This is the second of a series of foraging recipes me and my friend Molly are trying out. We try two different recipes and let you be the judge of which you think is better. This recipe is very easy, there is not even any cooking involved.
Wild garlic or ramsons (Allium ursinum) is a native perennial and is mainly found in damp woodlands. It can be found around the country. You will usually smell it before you see it. In early spring you will see long, wide, shiny leaves which smell of garlic forming large patches on the woodland floor. The leaves can get up to 30cm in length and over 5cm in width.
From this moment on you can start picking the leaves. In late April early May you will see the flower heads appearing: white balls of star-like flowers. The whole plant is edible; the leaf, bulb and flower. It takes a lot of energy to produce the bulb, so you are better off leaving the bulb in the ground, plus you will need to get the landowner’s permission if harvesting the bulb- it is just not worth the hassle- there is plenty of leaves to go around. To make sure you have identified the plant correctly, pick a piece. If it has a very strong garlic smell, you have picked the right plant. Other plants some people might confuse this with are Lords-and-ladies (this has an arrow-shaped leave and is very poisonous) or Lily-of-the-valley (it is only rarely found in the wild). If it doesn’t smell of garlic, it’s not wild garlic.
Before you go out and pick any plant, remember the rules of foraging: Make sure you are 100% confident you have identified the plant correctly; if you are not on public land, make sure you have the land owners permission to pick the plant; only pick what you need that day, don’t over pick; pick only if you are sure the plants have not been contaminated with anything like pesticides, herbicides or by dogs urinating.
I tried a recipe from a book called ‘Wild food’ by Biddy White Lennon and Evan Doyle. You can also find their recipes online here.
I picked my wild garlic together with Molly in St. Anne’s Park, Raheny after one of my Wildflower Walks.
Ingredients:
- 50g wild garlic leaves
- 25g hazelnuts
- 200ml olive oil
- 40g grated parmesan
Method:
Step 1: Crush the nuts and half the oil in a blender, then add the grated parmesan.
Step 2: Wash the wild garlic and discard any bad looking leaves.
Step 3: Add the wild garlic and the rest of the oil, blend until it is the right consistency.
Step 4: Taste and adjust the recipe…The result was a lovely pesto, but it was too runny for my liking, so I decided to add a bit of grated cheddar and some cashew nuts and blended again, I repeated the grated cheddar step until I got the consistency I was happy with.
Step 5: Pour into a sterilised jar with a tight fitting lid. Cover with some oil, store in the fridge and use within 3 weeks.
When we comparing our recipes using my parents as blind tasters, opinions were divided. My recipe was more like a traditional pesto in consistency and had a very strong flavour. Molly’s pesto was more of a paste and had a milder flavour, probably because she used cheddar rather than parmesan, cashews rather than hazelnuts and rapeseed oil instead of olive oil. All in all I was happy with the results. Next time I might try it with different nuts and perhaps going half and half on the cheddar and parmesan.
You can find Molly’s recipe here. Did I mention it is completely Zero Waste?
I’d love to hear what you think of either recipe. Do you have a recipe or trick of your own? Do you think it can be improved in any way, let me know.
Wildflower Walks Ireland 