Bene and I love to shop our fresh veggies and fruits at the local farmers market. It’s the best place to buy fresh and local. Our three favorite farmers are all located in a 20 kilometer radius around our home town. It is simply the best expierence to see how the vegetables and fruits change with the seasons.
At the moment we are head over heels in love with fresh spinach and radish. Especially radish is extremely versatile. I only realised this over the last couple of years. Before I only knew radish as part of mixed salads. But these pretty red guys can be used for a lot more! For example in this sprong recipe for a pesto which is made from their leaves. What I really love about this recipe is that you can use a part of the radish that otherwise would be thrown away.
So put on your apron and wash your radish leaves and spinach!
Tips
Best choose organic radish leaves and spinach for these recipes because their leaves are usually treated with less chemicals.
Wash the leaves very thoroughly to get rid of all the earth and sand that often sticks to them.
It’s best to use a food processor to blend the ingredients and always blend in short intervalls, so your device doesn’t overheat.
Ingredients
Radish Leaves Pesto
- 1 bunch of radish (only the leaves)
- 40 ml olive oil
- 50 g sunflower seeds
- 1 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbs agave or rice syrup
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- salt
- pepper
Fresh Spinach Hummus
- 250 g fresh spinach
- 250 g chickpeas
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 tbs tahin
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- 1 tsp agave or rice syrup
- salt
- pepper
Preparation
Radish Leaves Pesto
- First blend the radish leaves before adding anything else.
- Afterwards pour in the olive oil and sunflower seeds
- Blend all of it until it’s smooth and creamy.
- Add in the garlic, lemon juice and syrup and blend again for a second.
- Just add salt and pepper to taste and its already done.
Fresh Spinach Hummus
- Blanch the spinach in boiling water until the are wilted. This helps to reduce the sometimes overpowering taste of spinach. But you can use the spinach uncooked if you prefer.
- Pour the spinach into a sieve and let the water drip out.
- Blend the spinach until its creamy.
- Secondly add in the chickpeas and the garlic.
- Blend again until everything is mixed.
- For the last step blend in the tahin, lemon juice and syrup.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Pesto and hummus go very well with pasta, lean meat, tofu or just a slice of fresh bread. We enjoyed a nice big salad with these two spreads which will be our next recipe. If you sip a chilled glas of white wine with this, it feels like a short holiday trip.
As I am writing the recipes down right now I am already craving these two amazing spreads again. Seems like I’ll need to make a serving of these right now.
We hope you enjoy these recipes.
Mirja and Bene