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Carrot Top Pesto
Carrot top pesto is one of my favourite ways to use up every bit of my veg. It’s fresh, herby, and packed with flavour, made from carrot greens, almonds, parmesan, garlic, and lemon. I love how it turns food scraps into something utterly moreish – perfect for pasta, dolloping on roast veg, or spreading onto toast. It’s a brilliant sustainable recipe that brings loads of flavour to your table with minimal effort.
Ingredients
- 1 bunch carrot tops, approx 50g with hard stems removed
- 2 cloves garlic
- 25g Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 10g toasted pinenuts
- Large pinch of sea salt flakes
Instructions
- Add the carrot tops, garlic, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and sea salt to a food processor. Pulse until well combined and finely chopped.
- With the processor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the pesto reaches a smooth and creamy consistency.
- Taste and adjust the salt if needed.
Notes
- Carrot tops are often thrown away, but they make a brilliant pesto with a slightly earthy, herbaceous flavour. Make sure to wash them thoroughly as they can be quite sandy.
- Remove any thick, tough stems before adding the carrot tops to the food processor. You only want the tender green leaves and thin stems.
- I use this food processor for making pesto. It's powerful enough to get a really smooth consistency without overworking the ingredients.
- Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until golden and fragrant. Keep an eye on them as they burn quickly.
- If you don't have pine nuts, walnuts or almonds work beautifully as a substitute.
- The consistency should be smooth but not runny. If it's too thick, add a little more olive oil. If it's too thin, pulse in a bit more cheese or nuts.
- For a milder garlic flavour, use 2 cloves instead of 3, or blanch the garlic briefly in boiling water before adding it to the processor.
- This pesto keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Pour a thin layer of olive oil over the top to prevent it from oxidising and turning brown.
- You can freeze carrot top pesto in ice cube trays, then transfer the frozen cubes to a freezer bag. It'll keep for up to 3 months and you can pop out individual portions as needed.
What I Cook With
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 72Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 106mgCarbohydrates: 1gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 2g
Please note, this nutrition information is to be used as a guide only. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.
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Carrot Top Pesto
The Recipe That Never Lets Me Down
This carrot top pesto recipe has been a faithful companion in my kitchen for over a decade – yes, it’s another from The Archives! It has followed me from one city to another, from solo weeknight dinners to bustling shared platters at parties. The beauty of this recipe is that it turns something many people throw away into a star ingredient. Carrot tops are earthy, fresh, and slightly sweet, and when blitzed into pesto, they bring a brightness that parsley or basil just cannot replicate. I used to bring it to every gathering, always met with curious delight when people learned what it was made from. So after years of holding it close, I figured it was finally time to share it here.
Last weekend was a long one, and I had big plans. I envisioned a flurry of delicious outcomes, including a rich lasagne and a summery peach yoghurt slice. But as with all kitchen endeavours, not everything went to plan. The mince for the lasagne ended up in the bin thanks to some very questionable meat, and the peach slice, while flavourful, was so moist it bordered on pudding. That said, the carrot top pesto was the one saving grace. It reminded me that sometimes, it is the simplest and most trusted recipes that bring the most joy. And in a world where kitchen experiments can flop, it is a gift to have something you know will always work.
It is also a reflection of how I am slowly coming back to life in the kitchen. There is someone new to cook for, which changes everything. I find myself not just reaching for the recipes I know by heart, but feeling excited to test new ones again. Food has always been my way of showing love, and to see someone else light up when they taste something I have made brings me right back to why I started cooking in the first place. Perhaps that means more recipes will be coming your way more frequently. Or perhaps it will continue to be sporadic. But either way, the joy is back, and for now, that is enough.
Winter is Coming: A Season of Socks and Sauce
The seasons are shifting here in Adelaide and the air has turned cool almost overnight. After two mild winters up north in Brisbane where you barely need a cardigan, this early chill has caught me completely off guard. My days now hover under 20 degrees and I am quickly realising my wardrobe is woefully underprepared. While I’ve been happy to throw on a jumper until now, it is time to get serious. Coats, cardigans, and the all-important fluffy socks are top of my shopping list.
You would think, having lived in Scotland for so long, that I would have a collection of winter layers tucked away. But sadly, most of my belongings never made it back to Australia. What was supposed to be a shipment ended up staying there, and with it, a wardrobe I had carefully built for cold weather. There is a strange grief that comes with losing clothes. They are more than just fabric; they are memories stitched into hems. So here I am, rebuilding from scratch, layering warmth into my life one coat at a time.
The upside to this cold snap is the renewed urge to cook comfort food. Hearty soups, cheesy bakes, warm pastas, and toast with too much butter are back on the menu. This carrot top pesto finds itself on everything from toasties to roasted vegetables. It adds a punch of green brightness when the rest of the plate is all beige and golden. There is something reassuring about knowing what you are going to eat is not only warm but good for the soul. Even as I dig through drawers for gloves and fluff, the kitchen is warming up again.
NIGELLLAAA! A Night with the Queen of Comfort
There are few food personalities I love as deeply as I love Nigella Lawson. Her writing is what got me back into the kitchen after a long creative slump many years ago, and her books live permanently on my kitchen counter. So when I heard she was doing a live talk here in Adelaide, I didn’t even hesitate. I grabbed tickets straight away and was lucky enough to sit in a room filled with others who adore her as much as I do. She shared the stage with Matt Preston and regaled us with stories, memories, and insights into her beautiful, quirky world.
What stood out most was how truly herself she was. Not the polished host of cooking shows, but the real Nigella: funny, self-deprecating, and full of warmth. If you have ever watched her early shows like Nigella Bites, you will know exactly what I mean. That lovely chaotic energy of someone who cooks from instinct and joy, who spills things and keeps going, who understands the comfort and mess of life through food. That is the Nigella we got to witness that evening. It was magical. I felt like I was being reminded not only of why I loved her, but why I loved cooking.
The only downside was not getting to meet her. The signing queue was enormous and my lift was ready to go. But there will be a next time. There has to be. Because food is more than just nourishment. It is a connection. And when someone like Nigella reminds you of the joy in that, well, it makes the cold days feel warmer and the kitchen a little more inviting. And you better believe the next time I make this carrot top pesto, I’ll be imagining her giving it a wink of approval.
Ingredient Breakdown
Carrot tops
The whole reason this recipe exists. Carrot tops are almost universally thrown straight in the bin, which is a genuine waste because they make a brilliant pesto with a slightly earthy, herbaceous flavour that sits somewhere between parsley and a mild bitter green. The most important prep step is washing them thoroughly because they tend to be quite sandy, and you want to pull off any thick, tough stems before they go into the food processor. You only want the tender leaves and thin stems. If your carrot tops are very bitter, blanching them briefly in boiling water before processing tones that down considerably.
Garlic
Three cloves of raw garlic go straight into the processor, which gives the pesto a fairly assertive garlic flavour. That’s exactly what you want in a pesto, but if you’d prefer something milder, drop back to two cloves or blanch them briefly in boiling water first to take the sharp edge off. Raw garlic softens considerably once it’s blitzed into the pesto and left to sit for a while, so don’t panic if it tastes quite punchy straight from the processor.
Parmesan
Freshly grated Parmesan adds the salty, savoury backbone that holds the whole pesto together. It also helps thicken the texture and gives it that classic creamy consistency. If the pesto is coming out too thin, a bit more Parmesan is the first thing to reach for before adding more nuts. Grate it yourself rather than using pre-grated if you can, because it incorporates more smoothly and tastes noticeably better.
Extra virgin olive oil
The olive oil goes in last, drizzled in slowly while the processor is running, which is what emulsifies everything into a smooth, cohesive pesto rather than a chunky paste. Use a good quality extra virgin olive oil because it’s a primary flavour here rather than a background one. The amount listed gives you a smooth, spreadable consistency, but add a little more if you want something looser that will coat pasta more easily.
Pine nuts
Toasted pine nuts add a buttery richness and a subtle sweetness that rounds out the slight bitterness of the carrot tops. Toasting is a non-negotiable step. Raw pine nuts taste flat and a bit bland, whereas two to three minutes in a dry pan until golden transforms them completely. Watch them like a hawk because they go from perfect to burnt with almost no warning. If you don’t have pine nuts, walnuts or almonds are both good substitutes with slightly different but equally delicious results.
Maldon sea salt
A large pinch of Maldon goes in with everything else before blitzing, and then you taste and adjust at the end. Maldon is a flaky sea salt with a clean, bright flavour that doesn’t have the harsh edge of table salt. It dissolves into the pesto during processing so you get even seasoning throughout rather than pockets of saltiness. The Parmesan also brings its own salt, so taste before you add more at the end.
Serve This With
- Tossed through hot pasta with a splash of pasta water
- Spread on crusty bread or stirred through risotto
- Drizzled over roasted vegetables or grilled chicken
