Lemon Zest & Kohlrabi Green Pesto

Written By Melissa Guzowski

Pesto is such a fun and easy way to experiment in the kitchen. Using everything from foraged greens to vegetable scraps, there is definitely room for more than the classic basil pesto in your kitchen! This is also a great way to use up parts of your vegetables you’d normally toss in the trash or the compost heap.

I think kohlrabi is an underrated vegetable. It is the secret ingredient in all my favorite slaw recipes and brings such a crisp and clean cabbage flavor to whatever you make with it. In almost all of the recipes you find though, the bulb is what’s used- leaving the greens up for grabs! Kohlrabi greens are a great example of kitchen scraps that would normally end up in your compost or trash, even though they are edible and delicious. Bringing a cabbage flavor to your pesto that strays far from traditional- this is one of my all time favorite pesto’s to keep in the freezer.

I choose to make my pesto dairy free from time to time, but the choice is absolutely yours! I use Nutritional Yeast instead of Parmesan interchangeably, for every 1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese I use 2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast. I also like to add a pinch of salt and black pepper to taste.

I love to try new pesto recipes made from a combination of foraged foods, different nuts, kitchen and garden scraps, all things I love to get creative with! Next time you have edible leftover kitchen scraps, try making it into a pesto!