WILD GARLIC

Wild Garlic is one of the first forageable delights in Spring. Its use is endless so you can be really creative with the whole plant - the leaves, buds and flowers are all edible.

pesto

A staple recipe for wild garlic. Swirl through a soup or mash, lather on bread for your sandwich, mix into pasta, or dollop onto a baked potato.  I like a bit of texture in my pesto so reserve half the nuts to stir in at the end for crunch.

 Ingredients

• 50g hard cheese such as pecorino or parmesan – or a British alternative such as Sussex Charmer or Berkswell

• 100ml olive oil - I like using half extra virgin and half standard

• Half a lemon - juiced

• 70g wild garlic leaves - thoroughly washed  

• 40g toasted pine nuts

• Salt

• Black pepper

Method 

• Grate the cheese finely. If you have a nutribullet, put the cheese in first and briefly whizz, this will blitz it up nicely.

• Add the wild garlic to your blender, slowly pour in the olive oil and the lemon juice. Scrape down the sides and continue to blitz until the leaves have broken down into small pieces.

• Add the cheese and half the pine nuts before pulsing into a coarse pesto. You can blitz more if you prefer a smoother consistency.  

• Stir in the remaining pine nuts.

• Taste and season, adding more lemon juice if needed.

• Store in a sealed container and keep in the fridge for up to a week. 

pickled wild garlic buds  and capers

Another way to preserve the fleeting wild garlic season is by pickling. Towards the beginning of the season, before the flowers bloom, gather some of the buds. You also have another chance after the plant has flowered where these little capers appear.

Both the buds and capers are lovely pickled and give a (funnily enough) garlicky flavour and acidity to dishes. I like to toss them into salads and sprinkle over soups or bruschetta.

Pickled wild garlic buds

Wild garlic capers

Ingredients

Makes a small jam jars worth:

• A handful of wild garlic buds or capers

• 100ml apple cider or white wine vinegar

• 100ml water

• 50g of sugar

• Pinch of salt

• 1 tbsp pink peppercorns - optional but I love the kick they give 

Method

• Sterilise a jam jar and pop in the wild garlic buds/capers.

• Heat the vinegar, water and sugar together, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

• Remove from the heat and add the pinch of salt and peppercorns. Leave to cool.

• When back to room temperature, pour vinegar mixture over the buds/capers and seal the jam jar.

• Leave in the fridge to pickle for a few days before using. Shake occasionally.

• Keep in the fridge for up 3 months.