Tong Ho Pesto

a love letter to chrysanthemum greens

The other day I was talking to a new friend and they asked me what my typical work day looks like. I stumbled over my words for a moment and muttered “well, every day looks different and there’s not one typical work day for me.” Which I then realized is not totally true. I went on to explain how I try to organize the days of the week with consistent intentions. Mondays, for example, are reserved for grocery shopping, washing/prepping/storing ingredients, and general prep to start off the week feeling somewhat on top of things. That “prep” normally entails making my emotional support tuna salad and some easily accessible lunch options so I remember to eat normally and not just fill up on Honey Habanero Scones for lunch. Tuesday through Thursday are for recipe testing in the mornings and then shooting content in the afternoon while the light is good. Fridays are my favorite because for the last year or so I’ve treated them almost like Summer Fridays, where my only goals are to swim while the sun is out, deep clean the kitchen, respond to emails, and fold laundry while watching a movie I’ve seen a million times so I only have to half pay attention. Light work, but still work that needs to be done. Bookending my work week in routines and rituals helps me feel grounded and not spiral so much when my recipe tests don’t go quite according to plan.

this week’s grocery list

A major part of my Monday routine is make my grocery list, it soothes my adhd-leaning brain. I cross reference all the things I have planned to cook during the week and I organize the items by general sections of the grocery store. Sometimes I’ll have to add a fifth category but produce, proteins, dairy, pantry have been working well for me so far! I always date them because they almost feel like journal entries. I have notebooks spanning years with grocery lists that give me a silly little snapshot at what I was making and eating that particular week. My list the week of Lunar New Year barely fits on one page and occasionally I see a trend and remember that for a few months we were obsessed with Quorn nuggets (dark days of 2020). In a few months or even years from now, I’ll look back on the grocery lists of spring 2024 and the months leading up to then, and notice that at the very top of the each produce list is a check box for Tong Ho because I could stop making pesto and salads with it.

Tong Ho are chrysanthemum greens or sometimes called crown of daisies. You can find them at practically every Asian grocery store. Since Berkeley Bowl is Japanese owned, I can always find beautifully frilly bundles of them there. These are the stems and greens of chrysanthemum flowers, while the plant are still young. Sometimes you’ll see a few small flower buds on the stems but even those are still delicious! If the plant gets mature enough to flower, the greens can get a little bitter but still taste great in soup or a stir-fry. The flowers are often picked and dried to make chrysanthemum tea, my family’s tea of choice at dim sum.

Springtime is the one of the best times to enjoy tong ho. They have a wonderfully sweet and herbaceous flavor and taste faintly peppery like arugula but not as aggressive. In my next book, Chinese Enough, I have a recipe for a Chrysanthemum Green Salad with Lap Cheong Vinaigrette and it might be my favorite salad ever (I made it for my Dad last year and I’ve never seen him eat so much salad before). Who do I talk to get a bag salad kit made?

I think that tong ho tastes best raw, but if you are going to cook it do so very sparingly. In soups, hotpot, or stir-fries it only needs a few moments to cook, otherwise it can get bitter and mushy.

For the last few months I’ve been tinkering with this Tong Ho Pesto and it just keeps tasting better and better. It’s a fun way of incorporating an asian leafy green into something you could easily eat everyday! So here’s the recipe for those of you who have been intrigued by tong ho or love it as much as I do!

I started making making Tong Ho Pesto by throwing in a few basil leaves into the mix because I wasn’t sure if it would be pesto-y enough, but with each iteration I reduced the amount of basil and upped the tong ho until eventually I realized it didn’t need any basil at all. Tong ho already has the natural herbaceous quality that you would otherwise get from the basil, but lends a more complex flavor with nutty and grassy notes that taste amazing with some nuts, parm, and garlic. To lock in the verdant color of the tong ho, I blanch the greens in hot water for a few seconds and then shock them in cold water. Quickly blanching the greens helps give the pesto a creamier texture too.

I’ve enjoyed the Tong Ho Pesto with pasta of course, but I’ve also dolloped it over bubbly focaccia, cooked eggs in it, mixed it into a vinaigrette, and layered it into a hearty sandwich. I’ll probably make a tong ho pesto lasagne this weekend!

I love this pesto so much-o and I hope you find lots of delicious uses for it in your life too!

Tong Ho (Chrysanthemum Greens) Pesto

Makes about 4 cups

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350g (about 6 cups) chopped tong ho

115g ( about 1 cup grated) parmesan, cut into 1” chunks

80g (1 cup) roasted walnuts or pistachios

20g (4 to 5) garlic cloves

1 1/2 tsp coarse salt

240g (1 1/4 cups) olive oil

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and fill another large bowl with ice and water for an ice bath. Add the tong ho into the boiling water and cook until bright green, 15 to 20 seconds. Transfer the tong ho to the ice bath to lock in the color and allow it chill for 5 minutes. Drain the water and press the tong ho between a kitchen towel to squeeze out any excess moisture. Give the tong ho a quick rough chop.

2. Add the parmesan into the food processor and pulse until coarsely crumbly. Add walnuts or pistachios, garlic, and salt and pulse again until crumbly. Add the tong ho and pulse until the mixture is green. Continue to pulse while pouring in the olive oil and until the pesto is creamy and bright green.

3. Use the pesto immediately or transfer the pesto into an airtight container and drizzle a little more olive oil over top to seal it in. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Pasta notes: For a creamy pesto pasta, I heated 1/2 cup of heavy cream in a pan over medium heat and then stirred 1 cup of tong ho pesto until it smooth and bright green. Add in cooked pasta (I used about 8oz of dried shells and don’t rinse the pasta) and toss to coat. The addition of cream really helps the pesto cling onto the pasta!