Courgetti with Homemade Vegan Pesto

Homemade pesto is easier than you think – it takes seconds to blitz and the fresh flavour (and bright colour) of homemade pesto is unbeatable. This pesto is vegan – we used Nutritional Yeast Flakes (available in health stores) to replace Parmesan used in regular pesto. The flavour of yeast flakes is incredible, and once you invest in a tub of it, you are likely to add it to everything!

Ingredients

• 2 TB pine nuts
• 30g basil leaves
• 10g flat leaf parsley leaves
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 TB nutritional yeast flakes
• 40g olive oil, plus 1 tsp
• lemon juice, to season
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10-12 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 500g courgetti (spiralised courgettes)

Method

1. Toast the pine nuts in a hot, dry pan until golden. Remove and add to a mini food processor along with the basil, parsley, garlic, yeast flakes and olive oil. Blitz to a smooth puree, stopping to scrape down the sides of the little jug every now and then to ensure thorough blitzing. Add a dash of lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste and mix to combine well. Cover and set aside.
2. Add a teaspoon olive oil to a large pan and flash-fry the tomatoes over high for a few seconds. Remove and set aside to keep warm. Add the courgetti to the pan and stir continuously to evenly cook. The courgetti will release a lot of its own moisture, so ensure the pan is on high heat. (You don’t want to overcook the courgette, but you need the raw flavour cooked out. One to two minutes should suffice.) Remove the courgetti and allow to drain by placing in a colander.
3. To serve, stir the pesto into the cooked courgetti and add the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.