raw, vegan and gluten-free pesto zucchini noodles (zucchetti!)
With cool fall temperatures settling in, we’re layering up to head outside for runs. To train hard we need to fuel up well. When we took a peek inside the Rawlicious at Home cookbook (from Angus Crawford and Chelsea Clark, the owners of the Rawlicious raw food restaurants) one recipe caught our eye in particular—the zucchetti pesto.
This dish is an awesome, clean way to feed your hunger after a great sweat session. Zucchini (courgette), a staple at farmer’s markets this time of year, is high in dietary fiber, and a great source of Vitamins A, B and C as well as potassium.
The zucchini “noodles” have a consistency similar to pasta, but are denser, crunchier and (dare we say) better. The sunflower seed pesto will have your taste buds dancing and even cheese lovers will have a hard time believing the pine nut “parmesan” isn’t the real thing. If you weren’t sold on raw, vegan, gluten-free food before, this will change your mind.
That said, there’s no debating that raw food requires plenty of time in the kitchen, so prep the pesto and pine nut parmesan before your workout. Studies show that muscles are most receptive to rebuilding glycogen levels, which help your muscles recover quickly, if you eat within the first 30 minutes after exercising. All you’ll need to do after your sweat session is spiralize the zucchini (using a super easy tool you can find at most kitchen stores), toss it in the pesto, throw on some tomatoes, then finish with a sprinkle of the pine nut parmesan and a sprig of parsley, if you’re feeling fancy.
FYI, we tried it heated up a bit (not above 118F, because that’s the temperature that starts to degrade enzymes, vitamins and minerals in food eradicating the whole point of a raw food diet), but it tasted much better cold.
ZUCCHETTI PESTO
raw, vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free
Ingredients for pine nut ‘parmesan’:
4 cups pine nuts
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
4 tsp sea salt
Method:
Simply place all of the ingredients in the food processor and pulse to combine. It doesn’t take much to over-process this, so be sure to pulse carefully.
Ingredients for pesto:
1 1/2 cups fresh basil, tightly packed
1 cup baby spinach, tightly packed
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
3/4 cup sunflower seeds, soaked
Method:
Before you begin, soak the sunflower seeds for at least two hours (but no more than 12). In a bowl, pour filtered, room-temperature water over the seeds to cover by about three inches. When you’re ready to make the pesto, place everything, except the sunflower seeds, in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the sunflower seeds to the processor and pulse to combine, leaving some texture (we love the crunch of the seeds!).
Ingredients for zucchetti:
10 large zucchini
2 cups pesto
16 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced (optional)
4 tbsp pine nut parmesan
4 sprigs parsley
Method:
Spiralize the zucchini and transfer to a large bowl. Next, add the pesto and toss well to coat the zucchini. Once it’s nicely coated, divide between four plates and top each one with cherry tomatoes, a sprinkle of pine nut parmesan and a sprig of parsley before serving.
Find your own copy of Rawlicious at Home here.
Alicia-Rae is a writer, adventurer and our blog assistant editor. You’ll never catch her without her pen, notepad and camera in tow. She’s a DIY aficionado, and believes the best, and most beautiful, things in life are homemade. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
