Zucchini Linguine with Basil Pesto

Courtesy of Kitchen Dispensary http://thekitchendispensary.wordpress.com/

I made this dish for a raw potluck this weekend. There are plenty of cheap organic zucchini and tomatoes at the Victoria Street farmers market in Wellington now that it’s near the end of summer. I also picked up the basil there for the pesto. All the classic italian flavours are there which makes this a favourite for friends and family who are not raw. You can make a big batch of pesto up to keep for the week and just do the zucchini on the night.

Basil Pesto

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Tightly Packed Basil
• 1/2 Cup Pine Nuts
• 1/4 Cup Pumpkin Seeds
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 1/2 Tsp Himalayan or Celtic Sea Salt
• 1/4 Cup Cold Pressed Olive Oil
• Spring or Filtered Water

Method

1. Soak the pinenuts and pumpkin seeds for at least 4 hours. Drain and rinse.
2. Place all ingredients apart from the water into a food processor and process until almost smooth. You still want a little texture to it. Add a little water at a time if it seems too dry.
3. Store in a glass jar in the fridge for up to a week.

Zucchini Linguini

Ingredients

• 3 Large Zucchini
• 2 Medium Tomatoes
• 8-10 Dried Olives
• 1/2 Red Capsicum
• 2 Tbsp Pine Nuts
• 1/2 Cup Basil Pesto

Method

1. Use a julienne peeler to slice the zucchini lengthways into long noodles and place in a large bowl. You could also use a spiralizer.
2. Chop the tomatoes and capsicum, destone and chop the olives and add these with the pine nuts to the zucchini.
3. Add the pesto and mix thoroughly to combine.
4. Leave to sit for 1hour before serving if you would like the noodles to soften a bit.

Acorn Cheeze Ball

Courtesy of Gone Raw http://goneraw.com/recipe/acorn-cheeze-ball

Servings: 1 party-sized cheeze ball.

This cheeze ball is really a thick pate with a topping, that tastes like a cream cheeze in that it's sweet, is loaded with texture, and makes a great spread for raw breads, crackers, and even lettuce leaves. try rolling in spinach leaves and serving with a toothpick! or serve surrounded by raw crackers and on a bed of lettuce!

Ingredients:

• 1c raw hulled sunflower seeds (soaked)
• 1/4 c fruit of the acorn squash, raw
• seeds from 3 cardamom pods
• handful of raw pumpkin seeds (unsoaked)
• handful of raw hulled sunflower seeds (unsoaked

Preparation:

In the food processor, grind the soaked sunflower seeds until a pulpy mix forms.

Add in the acorn squash and cardamom, and process again until the mix starts clumping in the food processor.

Remove the dough from the food processor, and form into a big ball. roll the ball around in the pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds (unsoaked).

Serve as an appetizer, over a bed of lettuce leaves and with your fav raw crackers!

This cheeze ball tastes like a sweet cream cheeze, but without all of the nastiness of unvegan forms.