MAKES: 4 (1¾-CUP) SERVINGS • DIFFICULTY: moderate
If you don’t have a spiralizer, don’t worry. You can still make zucchini noodles right at home. Simply use an everyday vegetable peeler to scrape long, thin strands from the zucchini.
1 cup raw cashews, soaked for 4 hours and then drained
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons white miso paste
1½ cups Vegetable Broth or water
½ ripe Hass avocado, peeled and pitted
1 tablespoon blended peeled lemon (see here)
4 to 6 medium zucchini, trimmed and spiralized or cut into long, thin, noodle-like strips
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
Ground black pepper or red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley or basil
Nutty Parm, to serve
Grind the drained cashews in a high-speed blender. Add the nutritional yeast, miso, and broth and blend until smooth. Add the avocado and lemon and blend until smooth, adding more broth, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the sauce is too thick. Set aside.
Steam the zucchini noodles over boiling water until tender, 2 to 4 minutes. Set aside.
In a large saucepan or deep skillet, warm the cashew sauce over low heat, stirring often. Add the zucchini noodles and tomatoes. Stir gently until the vegetables are heated through, about 5 minutes. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more broth to reach your desired consistency. When hot, serve at once, sprinkled with black pepper to taste, the parsley, and Nutty Parm.
Traditional noodles are made of grains, but thanks to the spiralizer, you can make your own noodles out of vegetables. The spiralizer is an inexpensive tool that lets you turn fresh veggies into veggie-noodles.