Zucchini Pasta with Avocado Cashew Sauce

This is my new favorite way to eat zucchini! It’s delicious, super quick, and healthy. Everyone loves recipes for pasta and this is a healthy alternative and it has it delicious cream sauce with avocado and cashews so it has some healthy fats instead of butter and oil. 

So before you start, you will need a pasta maker. There are a few options out there like this one on eBay, or this can fit more sizes of veggies. But I opted to buy a simple julienne peeler since it has other uses too.

Ingredients:

• 1 large zucchini or 2-3 if feeding 4 or more people
• 1/2 cup cashews – soaked in water for about 30 minutes
• 1 avocado
• half a clove of garlic
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup of water or more if needed to create correct consistency
• 1/4 teaspoon of Mediterranean sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
• 6-8 fresh basil leaves
•  tablespoons olive oil
• half a handful of fresh parsley

Start with soaking the cashews in a bowl of water and set that aside for about 30 minutes.

Cut the ends off your zucchini and then slice them with your choice of slicer. Here is what mine looked like after using the julienne peeler a few times. I did not julienne the center meat and seeds, that part goes in the compost. Place the zucchini noodles in a strainer in the sink to let the excess water drain out while you prepare the sauce.

So I have yet to upgrade my little mini food processor but this was still an easy one to make. Here is what mine looks like.

How to make cream sauce for pasta: you basically throw the remaining ingredients into the food processor and let it go until you have a nice sauce with the consistency you prefer. I like it a little thick but you may want it thinner. So once it is all well blended just add a little more water and lemon juice to thin it out. Way to easy! 

This dish is now ready to eat as is, or you can warm your noodles by steaming them for 5 minutes on the stove.

This would go perfect with some grilled chicken breast for the non-vegans, or a beet salad!

Father’s Day Stuffed Zucchini

So my fiancé and I celebrated Father’s Day a little early with his family since his parents are taking a Summer vacation starting this Friday. For dinner we had steaks and roasted asparagus at his sister’s house and I brought my stuffed zucchini dish. This is my first time cooking for his family so I was a little nervous but it actually turned out really awesome.

I only had about 25 minutes to prepare everything before we had to leave to get to their house so this is really simple quick dish that anyone can prepare even after a long day at work.

Ingredients Needed:

• zucchini
• bag of frozen peas, carrots and corn – Preferably from a non-GMO company like Eden
• 1/2 cup of uncooked quinoa which yields about a cup cooked
• small white onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• mediterranean sea salt & black pepper
• Bragg Liquid Aminos – healthy vegan non-GMO alternative to soy sauce
• coconut spray
• coconut oil

To start, cut off the end of the zucchini and cut it in half. Then scoop out the center and seeds with a spoon. Spray your baking dish or on a cookie sheet with coconut oil and place the halved zucchini in and spray with them with coconut oil. I used my Corningware so that I could put the lid on and easily transport it to his sister’s house. Bake the zucchini at 350 for 10 minutes.

While that is baking, cook the quinoa so it will be done in about 5 minutes. Then dice up the onion, garlic, and leftover inner parts from the zucchini.

Melt a tablespoon of coconut oil in a frying pan and then add the diced up mixture. Let this cook and get nice and soft for about 10 minutes while stirring. When the quinoa is cooked, add that to the frying pan and stir it all up with 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Add a 2 tablespoons of the Bragg Liquid Aminos and stir it all together.

Once the zucchini is done, take it out of the oven and spoon the frying pan mixture into the zucchini halves. I let mine overflow into the dish and use up all of the mixture. Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes at 350.

Once it was done I added a little fresh basil on top and served it. Delicioso! The coconut oil almost give it a slight butter flavor and the Bragg Liquid Aminos is just a perfect zing of soy sauce flavor.

Dinner went well and I got to play with Ben’s sister’s baby! 8 months old and so adorable! We also had leftovers to take for lunch the next day. This zucchini I used was over 5 pounds, maybe 8 pounds, locally grown by Ben’s mom at the school she works for. That made me want to start a garden so we can have huge fresh produce all the time. Maybe a future project!