Abundance in our garden often translates to pesto in the freezer. When my harvest basket overflows with beets, I'm inspired to capture the flavors of one of my favorite salads in a jar. Roasted beets, toasted walnuts and goat cheese are combined with garlic and oil to make a pesto that will brighten any cold and dreary day. I save the beet stems for pickling and make a different pesto combination with the leaves.
Ingredients
- 2 cups roasted beets* (cut into chunks for ease of measuring)
- 2–3 garlic cloves, roughly sliced
- 2/3 cup lightly toasted walnuts
- 1/3–1/2 cup goat cheese
- 1/4 cup olive oil (more or less to achieve desired consistency) plus a small amount for toasting walnuts
- Salt to taste (1/2–1 teaspoon)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 °F.
Scrub and peel beets, remove tops and chop into chunks. Set aside stems and leaves for another pesto or dish.
Wrap beets in a foil packet, then cook until tender (about 30–40 minutes depending on chunk size). Allow to cool before processing.
Lightly toast walnuts in frying pan with a little oil until fragrant.
Add ingredients to processor in this order: nuts, garlic, beets, oil. Don’t over-process. Pulse then scrape sides and continue.
Stir in cheese and salt to taste.
About this recipe
*Feel free to cook the beets using another method, if you prefer. For example, if you’d rather cook first and slip off the skin, or even boil your beets, just do it your way. However you end up with 2 cups of cooked beets is fine.
