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Garlic Chive Pesto Dressing (on the side)

By Eliot, on April 26th, 2021

It’s the end of April so it’s time for me to post another Food ‘n Flix movie review and paired recipe.   Literature and Limes is hosting Peter Rabbit (2018).   

I have to say I was not super excited to watch the film, but I will say I enjoyed it as soon as I realized that James Corden was voicing Peter.   I also fell in love with those little anthropomorphized rascally rabbits.

Every imaginable vegetable is featured in cranky Mr. McGregor’s garden so I’m not going to list everything.   Just think of the most spectacular vegetable garden you’ve ever seen.  Besides lovely vegetables, there’s also a very prolific plum tree.   While Mr. McGregor grows all sorts of heatlhy things, his diet seems to consist of beer, eclairs, “liquid” cheese in a can, and shepherd’s pie.  The budding romance of Thomas and Bea features roasted marshmallows, a picnic, and blackberry water.   (They also play Bananagrams.)  Needless to say, there was a lot of foodie inspiration.

I’ve been getting bi-weekly produce bags that are always chockful of fresh fruits and vegetables.   I decided that a salad was in order (with dressing on the side in honor of Benjamin).   In my last bag I received two lovely heads of leaf lettuce, green beans, apples, blueberries, fennel, mini-peppers, and grape tomatoes.   I thought that might make an interesting salad.

Lovely, fresh butter lettuce from my bi-weekly farm bag.

 

Wouldn’t Peter love these?

Then, I edited myself and used only the butter lettuce, carrots and mini-bells.  I also decided to use the one thing I have LOTS of right now in my own garden—garlic chives.

I think there’s one regular garlic clove growing in the middle of this photo. Everything else (besides some ground cover and one weed) is garlic chive.

If you’re unfamiliar with garlic chives, their leaves are flat and if you are not careful they will take over any garden or flower bed.  Other than throwing them on baked potatoes are using as a garnish, I’ve never really utilized them much.  I decided to try them in a pesto-like dressing to both marinate chicken for grilling and on a salad.

Make the pesto first.

Garlic Chive Pesto Dressing

Debra

These are always the first herbs available in my garden every Spring.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 c. raw cashews, toasted
  • 1 c. garlic chives, roughly chopped
  • 1 t. salt
  • fresh ground pepper
  • 1/4 c. olive oil
  • 2 T. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 t. honey
  • 2 T. water

Instructions

  1. Carefully toast raw cashews in a small skillet on stovetop. Stir and move around often until aromatic and toasty.  Set aside to cool a bit.
  2. Place the chives,  cooled cashews, salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor.   Pulse a couple of times until the mixture is chopped and is coming together.   Drizzle in the olive oil while the food process is running.
  3. Add the vinegar and the honey, again while running the processor.   Add up to 2 T. of water to achieve the consistency you desire.  (If using as a more traditional pesto, leave out the water.)

This pesto can be used as a drizzle on vegetables like roasted green beans or grilled asparagus.  It can also be used as a marinade for meats.

I slathered the pesto on chicken breasts and grilled them.  They smelled heavenly.

For my salad, I used fresh butter lettuce, shaved carrots, sliced mini-sweet peppers.   

I placed a dollop of pesto on top and finished with a bit of crumbled feta.

Salads were served with slice grilled chicken and more pesto dressing on the side (in honor of pudgy bunnies).

I have indeed found a new way to use my ever abundant supply of garlic chives from my own herb garden as well as the lovely fresh veggies from my farm-fresh produce bags.

Thanks again to Literature and Limes for hosting Peter Rabbit.  I hope you can join us in May for Food ‘n Flix.  I’m hosting Bottle Shock.  Watch for an announcement post here on May 1st.

 

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