These days I pretty much only want to talk about vegetables. As I mentioned last time, I’ve been over doing it with desserts/sweets recently so I’m going to get super excited about vegetables and tell you about my most recent vegetable-filled discovery: Zucchini Pasta.
I’m not the biggest fan of pasta and I’m partially convinced that I’ve talked myself into not liking it, because I just don’t feel like it’s amazing enough for the calories. Bread, on the other hand, I’m happy to eat tons of bread, regardless of calories. Pasta… I’m meh about pasta. That said, I’m a huge fan of eating things in the shape of long stringy pasta. I love spaghetti squash and when my co-worker gave me an extra spiralizer that she had, I was ecstatic.
Since then my brain has been churning with awesome zucchini noodle ideas.
The inspiration for this recipe came from a raw, vegan cooking demonstration I went to a few weeks ago. They served us zucchini noodles with pesto. 
So from there, I decided to make my own version with ingredients I had on-hand at home. It was a complete success. 
Zucchini Pasta with Avocado-Pepita Pesto
5 small zucchini squash, spiralized or julienned
1 small avocado
1/4 cup pepitas
1 cup fresh basil
juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp water
salt and pepper to taste
1 tomato, diced
Place avocado, pepitas, basil, lemon juice in food processor (or vitamix). Pulse. Stream in olive oil and water and continue to blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss zucchini noodles with some of the pesto, you can add more or less to your liking.
Please note, this recipe will make more than enough pesto for 5 zucchini. You can refrigerate the rest for another day (it’ll start to turn brown after 2-3 days). 
What I loved about this dish was:
1. how easy it is to make.
2. how well it tastes the next day and
3. the fact that it doesn’t require you to turn on the stove or oven, with our recent heat wave and summer just around the corner, that was essential.
I’ll definitely be making this again. I’m consistently surprised at how much I like raw zucchini. It’s definitely an underrated vegetable.
Do you have a spiralizer? Any ideas on what I should try to spiralize next?
P.S. Don’t forget to enter the Peanut Butter and Co. Bee’s Knees Giveaway to win two free jars of Peanut Butter!
Foodologie 
This looks amazing. I just ordered a spiral slicer so I’m really excited to use it. I love your addition of avocado in your pesto. I recently made a spaghetti squash with basil pesto that was delicious, but there’s always room for avocado!
Zucchini Pasta is the BEST!
mmm hmmmmm!!!
I don’t have a spiralizer, but do have something that creates a similar shape so I’ve made zucchini noodles in the past, they are great! I’ve seen a recipe for cucumber noodles with a peanut dressing that sounds SO good. I love your addition of pepitas in the pesto!
Looks delicious!
Since somebody pretty awesome got me a spiralizer, I’m definitely going to give this a try! 😉
Of course I will have to spiralize sweet potatoes too.
I want a spiralizer! This recipe sounds so easy and tasty! Perfect for these hot summer days approaching..
It totally is, because who wants to turn on the stove. And it would go great with a glass of white wine!
On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Foodologie wrote:
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Can you freeze this pesto?
That’s a great question! I haven’t tried. I imagine yes, but not sure how the avocado will hold up.
Pepitas get mixed in whole or blended in with the avocado in the blender? Love the recipes!
Hi Judy! The pepitas get blended in with the avocado in the blender. I’ll edit the recipe to make that a bit clearer. Thanks for commenting! Hope you like the recipe!