Better Weight Loss: Vegan Garlic Scape Walnut Pesto

Where my garlic lovers at? This here recipe is definitely for you!

Have you ever found yourself wandering your local farmer’s market in the early summer, and seen bunches of curly green things that you weren’t really sure what the heck they were? Usually from your favourite garlic vendor, right before they actually have garlic for sale. Well those, my friends, are called garlic scapes. They are the top portions of the garlic plant, and they are harvested so the plant doesn’t divert a bunch of energy into growing them. Garlic scapes are completely edible, and delicious as well!

Garlic scapes are super versatile, and impart an intense garlic flavour to your dishes. You can simply grill them up on the BBQ, much like you might do a green onion. You can chop them up to add to stir fries, or use them as a pizza topping. Or you can go with my number 1 use for scapes – make an awesome pesto.

If you’ve never made pesto before, it’s one of the easiest sauce you can make. Traditionally, it would be made with basil, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, salt, and lemon juice, but really, you can make it with any green herbaceous item and any nut, or even seed, that you have on hand.

Vegan Garlic Scape Walnut Pesto

When you use garlic scapes, you can skip out on the added garlic. I love to use walnuts in my pesto since they are way more economical that pine nuts, and add a little extra omega-3 boost. Nutritional yeast gives the pesto that cheese/nutty flavour of parmesan, keeping it dairy-free/vegan, so it’s suitable for friends and family with a variety of dietary needs.

Use your scape pesto anywhere you would use regular basil pesto – on pasta or pizza as a sauce, to season chicken, fish, or roasted potatoes, mixed with mayo for a great dip, or spread on your next grilled cheese sandwich. It keeps for a week or two in the fridge, or you can freeze it to use throughout the year.

Vegan Garlic Scape Walnut Pesto

Print Recipe

Serves: 2 cups Cooking Time: 5 – 10 min

Ingredients

200 g garlic scapes, roughly chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

Combine garlic scapes, walnuts, nutritional yeast, lemon zest and juice, and salt in a food processor. With the machine on high, gradually pour olive oil into the processor, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Continue to blend until smooth. Add addtional salt to taste if needed.