Gluten free green ‘courgetti’ spiralized spaghetti with spinach pesto

When I lovely friend Lauren (who writes this TOTES awesome blog over here, by the way) bought a spiralizer I think we were both a little too excited. We planned a ‘Sunday Funday’ of spiralizing and coming up with some delicious and tasty treats! I love the idea of having something which looks and acts like spaghetti, except it’s actually low carb, vitamin packed, flavoursome vegetables. Could it get any better?

The Sunday of Spiralization began with a bag of courgettes. We decided these were top of the priority list of ‘things to spiralize’ and so it was off to Sainsbury’s we went! We thought it would be great to make a home-made pesto to go with it, and with a bit of improvisation, dinner was served!

The courgette was so easy to spiralize – I am buying one of these gadgets immediately – and once we got the hang of it (and realised which way to rotate it for best effect) it was so quick! It tasted amazing raw, but we wanted a nice warm lunch so we steamed it for a few minutes. I would say ideally steam for only 2-3 minutes – this is enough to soften it slightly and still maintain all the flavour without it going too soft.

The pesto was also really easy to make – literally just bung it in a blender – and it’s cow’s milk free and full of flavour, with a little kick too! Mixed altogether it was like a giant bowl of green gorgeousness – so good you just have to lick the bowl (I’m looking at you, Lauren). This would be even more amazing as a side with some roasted chicken too.

‘Courgetti’ with spinach pesto

Serves four people as a side, or three as a main

3 large courgettes

2 large handfuls fresh basil

2 large handfuls fresh, raw spinach

90g hard goat cheese

150ml virgin olive oil

Pinch pink Himalayan salt

50g pine nuts

3 slices red jalapeños

1. Spiralize the courgettes, and steam for 2-3 minutes in a pan.
2. Meanwhile, add the spinach, basil, cheese, pine nuts, olive oil, salt and chilli to a food processor and blend until smooth.
3. Mix it all together and enjoy – it really is that simple!

Variations

To shake it up a bit, you could try any of the following…

• Spiralize a different mixture of colourful veg – broccoli stalks, carrots, sweet potato, aubergine….
• Add more chilli, or chilli flakes to the pesto mix.
• You could use parmesan instead of goat cheese for a more traditional pesto, depending on your tolerance to cow’s milk.

What’s your favourite spiralized veg recipe? Make sure you check out Lauren’s blog here for plenty more healthy and gluten free inspiration!