Zoodles with Ricotta, Spinach and Pesto

By Emma Hawkins | March 13, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

These past few weeks I’ve been comfort eating like crazy. It’s been one of those times where everything feels up in the air, I have no idea what I’m doing and every now and then I crash into a pile of Cadbury’s and cookies. I’ve never cared too much about my body image; I’m not the weight I’d like to be but in compete honesty I’ve got more to worry about than that! At the same time though I know that I’m getting to the point where I’m eating so much rubbish that it’s making me feel even more sluggish than usual. Therefore this holiday I’m going to do my best to go on a cleanse. More veg, less sugar. More salads, less cakes! Something I’ve found hard in the past when dieting is the conflict with running a food blog: I love making patisserie and I want to keep on baking, but it doesn’t do wonders for my waist line. Therefore I’m gonna start alternating between bakes and healthy things like this salad…

I’ve always wanted to try making zoodles – aka noodles made out of zucchini (or courgette if you’re English like me!) and so I thought this would be the perfect time to try them out. Traditionally they’re made with a spiralizer, but I don’t have one of those so I’ve experimented with a peeler and a knife and it’s worked fine! These are so much lighter than normal noodles and have they same kind of effect in a dish, so when put with some pesto and ricotta it makes a really light, fresh spring salad!

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

2 Courgette/zucchini
A squeeze of Lemon juice
½ tbsp Olive oil
A Handful of Baby spinach
4 tsp Ricotta
4 tsp Green pesto
¼ tsp Paprika (optional)

Method

Take a medium pan, fill it with water and place it over a medium heat. Leave covered with a lid to bring to the boil.
Meanwhile take a peeler and peel even strips out of the courgette. Layer these strips up in piles about 1cm tall and cut thin strips out of them using a sharp knife.
Place the zoodles into the boiling water and take the pan off the heat. Leave them to sit for 1 minute (more if you want them to be softer). Then drain the zoodles and leave them to dry on some kitchen towels.
Put the zoodles into a bowl and add the lemon juice and oil. Then tear up the spinach into small pieces and add them to the mix. Carefully toss everything together.
Portion out the zoodle mix between the plates, then scatter the ricotta over the top. Finish with a few spoonfuls of pesto and a sprinkle of paprika. Enjoy!