They are nothing like the bitter radishes you get from the supermarket out of season, each one of these gorgeous red balls is mildly peppery and juicy through and through.   Eaten fresh from picking with just a dunk in salted water get them clean and then a whizz round in the salad spinner, I've been slicing them thinly and scattering their red and white prettiness all over our salads.


Of course there are always lots of lovely leaves with a radish and it makes sense to me while I'm doing the £2 House Keeping Challenge to make good use of them.  I pick the youngest and sweetest to use as salad leaves ...


...  the next best get mixed in with herbs.  The tattier and any nibbled leaves go straight over to the chickens with the little radish trimmings, they love them, not a bit of wastage here.

Finely chop the Rosemary ...


... mix approximately equal quantities of assorted nuts ... (I simply raided the cupboard where Lovely Hubby keeps his Fruit and Nut stash and picked out some Almonds, Hazelnuts and Brazils,  I didn't want to use up all the more expensive Pine Nuts this time) ....


... with cheese, here I have mostly Cheddar from the freezer with some parmesan style cheese ...


.... and your leaves.




Whizz the nuts and cheese together first and then top with the leaves and a swirl of Garlic Puree ...


... a brilliant store cupboard stand by.

Taste after you have processed it and get your seasoning just right, I seemed to need lots of Black Pepper with this one but not much Sea Salt, it varies every time, depending on your choice of herbs.


You end up with a lovely bowl of Pesto.

 I simply could not resist the temptation of dipping in a Radish and eating a bit straight away. 

 Good honest and simple food.


And there's lots more where that came from!!

Sue xx

12 comments:

  1. I shall have to remember to give something like that a try. I am only just starting to experiment with hummus!

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  2. I shouldn't have read this on an empty tum - it sounds delicious!

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  3. Those radishes look superb Sue. I wish my family would eat stuff like this so I could make decent sized batches of it. Would the pesto freeze I wonder?

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    1. It freezes beautifully.

      I usually freeze it in icecube trays, so I can take out as many as I need at a time, each 'cube' is then equal to a teaspoonful, and they make great 'blob' sizes for pizzas and quiches.

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  4. What a wonderful idea for using radish leaves - I have loads. Great photos as well, I particularly like the third one, lovely. Thanks for the tip.

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  5. Well if I don't get any radishes on mine, at least I'll get some leaves.

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  6. We have to grow a lot of radish as I eat it a lot, it's one of my favourite snack foods and salads. Never thought of using the leaves like that...aren't they a bit spiky?

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    1. I didn't use the 'spikiest' of the leaves, they went to the chickens, but once blitzed in the processor the spike are gone anyway :-)

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  7. Very clever idea...it looks tasty too!

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