Eating from the wild: Nasturtium Pesto

Melinda Nakagawa
Jun 9
6 min read

This spring I've been exploring wild foods growing in my backyard and in nearby wild spaces. From fern fiddle necks to wild leeks, and now nasturtium pesto. How do I know that these plants aren’t toxic and that they won’t make me ill if I chew on a stem or nibble some leaves?

I've been carefully observing and expanding my awareness about plants, using my nature journal to document my exploration, learning and identifying.

My eclectic background includes my work as a scientist, professional naturalist, and floral designer. I also grew up on a flower farm and spent most of my childhood-to-adult-life practicing Japanese flower arranging.

Through these experiences I've honed my ability to notice subtleties in plants and trees, to know what to look for, and how to describe, remember, and get a 'feel' for them.

Even with this knowledge, I remain open to learning more, and expanding my skills and understanding into other types of plants for food and medicine. I do my own studying and research before eating something someone tells me about or that I see posted online. My nature journal has been my companion, capturing my notes and questions as they arise.

Most recently around foraging, I have discovered a new joy: nasturtium pesto. I;ve never eaten the leaves before.

I first read about this in the Whole Seed Catalog where they included a pesto recipe! I also have been learning about backyard edible plants in a new book The Backyard guide to edible wild plants about how you can make pesto with all kinds of leaves. Between these two sources I got excited to try making my own nasturtium leaf pesto.

I have nasturtium plants growing in my garden for the second year in a row and they have been spreading happily across the expanse of shade beneath our south facing deck with their vibrant red-orange blossoms.

Last week I decided it was the right time-- I found a recipe for nasturtium pesto online that called for about 20 leaves, so I went out to collect them.

I'm an intuitive cook, so I don't always follow recipes exactly-- so I combined my own basil pesto recipe with other recipes I found online, making modifications on the fly.

I cleaned and tore up about 20 nasturtium leaves and put them in my small high-power blender, with a handful of raw cashews, fresh squeezed lemon juice, a sprinkling of vegan parmesan, some salt, and coconut oil. Note: I was out of olive oil at the time so I made do with the best substitution I had. But next time I will not use coconut oil because it solidifies at room temperature and gets rock hard when cold.

I opened the lid to my blender and was blown away by the fragrance--- oooh so peppery!!

The color amazed me --a vibrant GREEN that didn't oxidize to brown like basil does. And it had a pungently, floral peppery flavor!

My husband thought it tasted too 'green' for him , and he didn't like it (he suggested blending it with some basil). My daughter wasn't interested in it.

So, it was all for me, which was perfect because I LOVED it sooooo much!

Over the following week I had nasturtium pesto with everything!

Spread inside a mock-tuna salad sandwich
tossed with warm pasta
spread over a fresh sourdough baguette
a dip for crunchy rice crackers
stirred into mushroom-quinoa soup
a dip for fresh steamed cauliflower florets
tossed with crisp-tender seared snap peas
in a salad in place of salad dressing
what else??

Mindful at each step

I wanted to add that it was really meaningful to be present in all the steps of the process of making nasturtium pesto.

Noticing the vines: which ones had the healthiest leaves? (Don't take too many from one plant- spread out the picking.)
Smelling the peppery fragrance wafting up as I snapped the stems off the vine- they make a nice snappy sound only when I bent the stem in a particular way- so I tried to repeat it each time--that way i didn't need shears to cut them- it’s as if the plant was giving me permission
Asking Permission: Yes- and I asked permission, thanking the plant with every leaf I collected.
I also collected a few flowers, noticing and appreciating their colors, patterns and fragrance. I have a hard time eating flowers because they are too pretty and I feel bad! 😂
Wonder: I was excited as I prepared my ingredients, anticipating with curiosity: "What will this taste like???"
Notice smell and color: After the pesto was made and I poured it into a bowl- it smelled heavenly, and glistened a deep sap green (like my watercolor paint with the same name)
Flavor: I enjoyed the deep flavors with every bite-- tasting the sunshine and rain that fed the leaves!!
Gratitude: For the plant that grew these tasty leaves and made it
possible for me to receive the sun and rain in this way. For my ability to make this pesto, too.

Sensory adjectives

I have a hard time describing this flavor- and now I understand why everywhere I read descriptions on pesto- they just call it "peppery." It's a complex flavor.

We don't use a lot of nuanced or descriptive words to describe sensory experiences like taste, smell, and sound, and maybe even touch.

We might say it's 'good’ or ‘nice’ or ‘tasty’ but lack descriptive words that would give an good indication of what the flavor actually is!

Through nature journaling, I've found that when we don't know or can’t find a word to describe something we can use a simile-- 'it's like' or 'it reminds me of,' for example. These might be even better ways of describing something indescribable!

(▶️Here's my recent workshop in Describing the Indescribable for International Nature Journaling Week last week, and it highlights nasturtiums too! Replay here )

So, here's how I would describe nasturtium pesto:

pungent
peppery- kind of like the way wasabi goes into your nose- but not as strong.
floral
sweetness
tangy
and a bit grassy.....

Whew! that's a lot of flavor! It is ooooh sooooo delicious!! I think I'll be making batches to freeze to use over the winter.

Resourceful harvest, sharing the bounty

For some, nasturtiums are appreciated and welcomed. For others, this plant grows profusely in an invasive way, up tree trunks and through plants to take over garden.

I personally think it's gorgeous to have these pops of vibrant, happy flower faces peeking out. If you're not too keen on having them in your place, remember that in winter they'll die back, disappearing so you wouldn't know they were so prolific months before.

If you have nasturtiums taking over your yard, a pesto or salad is also a great way to use up the plants. Instead of cursing them as you pull them up, why not thank them, remove them with gratitude, and blend them into a pesto?

Transforming leaves into pesto might be a less wasteful way of using both the sun and the plant’s energy to FEED you instead of turning it into yard waste.

Or maybe share your bounty with a gift of homemade pesto to your neighbors or friends? (If you live near me I'd be happy to turn those gorgeous leaves into a tasty pesto!)

Now, your turn

Visit Nasturtiums Do you know of a patch of nasturtiums in your nearby nature? Nasturtiums grow from seeds really easily and you can return to the flower patch later in the summer and collect the seeds to replant in your garden!
Try making pesto? If you harvest in the wild, I'd recommend ensuring that the plants are not sprayed with chemicals.

How would you describe the experience of basil pesto--flavors, smells? Practice experimenting with words, or finding similes. And, if you make nasturtium pesto let me know what you think!

Get a book from your local library on cooking or wild foraging and learn what's in your nearby nature that's edible
- I'd recommend this book: The Backyard guide to edible wild plants It's got lots of flowers, leaves, plants, and trees that are common in backyards across the United States! You can buy from my online store and help to support me as well as independent booksellers
Keep a garden journal: note the things that grow around you, what they do at each season, are they edible or do they have healing qualities?
Nature Journal your learning process: sketch a plant to develop your skill of noticing the fine details that will allow you to identify them

Let me know what you discover!

Take a nature pause and reconnect with nature: Drawn into Nature Journey June:

In June, I'm offering 16 time slots for you to join me LIVE online to explore your conversation with nature with your nature journal.

See my event calendar for all online and in-person events! Breathe aliveness into your journaling practice.

Upcoming Retreats with Melinda:

July 2025 Sierra Nevada Field Campus: wait listed
October 2025 Two nature journaling retreats in Greece!
- Oct 3-10 Unhurried retreat to Pelion
- Oct 10-17 Nature journling in Pelion