This just might be my most favorite recipe right now…and it’s not only that I’m currently obsessed with turning every vegetable into a noodle. This dish bursts with color, fragrance, and flavor. And, come on, crispy bacon and pesto?! As if that’s not enough, the recipe can be altered to be raw, paleo, and/or vegetarian.
Here is how it all goes down:
What you need:
- 2-3 zucchini, put through the spiral slicer to make zoodles
- 4-5 strips cooked bacon (go for quality here, and no sugar added), chopped into small pieces
For the roasted tomatoes:
- 1 c cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1/2 t dried basil
- 1 t olive oil
- sea salt to taste
For the pesto:
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 1 to 1.5 c lacinato kale
- 1/2 c brazil nuts
- juice of 1 lemon
- zest of 1 small lemon
- 3/4 c chopped basil
- 1/2 c fresh parmesan
Here’s what you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Place your zoodles in a large bowl with about 2 teaspoons salt. Toss the zoodles and salt and let the zoodles sit while you prepare everything else. This will sweat out all the water from the zucchini so you don’t have a watery noodle dish.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the cherry tomatoes with olive oil, sea salt, and dried basil and pop in the oven for 12-15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, prepare your pesto. In a food processor, add the brazil nuts and pulse until they have a rough chop. Add the remaining ingredients to the food processor and blend 1-2 minutes until all is well combined and has formed a paste (otherwise known as pesto!).
5. Drain the water from the zoodle bowl (I put the zoodles in a colander to let out the excess water).
6. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat. Combine the zoodles, pesto and sun-dried tomatoes and heat for several minutes until all is combined and warm.
7. Plate the pesto zoodles and top with the chopped bacon. mmmmmmm. That’s right. MMMMMMMmmmm.
Make it paleo: Skip the parmesan. You can add a 1-2 more tablespoons lemon juice and 1 more clove garlic. You could also add walnuts for a deeper flavor profile, so you don’t have to miss out on the tangy, nutty parmesan flavors.
Make it raw: First, follow the steps above to make it paleo. Alternatively, you could sub the parmesan for a raw cheese of your choosing. Just make sure the flavor is comparable to parmesan and won’t overwhelm the dish. The cheese is not the star of the show here, it’s a supporting character. Sub the bacon for a raw diet friendly cured meat. Exchange the roasted tomatoes for sun-dried tomatoes. And only warm the dish to comply with your raw diet philosophies.
Make it vegetarian: Skip the bacon. It’s that simple.
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Looks nutritious and delicious 😉
Thank you! Let me know if you make it! I hope you enjoy 🙂