This carrot top pesto recipe is one of my daughter’s favorite snack recipes for kids! If you’re wondering what to do with the tops of carrots (the greens of carrots), don’t throw them out! Use carrot leaves for cooking, recipes, and even eating carrot tops raw (like a carrot top salad!) for fun garden recipes.
The Best Carrot Top Pesto Recipe Ever!
Using carrot tops in pesto is a great way to have zero food waste with your garden carrots or grocery store carrots. Such a great way to teach kids to cook!
How To Make Carrot Tops Pesto
Carrot Greens Pesto Ingredients:
- Fresh carrot greens (aka: carrot tops / fresh carrot leaves, not the entire vegetable)
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Green onions
- Lemon juice
- Lemon zest
- Garlic
- Nuts or seeds (optional) – walnuts, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, pistachios, cashew nuts, pepitas, sunflower seeds, etc. (we’ve made ours as a walnut carrot top pesto and also pine nut pesto)
- Black pepper
- Salt
KEEP SCROLLING for the free printable recipe card for the carrot pesto recipe make from fresh carrots tops!
One year we were talking more about food waste with my daughter. We had this bunch of carrots from our garden, with beautiful carrot tops and it just felt wrong to throw the carrot tops out or into the compost bin.
This started an entire discussion about what to do with leftover carrot tops. We love making classic basil pesto and eating it as a healthy snack, so we decided to make pesto out of carrot tops and it turned out to be THE BEST pesto ever!
This tasty carrot top pesto recipe was so good that my daughter still talks about it! It’s one of our favorite recipes that we’ve ever made and is a healthy snack for kids or even as a pesto topping for soups, salads, chicken, pasta and more!
RECIPE NOTE (IF MAKING THIS RECIPE WITH YOUNG CHILDREN): This is a carrot top pesto easy recipe, but there are a few different steps so it takes a little while. This is normal if you’ve never made homemade pesto before. (See the step-by-step pesto instructions below.) Don’t miss ideas for theme activities for kids to go with this recipe at the bottom of the post.
About Eating Carrot Tops and Cooking With Carrot Tops
Let’s first start with a question everyone seems to have: Are raw carrot tops edible?
Can you eat carrot tops?
YES! You can eat carrot top greens (carrot greens or the green leaves of carrots), so don’t throw out those carrot tops. They’re delicious raw (with an earthy or nutty flavor) or cooked in dishes and used in recipes. Our favorite way is to use carrot tops for pesto!
What can you do with the tops of carrots?
There are so many recipes for carrot tops!
You can use carrot tops greens in:
- Pesto
- Salads (or mixed with salad greens)
- Soups
- Hot pasta dishes
- Eggs, omelets, quiches, and fritattas
- Dips
- Carrot top juice
- Green drinks or healthy toddler smoothies (or juice carrot tops for any drink)
- Hummus
- Carrot top pesto potatoes
- Homemade veggie stock
- Carrot top tea (for real!)
- As a substitute for parsley
- Garnish
Honestly, any recipe or dish that you use leafy greens in, you can also use the tops of carrots. You can even use it for carrot top pesto pasta salad (or carrot top pesto risotto) or even carrot top pesto pizza! You can definitely play around with carrot top recipes!
37 Ways To Use Carrot Top Pesto
- Pasta sauce
- Sandwich spread
- Soup garnish
- Marinade for meats and vegetables
- Salad dressing
- Pizza topping
- Mixed with roasted vegetables
- Dip for crackers or vegetables
- Stirred into risotto
- Tossed with cooked grains (quinoa, rice, etc.)
- Topping for chicken or fish
- Veggie burger topping
- Mixed into hummus
- Spread on bruschetta or crostini
- Drizzled over grilled shrimp or scallops
- Added to scrambled eggs or omelets
- Mixed into mashed potatoes
- Tossed with steamed or sautéed greens
- Stirred into bean salads
- Spread on wraps or quesadillas
- Mixed into creamy dips (e.g., sour cream or yogurt-based dips)
- Brushed on grilled or roasted corn on the cob
- Tossed with cooked pasta and cherry tomatoes
- Used as a condiment for grilled sausages or hot dogs
- Drizzled over avocado toast
- Blended into a salad dressing or vinaigrette
- Added to a cheese platter or charcuterie board like this for extra flavor
- Mixed with cooked lentils
- Used as a topping for baked potatoes
- Mixed with mayonnaise for a unique sandwich spread
- Used on flatbreads
- Used as a base for vegetable or grain bowls
- Spread on a savory tart or quiche before baking
- Used as a dip for roasted or steamed artichokes
- Added to a grilled cheese sandwich
- Drizzled over grilled asparagus or zucchini
GREAT TO PAIR WITH THIS RECIPE: Easy Air Fried Bagel Chips
Can you make pesto without nuts?
Nuts are usually a main ingredient in pesto, but you can make this carrot top pesto recipe no nuts. (We make it as a carrot top and walnut pesto or pine nut pesto.) However, nut free carrot top pesto is still good!
Next time we’re going to try this as a carrot top pumpkin seed pesto with roasted pumpkin seeds!
ALSO CHECK OUT THIS EASY COOKING HACK: What Are Alternatives For Rice In Recipes?
Can you freeze carrot top pesto?
You can easily freeze carrot pesto! For freezing carrot top pesto, spoon the prepared pesto into clean and airtight freezer-safe containers, freezer bags, or ice cube trays. Leave some room at the top so the pesto can expand when frozen. Defrost before using in dishes or as a dip.
How To Make Delicious Carrot Top Pesto From Scratch
If you don’t have fresh garden carrots, head to the farmers market or a trusted market where you can get fresh produce and whole carrots with long tops still attached.
Also, I didn’t add it into this recipe (because we like pesto without cheese too), but we sometimes add in the traditional 1/3 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese you see in classic pesto recipes, too.
This is an easy recipe to double for a party or if you want to freeze the pesto for later.
RECIPE NOTE: Carrot top pesto is a naturally a very green color. (Those aren’t filters on the carrot top pesto pictures here! It really is a bright green shocking color!). If you refrigerate your pesto, you may notice that the green color gets duller. That’s OK! It’s still a delicious pesto!
Here’s our favorite recipe with carrot tops…
Best Carrot Top Pesto Recipe
Ingredients
- Green carrot tops from 1 large bunch of carrots washed, chopped, and stems removed (yields about 1 cup when cooked)
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice 1/2 fresh-squeezed lemon
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest optional (zest from half a lemon)
- 3 large green onion stems chopped (green parts only)
- 1/2 cup walnuts optional, or any other nut or seed
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- TO BLANCH CARROT TOPS
- Remove thick, tough stems from carrot greens and discard or compost.
- Bring a small pot of water to boil.
- While waiting for water to boil, prepare an ice bath bowl with cold water and ice cubes.
- Once water is boiling, add the carrot tops and boil quickly for around 1-2 minutes.
- Using tongs, remove the carrots tops from boiling water and immediately place into the ice bath to stop the cooking process.
- Allow tops to cool and then place on paper towel lined plate to drain. (You may need to gently squeeze carrot tops to get excess water out.)
- TO MAKE CARROT GREEN PESTO
- To a food processor or blender, add cooked carrot tops, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, onion greens, and walnuts. Blend until a chunky paste forms, stopping to scrape down any that is stuck on the side.
- Working 1 tablespoon at a time, slowly add olive oil until all olive oil is used and pesto is combined.
- Add salt and pepper to taste. You can also add a little more lemon juice for more taste.
- Cool and serve with crackers (we love pita crackers!), crusty bread, or even as a pesto topping for soups or pasta.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. (You may see the green color change, but it's still good to eat within that time frame.)
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Note
Nutrition calculations are approximate. If you're following a special diet, please calculate your own nutrition values.
Recipe And Read For Carrot Tops In Pesto
For a fun kids recipe paired with children’s books, use any of these great kids’ books or garden theme books for kids to go with the carrot leaf pesto recipe. Since this is a zero-waste recipe, I think it would be great for a reduce, reuse, recycle study unit, too.
MORE FUN KIDS ACTIVITIES LIKE THIS:
How To Plant a Victory Garden with Kids
Easy Earth Day Garden Activities For Kids (Fun Recycled Materials Crafts Any Time Of Year!)
Children’s Books To Pair With Recipes For Vegetable Theme (or Garden Theme):
- The Carrot Seed
- Zero Waste Kids: Hands-On Projects and Activities to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
- Too Many Carrots
- My Magical Foods
- GROW: How We Get Food from Our Garden
- That’s My Carrot!
- Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt: (Nature Book for Kids, Gardening and Vegetable Planting, Outdoor Nature Book)
ALSO TRY THIS EASY HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE RECIPE
