WE ARE OPEN AGAIN!

Hello Loose shoppers,

Thank you for your patience during the last two weeks, while we moved to 33 High Street! We are now OPEN for you and look forward to welcoming you into our bigger and improved shop.

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For this week's recipe, we'd like to take another opportunity to celebrate the spring greens that are sprouting up everywhere; and make another wild foraged greens pesto!

Did you know you can make pesto with so many different ingredients than the classic pine nuts and parmesan?

Here is a basic pesto recipe from Gala's Organic Kitchen that you can adjust to suit your liking and needs. Enjoy.

PESTO BASICS

(If you prefer videos you can find a pea pesto video here. It's very organic but works.)

You can make pesto with nearly every green plant. Here are rough amounts for you to play with. Choose from the following:

1 decent sized bunch of basil, or coriander, parsley, kale, spinach, dandelion, nettle, or any other wild herbs such as cleaver, ground elder or even beech tree or Hawthorn leaves. 

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, theoretically you could substitute for another oil, but I would not. I'd stick to olive oil for sure. (Loose stocks really good carbon-footprint-free olive oil. )

1/4 cup dry roasted or raw seeds or nuts of your choice: pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, pine nuts. (Raw or toasted.) 

1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

Pepper, to taste, if you like

1 tbsp lemon juice, or to taste

1 clove garlic, or to taste. (If using wild garlic, you naturally don't have to add extra garlic, but if using other greens, you absolutely do have to add garlic.)

ACTION!

Place all pesto ingredients in a blender or mini food processor and blend for about a minute until your desired consistency is reached. Some like it super smooth, I like it a little chunky, but it depends on the current mood. 

Adjust seasoning to taste. 

Place in a sterilised jar and cover with olive oil keeps for weeks. If you are like me and have to use up your fresh herbs quickly before they go too limp, make a batch and freeze it. That works wonders and makes for a marvellous surprising nutritious meal when found in the back of the freezer.

For the Kale Pesto, place the kale in a pot of boiling salted water. Cook without a lid for roughly 1-2 minutes, or just until it turns bright green. Refresh in cold water so that the kale retains its colour. If your digestion is up to it, the kale can also be added raw; no worries. 

Boil your pasta, drain and passionately mix through the pesto, and if you wanted to you could add vegetables, tofu, vegan parmesan and olives.

Buon appetito!  

See you in the new shop!

The Loose Team.