Celery leaf pesto

Today, I’m adding to the (ever-growing) pesto recipe collection on the blog (see also dairy-free pistachio pesto and roasted red pepper pesto) – let me introduce to you the newest member of the family – celery leaf pesto!

The perfect condiment if you’re passionate about reducing food waste, but still want to eat delish food.

You’ll never throw away a single celery leaf again and I’ll even bet, that from this day forward you’ll specifically look for the bunches, with the leaves still on – this pesto is THAT good!

Will it pesto?

This all started last year, when I’d been to the farmers market and bought a big beautiful bunch of celery – with the leaves on!

I wanted to use the leaves to make broth, but with A LOT of leaves, and me quickly realizing, that actually I didn’t like that many celery leaves in my broth (intense flavor!), I didn’t know what to do.

Should I toss the leaves? It seemed like such a waste.

Google to the rescue!

As it turns out, there’s quite a lot of things to do with celery leaves. Pesto being one of them.

Knowing that celery leaves were indeed a pestoable ingredient (yes, totally made that word up and quite frankly loving it!), I whipped up a diary-free batch in minutes.

Yum. Just yum!

With a very characteristic yet mild and subtle celery flavor, the pesto pairs wonderfully with most potato and egg dishes, it’s especially good with tomato and cucumber veggie-wise, it’s yummy on bread and in sandwiches, potato pizza is a given and it’s so good in many pasta dishes too (make a pasta salad, toss with spaghetti and serve with some seafood, etc.).

Pile it high – say hello to your newest obsession: open-faced sandwiches

I love love love Danish ‘Smørrebrød’ (open-faced sandwiches) and in the summer time, nothing beats a potato sandwich! Butter up some sliced bread (preferably really dense rye bread with lots of seeds), layer slices of boiled new potatoes, add a healthy amount of celery leaf pesto, some marinated red onions, a sprinkle of good quality salt, black pepper (you could use onion salt too!) and enjoy. It’s such a treat!

It’s amazing with slices of juicy flavorful tomato or sweet crunchy cucumber too, just saying.

Celery leaf pesto

The next time you buy a big bunch of celery, instead of throwing away those beautifully vibrant green leaves, try using them to make delicious celery leaf pesto! It’s absolutely divine with potatoes, eggs, bread and pasta dishes!

Servings 2 C / 500 ml

Ingredients

• 4 large handfuls celery leaves (you can use bits of stalks too)
• 1 1/4 C / 310 ml mild-tasting extra virgin olive oil
• 2/3 C / 100 g toasted almonds (you can use toasted cashews too)
• 3 small cloves garlic
• 1 tsp garlic confit or roasted garlic
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tsp nutritional yeast (you can substitute 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts for the nutrional yeast)
• 1-1 1/2 tsp fine grain pink Himalayan salt or sea salt (I used 1 1/2 tsp)

Instructions

1. Combine celery leaves and olive oil in a food processor or high speed blender and blend into a thin ‘sauce’.
2. Add remaining ingredients and blend into a creamy, smooth pesto – this usually takes a couple of minutes.
3. Taste the pesto – anything missing? Season to taste.
4. Enjoy with all the food!

STORAGE AND SHELF LIFE

1. Store the pesto in the fridge for 7-10 days or several months in the freezer.

Do you want to print the recipe for celery leaf pesto? I’ve got you!