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I get recipes in my head sometimes, and it’s such a beautiful picture. Then I try it, and it is nothing like that gorgeous picture in my head! That’s what has happened over and over and over with my pesto zoodles.  I love the flavor of the pesto with the zucchini and that twinge of sundried tomato, but it always seemed mushy!  

Ok moving on. 

As a busy mama, I kinda gave up on it for a while and then I saw something last week that got me thinking about it again.  I saw a salad by Urban Remedy that said it had raw zucchini noodles. So I realized that there had to be somewhere in between cooking them and getting that bitter, nasty taste AND the totally raw, crunchy flavor.  

Soooooo, I sat and thought about it for a bit and I realized that a little bit of salt normally softens vegetables up and brings out their natural moisture.  And I was off again on my zoodle recipe adventure!  {I would not be defeated this time}

And boy oh boy am I excited to share this recipe with you. It’s so good and my kiddos love it.

I strongly recommend making the pesto ahead of time if you’re looking to make dinner an easy affair.  While this shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes, there are a few moving pieces, so just take a moment our of day to prepare it ahead of time, or even the night before and store it in the refrigerator. It will be a 10 minutes prep if you had the pesto ready!

Also before you read on, you’ll want to make sure you have the right spiralizer for this recipe, and I know that can take some time with shipping these days!  Be sure to grab THIS right away so you can get cooking quickly.  

INGREDIENTS: FOR RAW PESTO ZOODLE PASTA
  • 4 medium zucchini – as fresh as possible!
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup pine nuts
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 2 cloves raw garlic
  • 1 cup organic olive oil
  • 2 packed cups of basil (usually the equivalent of a 2 oz package of basil leaves)
  • ½ cup chopped sundried tomatoes
  • 2 breasts grilled chicken or leftover rotisserie chicken
DIRECTIONS: FOR RAW PESTO ZOODLE PASTA
  1. Cut one end off of each of the zucchini and spiralize into noodles
  2. Sprinkle the teaspoon of sea salt all over the zucchini being sure to get salt on as much of the noodles as possible
  3. While the zucchini and salt sit, make your pesto
  4. Put the pine nuts, the rest of the sea salt, garlic, and olive oil in a high powered blender or food processor and blend or process until smooth
  5. Add the basil last and incorporate until smooth again
  6. Pour your pesto over your zoodles and incorporate the pesto completely into the salad
  7. Let the salad sit another 5 minutes to let the zoodles absorb the pesto and soften them a tiny bit more
  8. Add the sundried tomatoes and chicken right before serving

 

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