Hungry Romantic: Courgetti with homemade pesto

Courgetti with homemade almond & parsley pesto, mushrooms & feta

The end of November can often hail a strange limbo land in our eating habits. Many of us hope for a last minute health-kick before the official party season starts – but as the boozy invitations start to trickle in, this can become increasingly hard to maintain. ‘Courgetti’ for me has been a game changer – it’s the perfect way to reconcile my winter comfort food cravings and desire to fit into my favourite party dress. This green queen of a recipe is one of my go-to favourites – it’s simple, filling and full of flavour.

Ingredients (Serves 2)
4 courgettes
1 red onion
200g mushrooms
150g feta
A generous handful of spinach

For the pesto
100g almonds
50g fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 cloves garlic
50ml olive oil
1 lemon, juice
50g nutritional yeast
low-fat crème fraiche to serve (optional)

What to do
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and toast the almonds for around 5-7 minutes, until they’re golden and crunchy.Finely chop up the red onion, roughly chop up the mushrooms and spiralise the courgettes. Set them all to one side while you make your pesto.

Blitz the almonds, parsley, olive oil, nutritional yeast and lemon in a food processor. Crush the garlic with the back of a knife then add it in and continue blitzing until a smooth paste is formed. If you need to loosen the texture, add in more olive oil.

Heat up a little olive oil or coconut oil in a medium wok and sauté the red onion and mushroom until they both start to caramelise. Then add in the spiralised courgette and cook together for a few minutes until it starts to soften. Add in the fresh pesto and cook together for a further minute, then take the pan off the heat and mix in the crumbled feta, crème fraiche and the spinach. Season well with cracked black pepper and salt to taste.

Enjoy!
Emma x

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