October 30, 2012

Recipe: Raw Zucchini Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce


We had a busy weekend.  My father in law was in town, and so we had some intense family time.  A visit to the pumpkin patch, carving jack-o-lanterns, a toddler halloween party, and dinner at Pizzeria Barbarella (alright, not so healthy but its ok once and a while! and if you live in Vancouver and haven't discovered this gem you are seriously missing out) meant that I had no time to post.  It also meant that I was in dire need of a reset, so I am upping the green juice intake and eating as much raw veggies I can handle.  Enter this recipe: raw zucchini takes the place of pasta in this flavourful dish.  And cashew cream is used along with fresh and sundried tomato. Mmmm its so delicious, you might notice it doesn't have real pasta or real cream, but you won't even care!

First, prepare your zucchini "noodles".  You will need 1 medium-sized zucchini per person.  Before I purchased this handy dandy julienne peeler, which you use just as you would a carrot peeler, I used to use a mandolin at a wide setting and then stack the slices and cut into strips.  You could also use a knife to cut them.  That was so much work.  My julienne peeler has made this dish much easier (and funner) to make.

Once you are done, you will sprinkle a few pinches of sea salt on the zucchini and cover with paper towels in the fridge to drain off some excess liquid.  Keep in the fridge for at least 30 min, then rinse (to remove salt), drain and pat dry.


Next, drain your soaked cashews.  Puree in food processor and add remaining ingredients.  Pulse until desired sauce consistency is reached.



Toss the noodles and sauce and serve.  Amazingly, these will keep in the fridge for a day or so - it doesn't separate like I thought it would.



Raw Zucchini Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce
Serves 2 as entree

2 medium zucchinis, julienned into long "noodles"
1/8 tsp sea salt




1/4c cashews, soaked for 4-8h, drained
1 ripe tomato, quartered
1/3 c sundried tomatoes in oil (or add 1 tbsp olive oil)
1/4 c onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/8 tsp cayenne
Salt and pepper, to taste

Sprinkle zucchini noodles with sea salt, cover in paper towels and place in fridge for 30 min.  Remove from fridge, rinse, drain and pat dry.  Puree drained cashews in food processor.  Add remaining ingredients and pulse until desired consistency is reached.  Toss noodles in sauce and serve.


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1 comment:

  1. OMG -- that looks so yum! I am definitely going to try this...just need one of those fancy pants peelers!

    Amanda

    ReplyDelete