This zucchini noodle recipe includes a creamy, vegan pesto sauce. It comes together in under 30 minutes for this easy creamy pesto zucchini pasta, delicious dinner.
No cream. No Cheese. No butter. How am I even allowed to call this creamy pesto zucchini pasta? Well, since you asked... 😏
You take my favorite pesto recipe and you combine it with two other ingredients that I can almost guarantee you already have in your kitchen – white wine vinegar and coconut milk. That's it. And it results in magic.
When cooked down with whole coconut milk, the tangy pesto mellows out and blends into a thick, creamy, nutty sauce with hints of basil and lemon. Bring on the noodles.
I don't know how you feel about zucchini as pasta – but you're welcome to leave me a comment telling me. Do you think they can help you out with your New Years Resolutions? Or do you think faux pasta is a total sham?
What's not to love? They are so pretty and curly and bright!
All you need is this snazzy spiralizer to create noodles out of almost any veggie. Then you can smother them in this sauce, or in spicy raw curry sauce, or you can make homemade curly fries – the possibilities are endless.
I like regular, floury, carby pasta as much as the next human being, but zucchini noodles have a special place in my heart. Mainly – to be quite honest – that's because I'm capable of eating wayyyyy larger quantities without having to unbutton my jeans and falling asleep in my bowl of pasta. 🙌🏽 #profoodietips Bowl after bowl after bowl of this stuff, please and thank you.
If you enjoyed this creamy pesto zucchini pasta recipe then let us know in the comments!
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Creamy Pesto Zucchini Noodles with Peas
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
There's only one way to make pesto taste better – combine it with coconut milk for a rich, creamy pasta with hints of basil and lemon. Bonus: It's gluten and dairy free!
Ingredients
Pesto Sauce
- 2 cups of fresh basil
- ¼ cup of raw cashews
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast (what's nutritional yeast? i'll explain. click here!)
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons quality olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2-3 cloves of garlic + 2 tablespoon of olive oil for sautéing
- 1 cup whole coconut milk, canned
Zucchini Noodles
- 7 to 8 zucchinis, about 1.5" in diameter and 6" long
- *If desired, swap zoodles for regular, gluten free, or any other pasta!
Instructions
Pesto
- In a medium skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil to medium. Add minced garlic and sauté for 3 minutes, until aromatic and golden brown.
- Add basil, cashews, nutritional yeast, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper to food processor. Spoon the sautéed garlic into the processor as well, leaving the oil in the skillet.
- Set the skillet aside for later.
- Pulse the food processor until the pesto is well combined and mostly smooth. This will probably require some work – pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides in order to help to food processor do its job. If the pesto seems dry, add a bit more olive oil or lemon juice.
Sauce
- After your pesto is finished, add it into the pan and heat over medium low. Carefully, add 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar and stir until combined.
- Add 1 cup of coconut milk and continue stirring.
- Add frozen peas and bring the heat to medium. Cook until the sauce is bubbling and the peas are cooked – about 5 minutes.
- Allow the sauce to cool for 3 to 5 minutes before adding to zucchini noodles.
Zucchini Noodles
- Spiralize 7 to 8 zucchinis using the "B" blade on your spiralizer.
- Depending on how you want to serve the dish, add zoodles to a large bowl and pour the sauce over top, mixing with tongs. Or, serve zoodles in individual bowls and top with as much sauce as desired.
Notes
If you don't feel like making your own pesto, you can use store-bought instead! Just sub ¾ cup of your favorite variety.
Instead of peas, you could substitute asparagus, brussels sprouts, spinach, etc.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Main
Nutrition
- Calories: 170
- Sugar: 5.2 g
- Sodium: 18.6 mg
- Fat: 12.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.9 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 11 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 10 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 7.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 g
Hello,
I'm not seeing in the ingredients list the amount of peas you use in this? Can you post?
Thanks!
Hi Jennifer! Thank you for spotting that. It's a 10 oz. bag of frozen peas. I've added that in!
Adding the coconut milk to the Ingredients would also be helpful!
Sorry about that, Rebecca! I don't know how we missed that, but it's added in now.
Do you use raw zucchini noodles? or do you cook them before putting the pesto on. I'm new to this whole Zoodle thing.
They are just plain, raw zucchini noodles - no cooking required! Welcome to the zoodle party! :)
Ok. I'm about to make this. I already spiralized a load of zukini. But I have a question? Do you think that the nutritional yeast is really important in the recipe? what exactly is its purpose ?
The nutritional yeast helps to thicken the sauce and give it a bit of cheesy flavor. You could try it without, but I haven't ever done it!
YUM!!! I'm planning to do lots of spiralizing this year. Pinned this for certain use soon!
Hope you like it, Brita! I'm planning to use our spiralizer a lot more, too!
Hi Jordan - this looks amazing. So creamy and rich and I mean that in the best healthy way!!
Thanks Kathy! It's secretly healthy – but so, so good! :)