Vegan Zoodles Recipe | Zucchini/Courgette Noodles with Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto Recipe with OXO Good Grip Spiralizer Product Review and A Giveaway

Learn how to make Vegan Zoodles or Zucchini Noodles with Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto ~ Vegan and gluten free low carb zucchini or courgette pasta with blanched broad beans and almonds and flavoured with creamy almond, cashew nuts and coriander pesto

Gardening, especially growing fruits and vegetables has never been my ‘thing’! I am notorious among my family and friends as a person with black thumb who even managed to kill succulents! I am that bad! A complete contrast to my very keen and green gardener parents who have a lush and lovely garden back home growing flowers of every colour, fruits and veggies of every kind!

Then something happened and suddenly little seeds that we planted actually sprouted and then grew into large plants finally bearing fruits of our labour! How? I am still struggling to find an answer. It could be the quality of seeds or the compost or most likely to do with my little helper who might have inherited green fingers from both sets of his grandparents. They say that the genes skips generation and it might very well be true!

This year the Mother Nature has been really generous with bestowing her blessing with bountiful summer harvest. Courgettes or zucchini plants that we grew from seed have been producing enough zucchinis to make their appearance three times a week on our dinner tables. Apart from using them in salads, pakodas, stir fries, dals and even grated and used in roti dough and akki rotti, I decided use them in making Zoodles or Zucchini/Courgette Noodles or Spaghetti using OXO Good Grips Spiralizer which I received along with other OXO products for testing and reviewing purpose. I have used this spiralizer every single day since I received it and this is my unbiased and honest review. In the end of the review there is a guideline to participate for the OXO Good Grips Spiralizer Giveaway worth £40 sponsored by good people at OXO to one lucky reader of Monsoon Spice. So please make sure to enter the giveaway if you are residing in the UK or have UK shipping address.

Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto

LD loves veggies and it has never been a problem with making him eat his 5 a day! But with the spiralizer at home, eating veggies has become all the more fun! OXO Spiralizer is much safer than a knife and there is no direct handling of blades. Hence I feel much confident in handing it to him to spiralize his favourite vegetables like carrots, cucumber, zucchini and many others. For a boy who loves his spaghetti and curly fries, the spiralizer has become a wonderful kitchen garget to create a healthy alternative in creating veggie noodles, ribbon salads, and more.

The OXO spiralizer is quite well built with strong and sturdy body and handles making it easy to spiralize harder vegetables like carrots, potato, sweet potato etc. It comes with three interchangeable stainless steel blades to create spaghetti cut, fettuccine cut, or ribbon cut noodles. It is very easy to clean, and comes apart for loading into the top rack of the dishwasher. Although the spiralizer is dishwasher safe, it is very easy to manually clean with good old hand washing. Once washed and dried, the removable blades can be safely stored in the in a blade box which comes with the product. It doesn’t take too much room and the blades can be stored on board and tucked in a kitchen cabinet when not in use. The spiralizer has surely made our eating habits better, by replacing a good part of our meal with healthy vegetable alternative.

There are couple things that is keeping me away from giving this product full 5 stars. First, I wasn't keen on the waste the Spiralizer creates with the core that's left from the middle of the vegetable as well as good 1 inch thick vegetable slice left on the grip. Also occasionally its suction base did lose its grip, even with softer vegetables like cucumber. Although it didn’t pose any danger, it can put off some people.

All in all, I love how easy and effortless it is to use and how quickly it spiralizes vegetables. What I like the most is that it is not an electrical device and it can be used anywhere like picnics and road trips to make quick, fresh salads. I love the simplicity of its design and ease of working with it. It’s such a fun tool to make most delicious veggie ribbons or foodles to add on to your daily diet, and believe me, these low carb/no carb noodles are way better and tastier than that bowl of pasta!

And the winner of the GIVEAWAY of this OXO Good Grip Spiralizer is Vidya. Congratulations Vidya! Can you please mail me your contact details to siakrishna[at]gmail[dot]com.
 

One recipe that I want to share today is Vegan Zoodles or Zucchini Noodles with Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto using the OXO Spiralizer. I have used home grown zucchini/courgette, broad beans and cilantro/coriander leaves in this recipe to make the most of our summer garden bounty. Although some prefer to blanch the zucchini in hot water for couple of minutes, I skipped it as I like the crunch of raw zucchini and the ones I used were very tender ones. So feel free to blanch the courgette/zucchini for a minute or two at the most and then refresh them in a bowl of ice cold water if you don’t prefer using raw ones. Since I had run out of fresh basil, I used tender cilantro or coriander leaves from my herb garden to make simple, dairy free pesto unlike a traditional one. Taste and flavour wise, I seriously don’t think it sacrifices anything as the blanched almonds and cashews add a delicious creamy depth of flavour making it one of the best tasting pesto ever! If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can use julienne peeler to make long strips and use it in the recipe. Tossed with this fresh and creamy pesto, blanched almonds and broad beans, this by far was the best Zoodles ever which got pretty good feedback from hubby who is not a great fan of pasta! Now, that is huge! So without further delay, shall we get making this absolutely delicious Vegan Zoodles or Zucchini Noodles with Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto?

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Vegan Zoodles or Zucchini Noodles with Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto (Vegan and gluten free low carb zucchini or courgette pasta with blanched broad beans and almonds and flavoured with creamy almond, cashew nuts and coriander pesto)

Prep Time: 15 - 20 mins
Cooking Time: 5 mins
Recipe Level: Easy/Beginner
Spice Level: Low
Serves: 3-5 people
Shelf Life: Best served fresh
Serving Suggestion: On its own or as a side with any soup and garlic bread

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Ingredients:
1 large or 2 medium Zucchini/Courgette
2-3 large cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
1 cup Broad Beans
¼ cup Almonds
½ - 1 tsp freshly ground Peppercorns
Salt to taste (I have used crushed sea salt)
1 tbsp Olive Oil

For Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto:
½ cup Almonds
½ cup Cashew Nuts
1 large clove of Garlic
1 tightly packed cup fresh Cilantro/Coriander Leaves and Stems, coarsely chopped
3-4 tbsp Olive Oil (I prefer light olive oil to extra virgin olive oil in my pesto. You can use around ½ cup if not using immediately)
Salt to taste

Method:
Preparation:

1. Soak all the almonds and cashew nuts separately in a boiling hot water for 15-30 minutes.
2. Place the broad beans in a pot of boiling water and turn off the flame. Cover and let it sit for 5 minutes. Drain all the water and place the broad beans in a bowl of ice cold water to refresh them and to retain their beautiful green colour. Peel their outer, tough skin and keep them aside.
3. Wash and trim the ends of zucchini/courgette and prepare the noodles with a help of a spiralizer or with julienne peeler. Keep them aside in a large mixing bowl.

Prepare the almond, cashew and cilantro pesto:

1. Remove the skin from blanched almonds and keep ¼ cup separately.
2. Place the remaining ½ cup blanched and peeled almonds, cashew nuts, cilantro, olive oil, garlic, and salt in a blender or food processor or jug if using a stick blender, and blend it to fine or course paste as per your preference.
3. The blender makes a smooth pesto but the food processor works as well. If you’re using the blender, blend on low speed or pulse them using the pulse button on mixer grinder, scraping the lid and sides until you get desired consistency. It will take a couple of minutes for the pesto to come together. If you are using the food processor, process the ingredients together, stopping in between to scrape the sides until the pesto is smooth or coarsely fine.

Proceed to cook:

1. Heat a tbsp. or two of olive oil in a pan and add finely chopped garlic and stir fry for few seconds. Next add the blanched and peeled broad beans and toss it for a minute. Turn off the flame and transfer the beans to mixing bowl with zucchini noodles.
2. To this add the pesto, freshly ground pepper and crushed sea salt to taste and mix them well. Taste and adjust the seasoning before serving them garnished with blanched and peeled almonds. Enjoy!

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Sia’s Notes:

• Although some prefer to blanch the zucchini in hot water for couple of minutes, I skipped it as I like the crunch of raw zucchini and the ones I used were very tender ones. So feel free to blanch the courgette/zucchini for a minute or two at the most and then refresh them in a bowl of ice cold water if you don’t prefer using raw ones.
• If you are not using the pesto right away, add about ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil when blending as it will increase the shelf life. You can store it in refrigerator in an air tight jar or container for 2-3 days.
• The blender makes a smooth pesto but the food processor works as well. If you’re using the blender, blend on low speed or pulse them using the pulse button on mixer grinder, scraping the lid and sides until you get desired consistency. It will take a couple of minutes for the pesto to come together. If you are using the food processor, process the ingredients together, stopping in between to scrape the sides until the pesto is smooth or coarsely fine. 
• If you want to add little spice kick to the zoodles, add 2-3 green chillies (seeded, if needed) when making pesto. 
• You can add some grated parmesan cheese when making pesto and sprinkle some more on top of zoodles before serving.