Zucchini Pasta with Spinach Pesto

You know you're a total food geek when you get excited by a new spiralizer. I accept my geekness and am okay with it. But I have to say that I really love the spiralizer that my dad gave me for my birthday!

I made zucchini noodles with marinated (raw) mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and spinach pesto. Whole Foods used to carry a premade vegan spinach pesto in the fresh pasta section, but they haven't had it in a long time. I used to love it, so I decided to try my hand at making my own. It was very mild and worked really well with the rest of the flavors in this dish. 

Creamy Spinach Pesto

Ingredients:

4 cups spinach, tightly packed

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a food processor fitted with an s-blade. Process until ingredients are chopped and just slightly chunky - do not over process.

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Zucchini Pasta al Pesto

This is really delicious raw dish that's perfect for a warm spring evening. It's zucchini "pasta" with pesto sauce. Zucchini pasta can be made in several ways. I have a spiralizer that transforms the zucchini into either long thin angel hair pasta or thick ribbons. I usually make angel hair pasta, but I accidentally had the blade set to ribbons. It doesn't matter, because either way it's delicious! If you don't have a spiralizer, don't worry! "Spaghetti" can be made using a julianne peeler, and ribbons can be made using a standard vegetable peeler. I made a simple pesto using basil, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil. Pesto is traditionally made with pine nuts, but I used cashews instead. I sprinkled nutritional yeast and olives on top of the dish when it was done for a little extra flavor.

Botanically, zucchini is considered a fruit, but it food terms, it is treated as a vegetable. It is high in Vitamins C and A, folate, lutein, manganese and potassium. Zucchinis contain powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

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