Zucchini Pasta + Creamy Avocado-Cucumber Sauce

Happy Monday! Cheers to another refreshing raw recipe for our collection. These raw pasta dishes are always the ones that leave me feeling so refreshed and at my best. They are perfect for the warmer spring and summer months ahead. So far we have Creamy Zucchini Pesto with 'Noodles', Spicy Kale Pesto with Zucchini Noodles, 'Raw'sta Pasta with a marina'raw' sauce and now this simple zucchini pasta with a creamy avocado cucumber sauce. This is a nice addition, and one I think you will enjoy time and time again. 

I have adapted my recipe from this one from Feasting at Home. I have added a few extra goodies like tomatoes and jalapenos as well as changing up the puree a bit. I love the combination of avocado and cucumber. The cucumber adds a wonderful refreshing twist that I think you'll just love! This comes from my Avocado and Cucumber Soup recipe that can be used in many ways, ie..soup, guacamole, or sauce. I find the addition of the tomatoes and bits of jalapeno to be delicious and a nice accompaniment to the overall dish. Feel free to keep this simple like the original recipe or use what you have on hand making it your own. I've also seen lots of recipes that just use avocado without any cucumber for the puree and that is great too! Feel free to omit the cucumber in this recipe and add an extra avocado if you like for variations (you may like to add a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil if you do). You can even add some arugula to the puree instead of using basil. Lots of ways to change it up and keep it fresh!

Green and healthy...

Refreshing and light puree...

You can either julienne the zucchini by using a julienne tool or you can spiralize using a spiralizer. Both ways are great. The julienne tool is much smaller and will fit nicely in your utensil drawer. The spiralizer on the other hand is a bit larger and cumbersome, but well worth the space as I do use mine fairly often. 

You could also put this sauce on any pasta of choice. Here I have it with brown rice pasta. But my all time favorite way to eat this is with the zucchini noodles...hands down...so refreshing and perfect! 

Zucchini Pasta + Creamy Avocado-Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 large zucchini (1 per person)
• grape, cherry or mini heirloom tomatoes, halved
• jalapeno, thinly sliced and seeds removed (optional)
• arugula
• pea shoots (optional)
• zest of one meyer lemon or regular lemon

Avocado-Cucumber Puree

• 1 medium avocado
• 1 cucumber, peeled and sliced thick
• a few large leaves of basil (optional)
• 1 meyer lemon or regular lemon, juice of
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper or black pepper to taste
• salt to taste

Prepare your zucchini noodles julienne style or spiralized. Or alternately, cook your pasta of choice, about 8 ounces.

For the puree, place all ingredients into a food processor/blender and process until creamy. Taste for flavor adding anything extra you might like.

Toss zucchini pasta with avocado-cucumber puree and a handful of arugula. Serve with tomatoes, peas shoots, jalapenos, lemon zest, lemon wedges and fresh cracked pepper.

Enjoy!

Farmer's Market Salad w/ Marina'raw' Sauce

 A trip to the farmer's market is always a good day ! I have access to the best tasting corn this season and am incorporating it into whatever I can. It is so sweet, I eat it raw right of the cob. I am not kidding it is that good! Tonight I included it in this wonderful salad that I topped with a raw marinara sauce. This sauce is very versatile, you can use it to top raw 'noodles' such as butternut or zucchini, or you can use it like I did to top a variety of salads. 

My Farmer's Market Salad Included

spinach, 5 oz

pea shoots, handful

corn off the cob, 2 ears

zucchini, 1/2 small

red bell pepper, 1/2

avocado, whole
dash of himalayan salt & cracked pepper 

Use a much as you want of each veggie or add/subtract whatever you wish !

This was for myself alone. :)

Now on to the marina'raw' sauce....

Marina'raw' Sauce

4 roma tomatoes

small handful of grape tomatoes, optional

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes

1 tbsp garlic powder

2 tbsp shallot

1/2 cup cilantro

1/2 tsp himalayan salt

 Directions

Put all ingredients into a food processor, or blender, and blend on high until mixture is fairly smooth. You can  leave it a little chunky too. 

• • •

This is a great recipe to play with and come up some different variations. This will serve two/three generously. Also, the cherry tomatoes I added at the end, they are so sweet and I thought it may be a nice add, and it was. 

May you always be healthy and well. Enjoy !

Note: I started out with the intention of this salad being fat free but I couldn't resist the avocado. So omit the avocado for a fat free meal. :)

Raw Vegan Sushi Rolls

First time making sushi rolls, really enjoyed putting these together. Since I've never been a fan of all the rice used in sushi rolls this was right up my alley since I prefer to fill up on veggies. I enjoyed three of these rolls all to myself ! One day I'd like to have a party where everyone makes their own. Until then, let's get this party started...

Raw Vegan Sushi Rolls

Ingredients

• nori wraps
• miso paste 
• avocado
• radish, julienned
• cucumber - julienned
• carrots - julienned
• red bell pepper, sliced lengthwise
• enoki mushrooms
• pea shoots or sprouts of your choice
• hemp hearts & sesame seed mix, about 1 tbsp each
• use as much of each vegetable as you wish

Dipping Sauce

• 1 tablespoon Nama Shoyu, tamari, or soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon scallions, sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, to taste

Directions

Start by spreading your miso paste along the edge of the nori sheet. Add some of the hemp hearts & sesame seed mixture to the miso paste, gently press so the seeds stay put. Next add some avocado and all the other ingredients as you wish. Finally, roll your roll and slice. After the first one, I improved immensely. Once you get the hang of it it's really easy. Have fun and....

Enjoy!