I started making a springtime pesto with pea shoots in my first years of growing peas, when I heavily overplanted the beds and needed to thin them. It turned out to be so delicious that, as I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, I now intentionally plant peas too thickly and pinch off extras; I also snip upper shoots as the plants grow. This not only lets me make fresh pesto long before I can harvest basil but also helps the plants grow bushier and produce more peapods.

I think tender pea shoots are the sweetest and harvest them from both edible pod and shelling peas. Some people consider sugar snap shoots to be the sweetest. Whichever you’re growing, give them a taste while they’re young and delicate.

If you’re not growing peas, look for edible shoots at a farmers’ market. I found the ones in the photo that accompanies this week’s column while visiting the Bellingham Farmers Market. The large bundle of shoots and flowers were more developed than I usually harvest them, so I blended just the leaves and top tendrils from the thickest stalks into pesto.

Learn more about making pesto and get the complete recipe for Pea Shoot Pesto in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

Pea shoots are tasty in many dishes, such as tossed raw in salads or wilted over pasta. Their mild flavor makes them a great option for people who find basil pesto too strong. But if you’re a pesto lover, all sorts of other greens and herbs make delicious, flavor-packed versions.

Garden-Fresh Basil Pesto remains my favorite, especially when pounded with a mortar and pestle and served over fresh homemade pasta. It’s also a popular choice with some of my favorite kid chefs for Personal Pizzas. Yet I make many other pesto varieties that I serve fresh or freeze in cubes to use year-round.

These are some of my favorite pesto combinations:

• My standard basil pesto made with part basil and part mint or with just sorrel and extra lemon zest
• Thai basil blended with sesame oil, lime zest, and pepper flakes
• Arugula and spinach blended with avocado oil, garlic scapes, and lemon juice
• Cilantro pesto made with olive oil and garlic for Mexican dishes or sesame oil, ginger, and rice vinegar for Asian ones
• Mint and parsley pesto made with olive oil, both garlic and ginger, and lemon juice

Use any of these pesto versions as you would basil pesto. As prep shortcuts, thin them with oil and vinegar to make a speedy salad dressing or marinade, or blend them with yogurt and sour cream into an easy dip. When I freeze pesto, I often leave out the cheese and nuts and then add them once I thaw the cubes—or skip them altogether and use the pesto as a quick flavor base. Stir pesto base into Brined and Seasoned Pot Beans, soups, curries, risotto, and more.

Even when I blend garlic scapes with pea shoots or into another spring pesto, I always have extra scapes. Learn more about using garlic scapes and get my recipe for Garlic Scape Aioli in this blog post.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.