Perilla Pesto!

2025-06-01

4 bright green leaves against a backdrop of tall grass

We've got a plant that grows everywhere around here and by everywhere I mean it. I have a near limitless supply. Perilla frutescens is an annual plant in the mint family native to southeast Asia. It's commonly grown in Korea, China, Japan and India as a crop. Bonus, it attracts butterflies. Another bonus: it's fairly nutritious. 7 carbs and 7 grams of fiber per 100g serving. That serving also provides 23% of daily calcium, 9% iron, 43% of daily vitamin C.

A shallow, cream colored bowl filled with linguini mixed with dark green pesto sitting on a wooden chair against a lush green background of foliage

While there are numerous Korean recipes I just wanted to try it in pesto. I put a big handful of it into a food processor with a couple of big kale leaves, a good bit of garlic chives and blended it with some oil, garlic, salt and 15 peanuts. Super yummy. I'll be making this all summer. Topped it off with vegan parmesan (1/4cup rolled oats, nutritional yeast, garlic powder , salt and some peanuts ground for a couple seconds in a coffee grinder).

Easy, somewhat nutritious and cheap!

I don't have comments but I love email or you can find me on Mastodon.

Share this post

❤️