Easy Carrot Top Pesto Recipe

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I’m a stay-at-home mom turned home design and DIY expert. I've discovered the thrill of creating a beautiful, functional home, and I'm here to inspire and teach you to do the same

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Published August 12, 2026

There is not much better than walking out back and pulling dinner straight out of the ground. I love growing our own food, and the longer I do it, the more I notice how much of the plant we have all been taught to throw away. Carrot tops are the perfect example. You pull a carrot, snap off those gorgeous feathery greens, and into the trash or compost pile they go, when the greens are totally edible and more versatile than we give them credit for. Enter my carrot top pesto recipe.

Close-up of carrot top pesto in a white bowl garnished with pine nuts and a carrot green frond, served alongside a caprese platter

We just harvested carrots from the garden, and instead of using only the carrot root, I made carrot top pesto. It is fresh and green and just a little peppery, and even better, it cost me almost nothing, because the main ingredient came from the part most people compost.

Why Carrot Tops Make Such Good Pesto

Here is the thing nobody tells you: carrot tops are edible, and they are actually really good. They taste like a cross between parsley and carrot, herby and a little earthy, with none of the bitterness people warn you about, as long as you stick to the leaves and skip the tough stems.

Pesto made with only basil is too strong a flavor in my opinion. I typically make pesto with a mix of basil and spinach. Using spinach or carrot tops mellows out the basil so it sits nicely in the background where it belongs.

Crystel holding a bunch of freshly pulled garden carrots with the leafy greens still attached, standing in front of her greenhouse

The other reason I love this carrot top pesto is that it’s practically free food. If you are growing carrots and basil, you already have the main ingredients sitting in your garden bed. If you buy carrots at the farmers market with the tops still attached, same deal. Anytime I can turn something headed for the trash can into dinner, I am in. If you are thinking about growing your own, I walked through our whole setup in my backyard garden post: How to Start a Backyard Garden From Scratch.

What You’ll Need For Carrot Top Pesto

Ingredients

2 cups carrot tops, packed, leaves only
½ cup fresh basil leaves, packed
⅓ cup pine nuts
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Equipment

My garlic roller pops the peels off in seconds, then my garlic twister minces everything in a few spins, no sticky fingers required. If you cook with fresh garlic, these two are worth it.

How Many Carrots Is That

This is the part where I have to be honest with you. It depends entirely on your carrots.

Crystel holding up a small twisted homegrown carrot with the green tops attached, over a sink full of freshly washed garden carrots

Garden carrots pulled young have enormous tops, and three or four plants can fill 2 cups easy. A skinny bunch from the store might take two bunches to get there. Farmers market carrots usually land somewhere in the middle, around one big bunch. Measure by volume, packed down into the cup, and do not stress about the carrot count. There is no way to ruin this by being a little over or under.

How To Make Carrot Top Pesto

Step 1: Toast the pine nuts. Put them in a dry skillet over medium-low heat with no oil and shake the pan every so often until they smell nutty and turn light golden. Then get them out of the pan and onto a plate to cool.

Step 2: Strip and wash the greens. Pull the feathery leaves off the stems and leave the stems behind, because they are tough and stringy and will make your pesto fibrous. Wash the leaves well, since garden greens hide dirt in all those little fronds, and dry them completely. Wet greens water down the pesto.

Step 3: Blend everything but the oil. Carrot tops, basil, cooled pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, salt, and pepper all go in the food processor. Run it until everything is finely chopped, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides.

Step 4: Stream in the olive oil. With the processor running, pour the oil in slowly and steadily until the pesto pulls together and looks glossy. Adding it gradually is what gets you a smooth sauce instead of a puddle of oil sitting on top of some chopped greens.

Overhead view of carrot top pesto showing its thick, coarse texture and deep green color, finished with pine nuts and a carrot leaf sprig

Ways To Use Carrot Top Pesto

Tossed with hot pasta, thinned out with a splash of the starchy pasta water
Spread on toasted sourdough with a fried egg on top
Spooned over grilled or roasted chicken
Stirred into rice or a grain bowl
As a sandwich spread instead of mayo
Dolloped on roasted potatoes or summer squash
Thinned with a little lemon juice and extra oil for salad dressing
On pizza in place of red sauce

How To Store It

Keep it in an airtight jar in the fridge and pour a thin layer of olive oil over the top to keep the surface from browning. It holds for about five days that way.

For longer storage, spoon it into an ice cube tray and freeze, then pop the cubes into a freezer bag. They keep for around three months, and one cube is about the right amount for a single serving of pasta. If you have a big carrot harvest coming in, freezing is the way to go.

📌 Save This Carrot Top Pesto For Later

Pin this one so you have it the next time you pull carrots or bring home a bunch with the greens still attached. You can find more garden-to-table inspiration over on my backyard garden post, and if you are still deciding what to plant, my vegetable garden planting tips post walks through what has worked for us.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are carrot tops safe to eat?

Yes. There is an old myth floating around that carrot greens are toxic, and it is not true. Carrots are in the same plant family as parsley, dill, and cilantro, and the tops are eaten in plenty of kitchens around the world. Wash them well like you would any other green.

Do carrot tops taste bitter?

They can have a slight bitter edge, but it is mild, and the parmesan, garlic, olive oil, and salt balance it out. Sticking to the leaves and leaving out the woody stems makes the biggest difference.

Can I use a blender instead of a food processor?

You can, but you will need to stop and scrape the sides more often, and you may need a little extra olive oil to get things moving. A food processor handles the low volume of greens better.

What can I use instead of pine nuts?

Walnuts, almonds, pecans, or sunflower seeds all work. Toast whatever you use. Sunflower seeds are the budget pick and they are great here.

How do I make this dairy-free?

Swap the Parmesan for about ¼ cup of nutritional yeast. Start there, taste, and add more if you want it cheesier.

Can I make it without basil?

Yes, just use 2½ cups of carrot tops total. The basil rounds out the flavor, but the pesto works without it.

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