Heather’s Zucchini Noodles with Basil-Pumpkin Seed Pesto
Fresh zucchini noodles tossed with basil pesto and cherry tomatoes make a light, healthy meal. Make this recipe for lunch or dinner, or serve it as a side!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
My head is spinning after a weekend away at a food conference and a late arrival home last night. Food is one of my favorite subjects, so I’m feeling inspired after discussions about nutrition, and the latest trends and innovations. Fellow food nerds, definitely check out The Food Lab next year, especially if you live in the NYC area.
I’m glad I went, and I’m glad to be home with my Cookie girl and my own bed. I slept in a dorm room this weekend, which was clean and very cozy. It brought back memories of sharing a room with my best friend freshman year (we definitely didn’t follow the rules), and my semester in France, where we learned to hang cheese outside the window to keep it cold.
Now I have a comfy queen-sized bed and a refrigerator, so I must be doing something right. Right?
Right. Today, I’m sharing a recipe from Heather Christo’s lovely new cookbook, Pure Delicious. Heather and her daughters were diagnosed with a long list of food allergies a couple of years ago, and their health has dramatically improved since they removed those foods from their diets. Heather offered to send me a copy, and after watching her talk about her experience in her heartfelt book trailer, I couldn’t wait to flip through the pages.
Heather is a trained chef and an avid entertainer, so her new cookbook is full of simple, elegant recipes that are free of gluten, dairy, egg, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish and cane sugar. I should note that it is not a meatless book. I think it’s magical when people find good health through their diet, and this book is a great resource for information about living with food sensitivities.
Her recipe for zucchini noodles with pesto and cherry tomatoes looked so fresh and bright that I just had to try it, and I really wish I had ingredients for another batch right now! It’s a simple summer meal that is bursting with flavor, and ready in under thirty minutes. Bam!
Heather’s Zucchini Noodles with Basil-Pumpkin Seed Pesto
Fresh, raw zucchini noodles tossed with basil pesto and cherry tomatoes make a light, healthy meal. Make this recipe for lunch or dinner, or serve it as a side! Recipe yields 4 generous main dish servings.
Ingredients
Basil-pumpkin seed pesto
- ½ small yellow onion, roughly chopped*
- 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
- 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves (arugula works, too)
- ½ cup pepitas (green pumpkin seeds), toasted**
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar, to taste (or lemon juice)
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- Salt, to taste
Zucchini noodles
- 3 large zucchini
- Salt
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes (Heather served her tomatoes whole; I halved mine vertically)
- Fresh basil leaves, for garnishing
Instructions
- To prepare the pesto: In a food processor, combine the onion (if using, see notes), garlic, basil, toasted pepitas, olive oil, vinegar and red pepper flakes. Blend until smooth and season with salt, to taste (I added about ½ teaspoon—if the mixture tastes overwhelmingly oniony, don’t worry, it will mellow in a few minutes. I added another teaspoon of vinegar to help balance the flavors).
- To prepare the noodles: Spiralize the zucchini with a spiralizer (here’s how), or turn the zucchini into noodles with a julienne peeler, or grate the zucchini the long way on a large box grater. Toss the zucchini with pesto until well coated, and season with salt (I added another ¼ teaspoon).
- Transfer the pesto noodles to a large platter and sprinkle with the cherry tomatoes. Tuck the fresh basil in to the corners to garnish.
Notes
Recipe minimally adapted from Pure Delicious by Heather Christo, with permission.
*If you’re sensitive to the flavor of raw onion, just skip it.
**To toast the pepitas, pour them into a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the seeds are fragrant and the pepitas are starting to make little popping noises, around 5 minutes.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Really delish, I do put a dollop of the pesto in a frying pan and heat the zucchini through to lightly cooked. Love your recipes and have had a lot of success with them, thank you!
This recipe is amazing and has been such a hit at my house!
Subbed pine nuts for pepitas b/c that is what I had on hand but would love to try this with pepitas next time! Used store-bought, pre-prepared yellow zucchini noodles. Also, once I had prepared the pesto and coated the noodles, I put everything into a sauté pan to heat it up a bit before serving. On this cold winter night, I felt like enjoying this dish warm. It was a definite hit!
I just made this and it was absolutely delicious. I’ve always cooked my zucchini noodles – until now! Never again. They were so much better raw. I cooked this with some Cajun spiced tofu and loved the combo. Summer is here!
hi,
can i use roasted and salted pepitas and skip the toasting?
You can try it. Let me know what you think!
Recipe looks wonderful. So you don’t cook the zuch noodles? Thanks.
No need to cook them! I hope you love it.
Husband recently brought home some enormous zucchini from a coworker, and someone needed to make use of them. So I went and bought a spiralizer, made this for dinner last night and we all really enjoyed it. My teenager scarfed it up! Thanks for another great recipe!
You’re welcome, Kimberlyn! I appreciate your review.
Just happened to have all the ingredients so I made it for dinner tonight. Didn’t add onion because I’m not a big fan.
It was Delicious and easy to make. Luckily, I have a spiralizer. Great light meal!
Thank you!
You’re welcome, M!
I left out the onion and topped with pecorino and sauteed shrimp. Oh my goodness, this was fantastic! Will definitely make again through the summer – it’s perfectly light but filling (at least with shrimp and cheese!).
We tried this recipe, and, mind you, we are pretty adventurous! Well it didn’t go well for us. Too much garlic, too much onion, not enough basil…and I followed the recipe. We are not sure if it was us or the recipe, but this one went right into the circular file!
I’m sorry you didn’t love this recipe. I appreciate your feedback.
Do you cook the zucchini?