Scapes

Its garlic scape season! These green spirals are at every farmers market from sea to shining sea! If you've never used these curly beauties I highly recommend them. They can seem intimidating as they are pretty unique looking and they are very firm.  They have an amazing garlic flavor and are juicy when you slice them up.  I decided to make a raw vegan pesto and an infused olive oil. 

This was the first time I have ever made a pesto actually. I did lots or searching for different pesto recipes and mixed and matched all the things that looked appealing to me. But I then added a few curved balls. I promise it will not disappoint you.

Garlic Pesto
3 Garlic Scapes
1/2 cup fresh Basil
2 tbsp pine nuts
1 tbsp cashews
3 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup Bib or Boston lettuce
2 tsp tahini
BIG pinch Cayenne pepper
pinch of salt and pepper

Blend everything together in the food processor and enjoy!

The second scape creation is a spicy basil scape infused olive oil which was delicious on my dinner salad. Believe it or not this is much more time consuming than the first recipe.

Spicy Basil and Scape Infuse Olive Oil
1 Garlic Scape
2 tbsp Fresh Basil
1/2 tbsp chili pepper flakes
1 cup olive oil

Heat all ingredients in a pan until the oil starts lightly sizzling then turn off heat but do not remove the pan and let oil come to room temperature. Then do it again. Strain the oil and enjoy! its so great!

Need an idea for how to use the pesto? Pizza of coarse! I got a portobello mushroom cap flipped it upside down covered the bottom, which is actually the mushroom top, with olive oil.  Then i spread the pesto over it and sprinkled some vegan cheese on it and baked it for a half an hour. When it was done i sprinkled some basil and poured a balsamic glaze on top. It was wonderful.

I hope youve gotten excited about scapes, now get cooking!