CARROT + ZUCCHINI RIBBONS + CILANTRO PEPITA PESTO
A fresh, nourishing, and delicious raw recipe with carrot and zucchini vegetable ribbons tossed with an easy cilantro pepita pesto!
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves 2
- Category: Entree
- Cuisine: Vegan, Raw
Ingredients
- 3 large carrots
- 3 small zucchini
- pepitas, for serving
- mineral salt & cracked pepper to taste
- almond parmesan, for serving
Cilantro Pepita Pesto (serves 4)
- 1 large bunch cilantro (3 cups loosely packed), ends removed, leaves and small stems ok
- 1/3 cup pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), toasted or raw
- 2 tablespoons hemp hearts, optional
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small jalapeno, seed removed (leave a few seeds for heat if you like)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- juice of 1 large lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon himilayan salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala, optional
Instructions
Pesto: Place pepitas in your food processor and pulse a few times until seeds are broken down fairly well. Add remaining ingredients and blend until well combined and fairly smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to thin if needed (no need to add more oil unless you want). Taste for flavor and season to taste. Set aside.
Ribbons: Peel the outer layer of your carrots and discard. Using the peeler, ribbon the carrots. Wash your zucchini, cut the ends off, and using a mandolin, or tool of choice, ribbon the zucchini. You can just as well julienne your carrots and zucchini with a julienne tool or by hand if you would rather have thinner strands.
Combine: In a medium size bowl, place carrots and zucchini, add a few spoonfuls of pesto and mix to combine. You will have pesto leftover unless you really love the stuff and use it all!
Serve: Plate your ribbons, top with a sprinkle of pepitas, and a nice dusting of almond parmesan. For a little extra color, you could add some red pepper flakes to the top.
Serves 2
Store: Leftover pesto can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Use the pesto for pasta, as a dip for vegetables, as a spread for sandwiches, thin it out with water or lemon juice, and make a dressing for salads, etc. Lots of ways to use pesto.
Notes
Use almonds in place of pepitas if needed. I used raw pepitas instead of toasting them. For the garam marsla, if pairing this with regular pasta, I would leave it out. It pairs well with the freshness of the carrot & zucchini ribbons. Also, I found that it tasted fine with almond parmesan. But like I said earlier, I can eat some really unusual combinations. If you feel like experimenting, try it out…if in doubt, skip it.