chickweed pesto. homemade healthy.

chickweed pesto.homemade healthy.


Spring is blowing through the Rogue Valley here, with daffodils highlighting the sidewalks and fruit trees glowing with whimsical sweet blooms. Flowers everywhere! And tender spring greens too. I can't help but pluck the new flowers as they open themselves up to the world, adding more and more to our overflowing kitchen table.  

Flowers! So wonderful! But now to the food at hand. 

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is a stringy, juicy low-growing annual herb that is widespread in temperate and cold climates all over the world. Other names are starweed, star chickweed, starwort, winterweed, satinflower, and tonguegrass. It grows in large mats of bright green, with little white flowers. You can tell it is chickweed when there is a single line of hairs on the stem that then alternate to another side after a joint. Gather in the spring when the white flowers start appearing. Chickweed is known as both a delicious edible and powerful medicinal plant. 

Nutritionally, chickweed is dense in vitamins and minerals, including niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, sodium, selenium, and silicon, and vitamins A, C. It is also high in gamma-linolenic acid, which aids in skin and hair growth, reproductive health, and bone health. You can eat chickweed raw or cooked like a tender green, in salads, wraps, sandwiches, or cooked in lasagna, etc. 

Medicinally, chickweed has been used externally and internally, for a variety of skin ailments, a cleansing diuretic, and a drawing astringent, as described by the Practical Herbalist. YOu can infuse the freshly dried plant into an oil and then a salve to soothe burns, itches, and rashes externally. Taking the herb internally by eating it in delicious ways is a great way to incorporate the nutritional and medicinal values of chickweed. 

So here, we make a simple and tasty chickweed pesto that utilizes freshly picked chickweed as well as some recently cracked walnuts, all from Hanley Farm. Of course, if you don't want to slave over sorting walnut pieces for hours, you can buy walnuts, or most any nut or seeds for that matter. Pecans, sunflower seeds, or almonds would be great to use if you have them on hand. There is also the option of using nutritional yeast for a vegan and cheaper alternative to parmesan cheese. Please us either. Enjoy this pesto on sandwiches, underneath your morning egg, on pasta, or anything else that could you a nutritional zing to it. 

And here we go.

Chickweed Walnut Pesto

(makes almost 2 cups)

Ingredients

A big bunch of chickweed (6-7 cups), chopped
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (or 1/2 cup parmesan cheese)
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt 
1/4 tsp pepper
3-4 tbsp fresh lemon juice (optional)


Method

Harvest fresh chickweed and wash well. Roughly chop chickweed to prevent it from clogging the food processor. Set aside.

Place peeled garlic, walnuts, and nutritional yeast (or cheese) in a food processor and pulse until ground into a coarse meal. Add chickweed and turn food processor on. Drizzle the olive oil in from the top while the food processor is still running. 

Add salt and pepper and lemon juice, if using, and blend until desired smoothness. Store in the refrigerator.