Looks complicated, but it wasn’t. I didn’t break out a single pan. Just a food processor. Boy I love the shredding attachment on this thing. It reminds me of old “What’s for Dinner?” cooking shows when one of the co-hosts, Ken, was afraid of the food processor because things would go flying everywhere and th other co-host, Mary Jo, would chide him. So Canadian and cute. And endearingly silly. I had more luck with food processors than Ken, fortunately. And the cilantro pesto sounds all fancy but it’s just cilantro, olive oil and salt. You can make it more exciting with a little agave or a little raw apple cider vinegar, or even nutritional yeast if you do that cheesy-like stuff. Then just throw on some sprouts for protein and colour. Throw a carrot in with the zucchini when you’re making the noodles and voila! Raw food dinner.
Ingredients (serves 2):
2 zucchini or summer squash (1 green, 1 yellow for colour if you care about presentation)
1 carrot
Pesto:
1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves (or basil or parsley or whatever herb you want to try that’s sort of leafy and not too, too powerful on its own)
1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
3 tbsp cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil (or walnut oil or hazelnut oil or some other fancy oil)
3 tbsp sprouted lentils and/or chickpeas (I’ll be honest. I did sprout a bunch of chickpeas last week myself, but I also bought a pre-made salad at Marché Bleuet with sprouted lentils and chickpeas in it, and that’s also where the few pieces of carrot came from. I just turned the last bit of the dressing-free salad on top of my pasta for protein)
Directions:
Cut the zucchini and carrot into long, thin noodles using a food processor or spiralizer or food mill or a lot of determination and a knife. You could in theory do it by hand but that generally ends up too thick and inconsistent. To soften the “noodles” a little you can toss them with a tiny bit of salt and leave them in a strainer while you make the pesto (then rinse and dry them before using), or massage in a tsp of oil and let them sit for a little while. Or just skip this and end up with crunchier noodles, as I did.
In the same food processor (if you’re really into kitchen appliance efficiency, which I most certainly am when it involves cleaning fewer things), change the attachment to blend in the body of the food processor itself. Or get out your blender. Combine the pesto ingredients (cilantro, oil, salt) in the processor and blend. Taste and adjust seasoning (you could use tamari instead of salt, you can add agave nectar or even date purée – but be careful – for sweetness, you can add more herbs, or a mix of herbs, you can add lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. The world is your raw food – limited – oyster).
If it doesn’t blend well, scrape down the sides, consider adding a little more oil or some water (it shouldn’t be too liquidy though), and re-blend.
I didn’t do this pretty presentation above too intentionally. When I plopped the zucchini noodles out of the food processor they came out in this gorgeous circle and I left them that way. Then I just put the pesto on top, and placed the sprouts above that as garnish. Pretty, right?
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