8 Days a Week Kale Garlic Scape Pesto

This recipe is a super food flavour high five for your mouth. That doesn't make much sense but neither does doing something 8 days a week or letting rampant kale and confusing garlic scapes go to waste because of lack of inspiration. Don't let them fall victim to a wilty death in your fridge! Thanks goes to Murray Meadows Farm for the kale that they're now selling in bulk for a great deal and The Natural Gardener for the kind gift of scapes that they dropped off to us at the office.

Pesto is fun to experiment with; add your own twist to it. This recipe is a kale hybrid inspired by the scape pesto recipe in the helpful post  The Crisper Whisperer: 7 Things to do with Garlic Scapes (I want to try the double garlic soup recipe too, mmm).

Pesto can be frozen although it's sometimes recommended to leave the cheese out then. There are more pesto recipes on the blog too for using other herbs and greens.

This recipe is so good it makes me hum the Beatles' Eight Days a Week. "8 days a week I looooove you. 8 days a week is not enough to show I care!" Last night I had it for dinner on a sandwich with a fried egg, baby greens and avocado. Today I'm going to have it in falafel wraps. Later this week on garlic bread alongside lasagna and on moose burgers. Enjoy it however you like 8 days a week!

8 Days a Week Kale Garlic Scapes Pesto

Ingredients

1/4 cup hemp hearts (Or pine nuts or any other seed/nut that you have, they'll all taste yum. Chop up bigger nuts before putting them in the food processor. Smaller nuts and seeds can go in as they are. Toasting nuts lightly in a frying pan or oven will bring out their flavours more if you feel like doing that in advance.)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped garlic scapes

1 cup kale leaves, coarsely chopped/ripped and packed down

1 Tbs store bought lemon juice or juice from 1/2 a fresh lemon

1/2 tsp salt (Have you tried Newfoundland sea salt yet?! Keep an eye out for that my friends. It makes a lovely gift too.)

A few generous grinds of black pepper

2/3- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (to reach the consistency you like)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (or feta or other cheese of your choice)

Procedure

Combine the scapes, kale, hemp hearts, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor and pulse about 20 times, until well combined. Pour in the olive oil slowly through the feed tube adding as much as you prefer to reach the consistency you like. When the oil is incorporated, stir in the cheese. If you plan to freeze the pesto, wait to add the cheese until after you've defrosted it. Keep refrigerated and try using it with just about everything savoury.