Spruce Tip Pesto with Walnuts

If you love wild foods and eating with the seasons, or like to cook simple and real stuff, this spruce tip pesto is something you’ll want to make on repeat. It’s super quick to make, full of fresh flavor, and way better than anything you’ll find sitting on a grocery store shelf.

We made it with freshly foraged spruce tips, fresh parsley, walnuts, parmesan cheese and organic olive oil — no weird things, just real ingredients. Spruce tips add a bright, citrusy flavor and pair perfectly with refreshing parsley and walnuts. It’s easy to make, easy to store, and it’s loaded with vitamin C. Simple and seriously tasty.

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Spruce tips – a gift from the forest

Spruce tips are one of the easiest wild foods to gather in spring. Once you know what to look for— soft, bright green tips growing on the ends of spruce branches—you’ll start spotting them everywhere. They’re great for beginners and fun for kids too.

While most conifer tips are edible, spruce tips are by far the best-tasting. They’ve got a mild, citrusy flavor that’s fresh and not too resinous. They’re full of good stuff, too. Vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, and natural oils like limonene help with coughs and chest colds. Plus, they’ve have some amazing antibacterial properties, and a nice dose of chlorophyll and carotenoids.

Storing them is simple: keep them in the fridge for up to a month, dry them or pop them into a freezer so you can use them all year long.

And how to use them? We always put up a batch of spruce tip syrup. It’s incredibly useful, it’s one of those old remedies that really makes sense to keep on hand. Spruce tip pesto is another great way to store them.

You can also blend them into spruce sugar or salt and they’re great in drinks like spruce tip soda or herbal tea. Where they realy shine is desserts – spruce tip cakes, cookies, or spruce tip ice cream. There’s really so much you can do with spruce tips.

Spruce tip pesto ingredients

SPRUCE TIPS – Head out for a walk with a basket and grab some fresh spruce tips while they’re still soft and bright green. They’re easy to spot and full of vitamin C—a free little boost from the forest. Your kitchen will be glad you brought them home.

PARSLEY – We tossed in a handful of parsley, and it works really well with the spruce flavor. I used some from the garden—last year’s plants that got a little out of control. This is a great way to put them to good use.

PARMESAN CHEESE – If you can, buy the block and grate it yourself. Pre-shredded cheese often has stuff added that you don’t really need. You can swap it with Grana Padano or even better, a local hard cheese you like.

WALNUTS – I like to use what grows around here, and walnuts are perfect for that. Sure, you could use pine nuts or cashews, but it just makes sense to stick with what’s local when you can.

GARLIC – Fresh garlic is the way to go. We used 7 cloves of homegrown garlic (it’s smaller), but be careful not to overdo it—you don’t want it to overpower the spruce tips. Also, some garlic can be stronger than others, so you might want to start small and adjust the amount gradually.

OLIVE OIL – Organic, cold-pressed olive oil DOES make a difference! You don’t want to spoil wild food with cheap olive oil. Too many chemicals and a taste too harsh for spruce tips.

LEMON JUICE – We used fresh organic lemon juice, just a little – one teaspoon is enough.

SALT – Just a pinch to bring out all the flavors.

BLACK PEPPER – Totally optional, but I like the way it adds a little warmth and rounds out the flavor.

ROSEMARY (optional) – We added a pinch of dried rosemary needles, but you can use any herbs you love—just make sure they pair well with that bright spruce flavor.

Homemade spruce tip pesto recipe

STEP 1: Pour the olive oil into your blender, then add the spruce tips and parsley. Slice in those garlic cloves and sprinkle in a pinch of salt and black pepper. I’ve added a few needles of dried rosemary, too.

STEP 2: Now blend—and keep blending for at least a few minutes until it’s really smooth. You want a nice, creamy pesto without little needle bits getting stuck in your teeth. It takes a bit of time, but trust me, it’s worth it!

STEP 3: Once the mix looks nice and smooth, add a few drops of lemon juice, walnuts, and parmesan cheese. You can grate the cheese if you want, but cutting it into small pieces works just as well. Give it another blend until everything’s well combined and creamy.

STEP 4: Give it a taste before calling it done. Add a bit more salt and black pepper if it needs it, or a little bit more olive oil if you want to make it smoother. And that’s it—your spruce tip pesto is ready to go!

STEP 6: Spoon your pesto into a clean jar or container. You can serve it right away, or pop it in the fridge—it’ll taste even better the next day once all the flavors have had time to blend and soak up that fresh spruce tip aroma.

How to use it

Spread it on toast—we love it on homemade buckwheat bread, but it’s just as good on crackers. A slice of cheese or tomato works great with that.

Enjoy it as a sauce for pasta or gnocchi—it tastes delightful with homemade noodles and makes a cozy chanterelle risotto even better. Or keep it simple with dumplings and a spoonful of spruce tip pesto on top. Don’t forget a sprinkle of cheese!

Add it to pizzas or appetizers. Try it on a pan pizza or spooned over a black pepper focaccia—either way, it tastes wonderful.

Use it as a dip. It goes perfectly with fresh veggies, and it pairs really well with baked or grilled meat and fish, like our oven-baked mullet. Campfire baked potatoes will do absolutely wonderful with this pesto, too.

Stir it into soups or sauces. Freeze the pesto in ice cube trays so you can toss a cube into comforting soups or anything that needs a little wild, lemony freshness.

And yes—we’ve all been there. Sometimes you just eat it straight off the spoon!

Spruce tip pesto variations

Add other herbs – try it out with basil, stinging nettle, dandelion greens. beet greans or garlic scapes. Maybe sorrel?

Swap the nuts – pesto tastes great with pistachios, cashews, almonds and pine nuts. However, if you wish to stick to local stuff, use hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds.

Play around with the cheese. Grana Padano pesto is just as tasty as Parmesan, and other hard cheeses like aged goat cheese, sheep cheese, or Pecorino will add their own charm. You can even mix in a little ricotta if you want it extra creamy. Pesto with ricotta is rich and smooth, but very light and refreshing.

How to store it

Spruce tip pesto can be stored in the fridge for up to a few weeks. To keep it as fresh as possible, cover it with an extra layer of olive oil and keep it in closed jars.

It will keep well for up to six months when frozen. I sometimes freeze mine in old yogurt cups covered with foil. The coziest way to freeze it is in ice cube trays. Once the cubes are frozen and solid, transfer them to a zip-top bag. That way, you can thaw just what you need, when you need it.

And of course, you can freeze unprocessed spruce tips in bags and use them to create wonderful dishes (and a few cups of fresh tea) all year round.

Tips for foraging spruce tips

Gather your spruce tips while they’re still young and soft. Once they get older, the needles get longer and tougher, and it will be harder to blend them into a smooth pesto.

Don’t forage near dusty roads and places that might have been polluted with chemicals. Spruce tips are easy to find, so this might be your inspiration to go deeper into the forest.

Don’t pick spruce tips right after a heavy rainfall. They lose some of their precious contents when they’re washed off. Wait for a few days of sunshine to bring back their full power.

Be responsible – don’t pluck all the spruce tips from one tree. Those trees need them to keep growing. It might be a better idea to forage from older spruce trees.

Only take what you need. We usually gather just enough to make a batch of spruce tip syrup (that’ll last through the year), some pesto, a dessert or two like spruce tip cakes and ice cream, and a little extra to freeze or dry for tea.

Be sure to identify the right species – some conifer trees like Yew pine (Taxus baccata) or Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) are toxic. Do your homework before you head out to the woods.

Check for ticks when you come home. Depending on where you live, ticks can already be abundant at this time of year. Remember, it needs to be glued to your skin for more than 24 hours to spread diseases, so a shower and a quick check-up in the evening can prevent this scenario.

Spruce tip pesto FAQs

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We’re excited to share that our recipe was featured over at Angie’s Fiesta Friday!

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