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
- Cut one end off of each of the zucchini and spiralize into noodles
- Sprinkle the teaspoon of sea salt all over the zucchini being sure to get salt on as much of the noodles as possible
- While the zucchini and salt sit, make your pesto
- 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
- Add the basil last and incorporate until smooth again
- Pour your pesto over your zoodles and incorporate the pesto completely into the salad
- Let the salad sit another 5 minutes to let the zoodles absorb the pesto and soften them a tiny bit more
- Add the sundried tomatoes and chicken right before serving
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