Recipe: Nasturtium pesto

One of the unexpected joys of lockdown and all this weirdness in the world has been spending more time in the garden. We usually moan that our garden is too small and go away too often to give it much love. This year, we realised just how lucky we are to have a garden of any size.

Not only does it look lovely, we’re growing loads and loads of fruit, veg and herbs. This week we’ve enjoyed homegrown peas, strawberries, broccoli, cherries, rhubarb and herbs galore. (Although we might only get one by the time the kids have stripped the plants/trees bare).

Nasturtiums are one of the things doing well in our garden. Although I knew you could eat the pretty (but peppery) flowers, I didn’t realise you could eat the leaves and seeds too. Today I harvested some flowers for a salad and froze more for a burst of vibrant edible colour later in the year. I’m planning on making nasturtium hot sauce and perhaps some stuffed leaves. But for now, I started simple with a delicious nasturtium pesto. It’ll be gorgeous on pasta, with a frittata or with fish.

Nasturtium pesto

• 75g nasturtium leaves, carefully washed

• 100ml extra virgin olive oil

• 1-2 cloves of garlic (I used pickled garlic cloves in chilli as that’s what I had in the fridge)

• 30g feta cheese

• 1 tbsp pine nuts

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Squeeze of lemon juice to taste

Method

I put the feta, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil into a jug and used a hand blender to whizz it all up. I added the washed nasturtium leaves a bit at a time, then added salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.