Carrot-Top Pesto

I pulled quite a few carrots recently.  One of them was even starting to bolt, but mostly I just wanted a lot of carrots in the Vegetable-Millet Soup.  I always feel guilty about throwing away the green tops.  Since I garden organically, there's nothing wrong with eating them.  They taste a little like parsley.

I decided to give the most recent batch of greens the pesto treatment.  There always comes the dilemma of what nut to use in the sauce.  I chose sunflower seeds.  Then I opted to make it vegan by subbing in nutritional yeast for the parmesan, even though I have quite a bit of good-quality shredded parmesan sitting in the freezer right now.  I know a recent vegan who's having trouble giving up cheese, and thought I'd share this option.

Like all pestos, this is super easy and the food processor does all the work.  You just have to peel the garlic and get the greens into manageable pieces.

*Greens from 1 lb carrots, about 8 cups
*2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 C sunflower seeds
1/4 C nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese
about 1/2 C olive oil
salt to taste

1.  In food processor, run garlic, seeds, and yeast/cheese into a uniform mixture.  Don't over-mix, or you'll get a paste too soon.

2.  Add about half of the greens to the mixer bowl and run until somewhat broken down.  Add the rest and run into a green paste.  Scrape down the sides and run it again to be sure everything is pulverized.

3.  With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in oil until desired consistency is reached.  For me, that's about 1/3 to 1/2 cup.  You may like it runnier.  Stop mixer, taste, and decide if it needs a little salt.  Run it again for five seconds to distribute.

4.  Either use immediately or put in containers for storage.  Keeps a week in the fridge or a month in the freezer.  Carrot greens will discolor faster than basil.  If that bothers you, add a little lemon juice or white wine vinegar to the sauce.  The acid will slow the color change.

Yield about 1 cup
Difficulty rating  π