Daikon Radish Leaf Pesto
This summer my mother and I started our own garden. We have LOTS of great things: one of them being Daikon Radishes. Having read about ways to cook Daikon Radish in Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet, I wasn’t worried about figuring out a recipe…what I didn’t expect was the large amount of leaves I would have to cut off and then discard. I couldn’t bear to throw the entire head into the compost, so I decided to experiment.
My dad tried a leaf and told me it was very bitter and his initial idea to create a pesto would probably not work. I decided I would prove him wrong. Nothing on the internet could help me at this point so I went with what I knew.
I splurged on pine nuts (a key ingredient in any good pesto), and picked a cup of fresh basil from my garden. To counteract the bitter taste of the radish leaf I blanched the leaves first (blanching also helps to preserve the bright green color). With the addition of some homemade roasted garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and my (toasted) pine nuts I had the beginning of a great pesto. After mixing all ingredients in a food processor I had the most satisfying, delicious pesto to serve over some brown rice pasta. Bon appétit!
I’m so glad that the pesto worked out! I’ve been eating my weight in pesto this summer, and I like your idea of using some alternative greens in addition to basil.