I avoid shoes whenever possible in the summertime.
In fact, if I do find myself in a position where I have to wear shoes and socks for a long while on a stifling summer day, I get pretty grouchy, pretty quickly.
Therefore, my favorite summer meals are the ones where I can run outside barefoot and harvest the bulk of the ingredients a few steps from my front door, which is exactly the case for this garlic scape pesto recipe.
Barefoot farming is where its at, y’all. Hmmm… that’d be a good book title, “Barefoot Farming“…
But yeah, back to the garlic scapes.
Scapes are one of the beautiful bonuses of growing your own garlic. (Because you ARE growing your own garlic this year, right?)
Before the bulbs themselves are ready to pluck from the ground, you’ll find the delightfully elegant scapes growing in curves and swirls high above the leaves of your hardneck garlic plants.
It’s wise to clip them to help the plant put its full resources into the final maturation of the bulb under the ground, but that sure as heck doesn’t mean you have to discard the scapes.
If you’re a garlic fanatic (like me), you’ll be ecstatic to know the scapes carry the same pungent garlic flavor as the bulbs.
It’s like the best two-for-one deal EVAH.
What to Do with Garlic Scapes?
Oh so many options, my friends. SO many options:
- Grill them
- Saute them in butter (either alone or with other veggies)
- Add them to stir-fry for a pop of garlic flavor
- Mince them up and make compound butter
- Chop them fine and add to any salad, pasta, casserole, or other recipe that benefits from a fresh garlic flavor
- Make garlic scape pesto (which we’ll do below…)
How to Harvest Garlic Scapes
You’ll see the scape stalk growing up from the leaves of the garlic plant. Clip it with scissors, or snap it with your fingers down low at the base. Younger scapes are more desirable as they tend to be more tender and mild. However, I used mature scapes in my latest batch of pesto, and simply discarded the tougher, woodier base-portion when I was chopping them. (It reminded me of the woody stalk of an overly-mature asparagus). I also cut off the flower/bulb at the top and gave it to my pigs. Although I know some folks eat that part too.
Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe
- 1 cup garlic scapes, cut into 1″ pieces
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1/3 cup cashews
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (my favorite olive oil)
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- Sea salt and pepper, to taste
In a food processor, process the garlic scapes and basil for 30 seconds.
Add the nuts and process for another 30 seconds.
Slowly drizzle in the olive oil as you continue to run the food processor.
Add in the parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Mix and taste, adjusting the salt/pepper as desired.
Use the pesto over fresh homemade pasta (my favorite), use it as a sauce for homemade pizza, or smear it on a bit of crusty bread.
Garlic Scape Pesto Notes:
- More mature scapes will be spicer, so give them a taste before you make the pesto so you know what you’re working with. Mine were pretty intense, so I added the basil to help mellow things out. However, if you want to omit the basil, you can.
- You can use pretty much ANY nut in this recipe– walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, you name it!
- Definitely use REAL parmesan cheese here– no weird powdery stuff in the green can, please.
- Pesto freezes extremely well, and often mellows out a bit in the freezer.
- If you’re not growing garlic this year, check your farmer’s market for scapes. They are becoming more popular, and it’s likely you can find them there.
Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup garlic scapes, cut into 1” pieces
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1/3 cup cashews
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (my favorite olive oil)
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a food processor, process the garlic scapes and basil for 30 seconds.
- Add the nuts and process for another 30 seconds.
- Slowly drizzle in the olive oil as you continue to run the food processor.
- Add in the parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Mix and taste, adjusting the salt/pepper as desired.
- Use the pesto over fresh homemade pasta (my favorite), use it as a sauce for homemade pizza, or smear it on a bit of crusty bread.
Yum! I had like 90 scapes this year, might have been a bit of overkill with how much garlic I planted ? But I froze a bunch of pesto that I made with walnuts. Pretty spicy stuff, I think a little will go a long way! Thanks for sharing your version. And barefoot in the garden is totally my fave ?
The freezer might help it mellow a bit and not be so spicy. And girl– there’s no such thing as overkill when it comes to garlic!
Haha very true – I’m going to harvest this week, time for garlic in everything!
Going to try hemp hearts instead of cashews
Hi Sara
I just cut the scapes off the 90 garlic plants
My first garlic crop
Wondered how many to use for pesto,
How many to use in pesto butter using 4 sticks
Just wondered if you had any suggestions
Me , trial and error
Usually overdue things
Thanks,Andrew
Can I freeze scapes to make into pesto later?
We have had a luv affair with garlic scapes for years! We often do what we do with other seasonal veg and freeze them for sauce in the winter. This is a new one for me….thanx
Enjoy Andrea!
Have you tried canning them?
Yes Barefoot Gardening is the best, that is why there is no gravel, certainly not Lava Rock in my yard. I had to get rid of both when i moved in.
About the scapes ,,I let them get too big, so I clipped them off and threw them in the onion patch, which is not mulched. So on dirt. well 2-3 weeks later I noticed the flower heads were filled out, light brown. I peeled this back and there were little translucent seeds, yummy garlic tear drops. great! They went into cooking rice last night. Got a full 1/4 cup of them. I Need to understand this timing but it is a great food.
Very cool! And yes, they are definitely better when they are small, but I’ve used older ones with still good results. 🙂
I just discovered garlic scapes this year. I am fascinated with Korean food. If anyone has an interest in this cuisine, try this recipe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U2NBWRsYOc
Yum!
Cool – I always toss the scapes to the chickens – I will use them in the future.
The seasons are so different across the US – Crazy seeing your garlic still in the ground this late….. my garlic has been braided & hanging in my basement for a month. I haven’t seen a scape since May. 🙂
I know.. aren’t seasons funny? Makes it hard to blog sometimes– there are times when I want to write about a topic for my warmer-climate readers, but don’t have it happening in my garden until much later!
Seriously, Jill, this stuff is so addicting. I keep making homemade french bread, which I then turn into garlic toast, which in turn gets smothered with garlic scape pesto. I can’t stop! So good. Thank-you!
Sounds yummy!
This is my first time making pesto and I must say was easier than I thought.
An awesome recipe, thank you ! I made 2 cups & will freeze one.
Beautiful post, Traci! I buy scapes at my farm market here in ny every year and always keep them in a vase in water for a few days before I use them because they are so pretty. But not as pretty as your photos!
Great recipe! The scapes were a bit harsh raw for a pesto, so I blanched the garlic scapes first to mellow them, then made the pesto as above. Delightful!!
Can I use frozen scapes to make this pesto? I bought it and froze it right away, but am really hoping to make this. Thanks!
You can harvest the little ‘garlic seeds”, called bulbils, and plant them, as well! You can find info on the internet for how to utilize them–it takes two years to get mature bulbs. I am totally “Grinchy” about my garlic bulbils–I scrounge even the ones that have fallen to the ground before I get out there to snag them! My family thinks I’m nuts, but they are just FUN to mess with, especially gently rolling the seedhead between my fingers to get the little bulbils to fall off! I must seem like Ebenezer Scrooge, chuckling and rubbing my hands together over my bounty! Thanks for a great article!
I made a similar recipe from my CSA Farmshare (is that redundant?) and mixed it with ground turkey for burgers. Delicious! The fat in the pesto made them nice and moist and the flavor was wonderful.
Excited to try this receipe! Wondering if I can water bath can it?
Your recipes are the best! This is the most genuine recipe, especially if you can use pine nuts. Your site is the first place I look for garden, cheese and “old fashioned” recipes. Thank you for being you.
Can you dehydrate scrapes?
Excited to try this receipe! Would it work to water bath can the pesto?
Thank you for the idea. We smoked our scapes before blending them. Was a nice pesto sauce blend
I’m psyched to try this recipe….so excited for scapes again this year. For many pestos I make to freeze recommendations are to not add the cheese until after thawed when going to eat…I did see somewhere too to perhaps hold off on the lemon juice as well. Do you have an opinion on whether to hold off on anything when making to freeze?
I like to add the lemon juice to keep the deep green color. The cheese I agree and leave out if freezing any type of pesto and add it fresh in cooking with it. I like to freeze the pesto in a jar and after frozen solid add a layer of olive oil on top for another protective freezer seal.
Just made this and is the first time I have used scapes. Will be using it for my pizza tonight and can’t wait it is so delicious.
A little synchronicity….yesterday, I went to a local organic farm to harvest my first bunches of scapes. I naturally went barefoot since I use every opportunity to be connected to the earth. As I was collecting the scapes I thoroughly enjoyed being barefoot, in the peacefulness of the countryside and feeling the ground beneath my feet. I had a few thoughts of being a barefoot gardener and what a great name that would be to be known as: The Barefoot Gardner.
Once home I searched for recipes for my heaps of scapes I collected (as well for friends) and found your site. What perfect synchronicity I thought!!
For the love of garlic and going barefoot!
Lori
How long will the pesto sauce refrigerate? Can you freeze it?
Thank you for the recipe!
I made a second batch of the pesto yesterday and the whole family loves it!
I like to throw the tougher parts of the scape stems in a zip lock bag and label it for soup stock so nothing is wasted.
Can this pesto be canned in a water bath?
Excellent recipe.
I like it mixed with mayo and used as a topping for fried haloumi burgers. Top with lettuce and tomato.
Can I use a different nut? ie walnut?
I used walnut and it was great. I view the nut as fulfilling an emulsification role. Like oil and egg yolk make mayonnaise, oil and nuts hold everything together.
Thanks Jill for another great idea! I just harvested my scapes, so this reader is thrilled you just posted this , But my friend, who lives just 20 minutes south of me, harvested hers a week ago – an amazing fact of the Ozarks where I live. Her idea is to whirl them in the food processor, add a little water and freeze in silicone ice cube trays and uses for stir fries all winter.
I can’t thank you enough for this recipe! It’s become one of our favorites. Up until last year we only had enough scapes to make one batch of this. It wasn’t nearly enough. Last year I bought 2# of scapes in addition to our own and froze 11 cups of this pesto. It ran out in March, so this year I bought 3#. I’m pretty excited!
This looks delish as I am looking for a recipe to use with the scapes I bought at the farmer’s market this weekend. But what to do for a nut substitute? My daughter has a nut allergy and we are longing to eat some pesto but the nuts are a big no no. Thanks!
Just a wild suggestion, but I think the nut is the emulsifier. Without it, you just have oily scape bits. Egg yolk is also used to emulsify oil, so maybe a bit of pasteurized yolk might give you the same effect?
I also have tree nuts allergy, try pumpkin seeds. It worked great!