Wild garlic to me, is walking in the Peak District on a Sunday morning with a group of uni friends. We’d gotten out of the city for a weekend of walking and over the course of the weekend we had covered a lot of ground, getting slightly lost but ending up at the hostel we had booked, just as darkness was descending. We left our hostel early to head to a local town to have breakfast before getting the bus back to uni.
It had rained in the night. The roads glistened and a spray shot up along the side of the kerb as cars sped past. It was a fresh autumn morning and we were walking along a short stretch of road beside a wood. Suddenly there was a faint smell of garlic. Over a small stone wall, an area of the woodland floor teamed with wild garlic.
It was the first time I had come across wild garlic. The taste was subtle but distinctive. Garlic and green at the same time. There was so much of it just there for the picking. We didn’t. How silly now looking back.
This recipe features wild garlic from my weekly organic box delivery, made fresh the morning it arrived. It isn’t cut with any other leaves except for the little hit of mint to lift the taste. I’ve used apple cider vinegar in the recipe as it’s what I had to hand. Substitute with lemon if you have it, but the cider vinegar gives it a nice appley sourness.
I’ve been stirring it through fresh pasta with a showering of finely grated smoked cheese. It also tastes good slathered on a good slice of bread with some soft goats cheese on top and a light drizzle of olive oil.
INGREDIENTS
100g wild garlic
1 tbsp chopped mint
50g walnuts, toasted and chopped
50g parmesan
Splash of raw apple cider vinegar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Chop the wild garlic and add to a food processer with the mint, walnuts, parmesan and vinegar. Pulse to blend to a rough consistency. Season and add a drizzle of olive oil and pulse again until you get the consistency you like, adding more olive oil according to your taste.