I can eat pesto until it’s coming out of my ears, so when I snagged a large bag of zucchini at my farmers market this weekend, I decided to make my Best Pesto Zoodle Ever recipe!
In case you’ve been living under a rock, zoodles are noodles made out of zucchini. They are obviously gluten-free, and a great “noodle” if you are trying to avoid grains.
I decided to make a spinach and walnut pesto because I wanted to cram as many nutrients in as possible, plus I’m addicted to this particular pesto.
You can make the pesto an entire week prior because it keeps really well in a sealed container in the fridge.
I used a tiny, inexpensive hand-held spiralizer to make my zoodles. I have tried about 3 of the more expensive machines and this tiny little guy, which operates much like a pencil sharpener is by far my favorite.
So, let’s start by making the Spinach Walnut Pesto:
4 cups spinach, washed and roughly chopped
1/4 cup toasted walnuts
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
A large pinch of sea salt
1 Tbs. nutritional yeast
Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
Pesto Zoodles
Serves 2
2-3 large zucchini + 2 large zucchini for roasting (wash and cut ends off, but do not peel).
1 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp spinach pesto
3 tbsp pesto
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
zest of 1/2 lemon
Fresh basil leaves
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F
- Slice 2 of your zucchini and massage slices with olive oil.
- Set them on a baking sheet, and roast for 30 minutes or until they begin to brown.
- Remove from the oven and while still warm, drizzle with 1 tbsp of the pesto. Set aside
- Spiralize the remaining zucchini into a large bowl.
- Carefully add 3 tbsp of pesto, and using a spoon and fork, toss the noodles taking care not to break them.
- Using fork to twist the zoodles (like you would do to create a mouthful of spagetti), create a mound of zoodles on a white plate. Arrange the roasted zucchini slices around the mound, and top with fresh basil and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast (or Parmesan if not vegan). You can always drizzle a little mor
