What did you make with your wild garlic?

In the beautiful woods surrounding Dursley the banks are smothered with lush green wild garlic, and every year my kids and I venture out to gather leaves. This year we made wild garlic pesto, which is delicious with pasta, onion bhajis and a pretty amazing curry. 
Here you can find the recipe for the wild garlic pesto and the onion bhajis for you to make yourself. But you need to move quickly as it is close to the end of the season. This bank holiday weekend would be the perfect time to go and forage. And if you're interested in foraging, then watch this space for our future workshops as we will be hosting one later this year with Martin Conyers from Wild Acres which will be all about foraging and art. 

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Wild Garlic Pesto
Ingredients
150g wild garlic leaves 
50g parmesan, finely grated
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced
50g pine nuts, toasted
150ml rapeseed or olive oil

Method
STEP 1
Rinse and roughly chop the wild garlic leaves. Then blanch quickly, just to make a smoother flavour. 

STEP 2
Blitz the wild garlic leaves, parmesan, garlic, lemon zest and pine nuts to a rough paste in a food processor. Season, and with the motor running slowly, add almost all the oil. Taste, season and add a few squeezes of lemon juice.

STEP 3
Transfer the pesto to a clean jar and top with the remaining oil. Will keep in the fridge for two weeks and can be stirred into warm pasta like a paste.

Wild Garlic Onion Bhajis
Ingredients
100 grams chickpea flour also known as gram flour, but plain flour can be used instead
3 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp medium curry powder
1 handful wild garlic leaves
1 large onion
100-150 millilitres of beer or water
oil for frying

Method
 
STEP 1
Mix together the chickpea flour and spices in a bowl.
Rinse the wild garlic leaves and pat dry.

STEP 2
Thinly slice the wild garlic and the onions and add them to the spiced chickpea flour mix.
Toss the wild garlic ribbons and the sliced onion to ensure they are well coated.
Slowly add the first 100ml of the beer (or water) and stir until a smooth, thick, sticky batter has formed around the wild garlic and onions. You may not need the extra 50ml of beer – use it as required.

STEP 3
Cover the bottom of a heavy-bottomed saucepan or frying pan with 1-2cm of oil.
Heat the oil to roughly 165C. You can test that the oil is ready by dropping a small amount of batter into the oil – it should bubble immediately.

Scoop up roughly 1 heaped tbsp of the onion bhaji mix and carefully spoon it into the oil. Repeat with a few more spoonfuls, being careful not to overcrowd the pan.
Let the first batch of bhajis cook for 4-5 minutes or until they are golden brown.
Carefully turn the bhajis over and cook for another 4-5 minutes until golden.
Remove the bhajis from the oil once cooked and drain on kitchen paper.
Repeat the process until you've used all of the mix.

Serve while still hot.

Author; Georgie White Winter

Business Development Manager at Kingshill House, with a passion for creativity and a big believer that art is for everyone.