Wild Garlic Recipe from Claire Hanley

As we are stuck at home and staying within our 5km, we are all starting to appreciate nature and find exciting edible things to smell and eat on our daily walks.

We thought we would ask Claire Hanley – our food and events partner – to share a Spring recipe with our community for the Easter break. Claire is a huge fan of Wild Garlic, and she was just out the other day to pick some. Wild Garlic is one of the magical gifts that nature gives us at this time of the year. See below some tips on how to pick and use it in the kitchen.

While Claire and her team cannot host in–person events in the King’s Inns Dining Hall, where we would welcome a lot of members and guests throughout the year for conferences, meetings and family occasions, they are keeping busy operating a delivery service where you can order from their weekly ‘click and collect’ service.

If you are looking for an Easter delivery, check out their easter menus here. Easter deliveries are available on Friday 2 April and Saturday 3 April. Orders must be placed by COB on Wednesday, 31 March 2021.

For more information about Claire Hanley Catering, visit their website clairehanley.ie.

Wild Garlic

Make sure you give wild garlic a good wash in cold water before eating. Flowers and seed pods can simply be added to salads; the flower stems can be chopped and used like chives. Bigger leaves can be wilted like spinach or blitzed into oil, pesto or dressing. 

What grows together goes together; wild garlic works with other spring ingredients like lamb, trout, salmon and new potatoes.

Where to get Wild Garlic

1. Forage while on your daily walks in parks and forests or along roadsides and laneways. Be careful not to pick leaves next to bustling roads or lanes where dogs are regularly walking.
2. Use all your senses to identify the wild garlic; it may look like wild garlic, but if it doesn’t smell garlic, it is not wild garlic.
3. Only pick a handful to allow the next person to get some.
4. If you don’t have time to forage or cannot find some growing within your 5km, check local good food stores and grocers.

A recipe for Wild Garlic Pesto

Ingredients

• Wild garlic leaves, 200 grams
• Parmesan or another hard grating cheese, finely grated, 50 grams
• ½ lemon, zest and juice
• Walnuts, toasted, 60 grams
• Extra virgin olive oil, 150 grams
• Pinch of sea salt, to taste
• Few grinds of black pepper, to taste 

Method

1. Rinse and roughly chop the wild garlic leaves.
2. Blitz the wild garlic leaves, parmesan, garlic, lemon zest and walnuts to a rough paste in a food processor. Season and with the motor running slowly, add almost all the oil. Taste, season, and add a few squeezes of lemon juice.
3. Transfer the pesto to a clean jar and top up the jar with the remaining oil. It will keep in the fridge for two weeks.

Suggestions for its use 

• A dip with freshly baked sourdough or focaccia bread
• Toss fresh–cooked pasta in wild garlic pesto and serve with the wild garlic flowers and some freshly–grated parmesan
• As part of a cheeseboard
• Drizzle over roast potatoes
• Add to bread crumbs to make a stuffing for lamb
• Serve with a roast spatchcock chicken 
• Serve with roast lamb, beef or salmon