Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Zucchini ribbons in almond pesto

December 30, 2012



My mum generously arranged to have The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook mailed to me for my birthday. While I always find Deb Perelman's baking recipes the most enticing, our holidays were warm and we weren't lacking for indulgence. Instead I bought some almonds and a lemon on our way home from the picnic and tried this light, summery zucchini salad for dinner.

Michael has never been a zucchini admirer, but he deemed these raw ribbons to be his new favourite way to eat the vegetable. Perhaps he'd had a touch of the sun, but actually I agree that this is pretty great. And so simple! There's no reason why we shouldn't make any kind of pesto we want, really, and I'll not judge anyone who cuts prep time down to 2 minutes by using a few tablespoons of their favourite jarred pesto.


Zucchini ribbons in almond pesto
(slightly adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman)

2 tablespoons roasted almonds
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
shake of garlic powder
pinch of chilli flakes
squeeze of lemon juice
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium zucchinis (about 300g)

In a spice grinder or similar, blend together the almonds, parmesan, garlic and chilli to a coarse meal. Stir in the lemon juice, salt and oil (my grinder didn't play nice here, so I reckon simple stirring should do). Spoon the dressing into the bottom of a bowl.

Use a vegetable peeler to slice the zucchini into ribbons, and stack them on top of the dressing in the bowl. Lightly toss the zucchini through the dressing, trying to evenly coat the ribbons in pesto. Serve it up!

8 comments:

  1. That looks fabu. Of course, I would not use the parm, but it sounds like you wouldn't need it with all that flavor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi urban vegan! Absolutely right, I think the almonds are the charm of this particular pesto. :-)

      Delete
  2. Oh, that looks delicious! And, actually, I have a lot of zucchini and roasted almonds in the house at the moment... hello dinner...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Catherine! Hold on too, we've got a more substantial salad coming up for your blog event.

      Delete
  3. How do you stop them being all slimy and watery and awful? I've tried so many raw zucchini things, and just can't stomach it. But that looks so good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mattheworbit - I dunno! I guess it was a little watery, but we ate it straight away so sliminess didn't seem to be an issue.

      Delete
  4. Sounds awesome - I'm a big fan of zucchini ribbons! A close friend of mine received The Smitten Kitchen book for her birthday and I had a flick through it the other week, the photos are gorgeous - there's a lot of things I'd like to try/adapt, so I might just have to invest in a copy for myself!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi AA! It certainly is a pretty book. I can't wait to get baking from it when the weather cools down.

      Delete