Raw Pesto Zucchini Spaghetti

By Amy Crawford

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

I can't tell you how much fun I had making this tasty plate of food on the weekend. If I wasn't concerned about waste I seriously could've kept pushing vegies through this little contraption just for the fun of it. For that very reason this is a perfect addition to a family with young children who need encouragement to eat their veg. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a child who wouldn't have eaten this dish (well unless they have an aversion to pesto... or any green..or cherry tomatoes). This particular version comes with 3 different attachments allowing you to choose your own shapes. Personally I think I will be a bit stuck on spaghetti for a while yet.

There are a couple of obvious benefits to using a Spirooli. Firstly it encourages you to prepare (and eat) raw food which is of huge benefit to us nutritionally. Secondly, for those of us who have a gluten free diet, this reintroduces new alternatives into your weekly menu. I choose not to eat any processed foods (excluding of course yoghurt, cheese, sprouted bread etc) so would otherwise never sit down to a meal of spaghetti (gluten free or otherwise).

It took me about 3 mins to make the basil & cashew nut pesto, about 20 seconds to chop the cherry tomatoes in half and about 1 minute to stick a whole zucchini through the spirooli. So all in all I probably put this together in about 10 mins - but a few minutes of that was taken up pulling leaves off a basil plant!

I made just a small portion to last me a couple of dishes and it was very much a guestimate as to what I threw in but I'll do my best to recall!

You'll need:
2 big handfuls of basil leaves
40 grams (approx.) Parmesan (leave out if you are dairy free)
50 grams raw cashews (double if you're not using parmesan)
1/3 cup (approx.) olive oil
1 garlic clove

I used a Thermomix to make this but any blender would do. If you are not using a Thermomix you will need to grate your cheese and crush the garlic before throwing into the blender. In the Thermomix I ground the garlic, then the cheese and nuts and threw in the basil. Once this was combined I started drizzling in the olive oil until it was at the consistency I wanted.

To finish, put one whole zucchini through the spirooli on the spaghetti setting (the above meal is about 3/4 of a zuc). In a bowl and using your (clean!) hands, massage approximately one tablespoon of the pesto into the zucchini, stir in some crumbled goats cheese (I use Meredith Farm Goats Cheese and threw in a whole cube... possibly excessive but oh so tasty!) and add your cherry tomato halves. Lunch or dinner is served!

For anyone interested I have included a photo of the spirooli I bought online (for $39.95 AUD). And if you're really keen you can buy it here right now! If you are new to raw food eating and would like some inspiration from a real raw foodie my very clever and creative friend Renee McCready from KI Flow Healing has put together a raw eBook entitled Awakening to Raw available onine for $25 AUD here. It is full of yumminess I promise!

Please note: I do not work for Chef Avenue, Raw Power or KI Flow Healing, I simply like to share my good finds! ;-)