Warrigal Greens & Macadamia Nut Pesto

From a recipe published in The Garigal magazine, an indigenous publication emailed to me by Clarence Slockhee, Royal Botanical Gardens and presenter on Gardening Australia.
Adapted a bit by Lucinda

Ingredients

50g macadamia nuts (raw, roasted or salted; your choice) [buy in pieces]

1-2 cloves garlic (or more!)

250g warrigal greens, blanched

~125ml macadamia nut oil or less (original recipe asks for 250ml)

100g parmesan cheese, finely grated [I use goat or sheep’s feta cheese]

salt and pepper to taste [try native pepper berries] for this one I added basil leaves too. A few stalks-worth.

Method

Warrigal greens [stalk can be stringy: just use the first 4-5 leaves from the growing tip]: wash and then blanch in boiling water for a few minutes [to get rid of the oxalic acid, present in all raw spinaches]. Drain (discard water) and cool. [I squeeze the excess water out of the leaves then unscrunch them a bit.] In a good blender, blend the Warrigal greens with the nuts and garlic. Slowly add the oil, then the cheese and, if you wish, salt and pepper.

Serve

Cold as a dip with raw veges (eg carrot and celery sticks, or apple slices dipped in lemon juice) and/ or rice crackers or hot on pasta, yum! Enjoy!