My parents arrived in France about a month and a bit ago, at 3am after a long and hard 18 hour drive, fuelled by puking dogs. The first thing my dad did as soon as parked up was go look at the vegetable garden. The grass had grown tup to his chest (shoulder height for those under 6 foot). That was tomorrows problem he thought as he headed towards the house. The next day, along with my sister, they tackled the unruly weeds, ripping and shredding them down to their roots. Finally you could actually see the Earth beneath.
Now it was time to do the planting. For gardens, June is actually quite a late start as most of the planting should’ve been down in the springtime, but fortunately for us the warmth from the constant sun is on our side and quickly enough the shoots began to sprout and form. Now we are days away from eating our very first cherry tomatoes.
Among many different plant varieties we grow one of the most successful has been the beetroot. Bright purple and full of earthy flavour it is up there with one of my favourite vegetables. It is so versatile and can be eaten raw in a slaw, stewed in a ‘beet bourguignon’ or minced into burgers. I also like to use the stalks and leaves, the bits that most people cut off and throw away, similarly to cauliflower leaves they are delicious roasted with a little bit of oil, salt and pepper until crispy or chopped up into small chunks in a sort of minestrone soup or just eaten as salad leaves.
For this recipe I have taken the leaves and blitzed them along with some herbs, basil and mint, nuts, garlic and lots of good quality olive oil. The key is to get the best olive oil as it really makes or breaks your dish. I have included a vegan option too.
Beetroot leaf pesto
makes one jar
- 25g almonds
- 25g walnuts
- 100g mix of basil and mint
- large handful of beetroot leaves
- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast/ 50g vegetarian hard cheese- grated
- 2 fat garlic cloves
- 150ml good quality extra virgin olive oil
- zest and juice of half a lemon
- salt + pepper
- Toast the nuts in an 180ºC oven for 8 minutes or under the grill for 2 minutes (watch carefully!) until slightly golden.
- Place everything but the olive oil in a food processor and blitz, drizzle in the olive oil until combined. You want it a little chunky but the leaves broken-down. Season well.
- place in a clean jar and cover the top with olive oil to preserve, it will last up to two weeks in the fridge.
You can change and adapt this recipe as you please, using different nuts, herbs and leaves. Carrot tops are nice, as is kale or spinach. Pine nuts are traditional but also hazelnuts with a little hazelnut oil bring it to a whole new level.
Jodie Cox 
Great post 🙂
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