Zucchini with Walnut Watercress Pesto is an amazingly light and summery lunch that can be prepared in minutes, especially if you make the pesto the night before!

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What is spiralizing?
Ingredients for Zucchini Walnut Watercress Pesto
How to make Zucchini Walnut Watercress Pesto
Regular pasta recipes:

With such an array of superfood ingredients to boost health and wellness, this is definitely one of our favourite summer lunches. No need to wait for summer though!

Watercress is a green leafy vegetable in the same family as kale, brussel sprouts, cabbage and broccoli.

It certainly is a powerhouse food, packed with many natural phytonutrients and a host of vitamins and minerals. See the nutritional links below for more information on this fabulous plant.

Watercress has small leaves and edible stems that impart a lovely peppery, slightly spicy flavour. Great just eaten raw in salads but also wonderful blended into a pesto.

The addition of Walnuts further enhances the nutritional value of this dish. Walnuts and walnut oil are rich in antioxidants, they contain protein, omega 3 fats, vitamins B6 and E, potassium, magnesium, copper and zinc, amongst others, all of which are great skin-loving beauty foods too!

One of walnut's most valuable properties is in fighting inflammation which is so important for many health concerns.

Using Courgettes spiralised in place of regular spaghetti pasta brings a freshness to this dish and is, of course, gluten-free and egg-free for those who are following special diets.

Also if you want to cut down on the carb content of a meal, mixing some regular pasta with spiralised courgettes (zucchini) is a great compromise and also adds extra vegetables. My children eat a combination and are used to the addition!

What is spiralizing?

A spiralizer is a tool (see photo below) that is used to create/spiralise thin spaghetti-like noodles with some vegetables. It has different inserts to create an assortment of shapes and thicknesses.

Not all vegetables are suitable for spiralizing but zucchini, cucumbers, beets, sweet potatoes and carrots are our favorites to incorporate into dishes.

We peel some vegetables before spiralizing but leave the peel on courgettes for added nutrition. Zucchini are soft and very easy to spiralize.

Finally peas are a great addition to our dish, they are actually not a vegetable but a legume. They are naturally high in vegetable protein and a fantastic source of fiber.

Ingredients for Zucchini Walnut Watercress Pesto

Watercress
Garlic cloves
Walnuts
Parmesan cheese
extra virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper

How to make Zucchini Walnut Watercress Pesto

Place the Watercress, garlic, walnuts and Parmesan cheese in a blender and blend until you have a finely chopped consistency.
Watch out for the walnuts, too much blending at this stage will turn them into walnut butter.
Keep blending whilst adding the olive oil slowly until you have a gloriously green sauce. Add as much or as little oil as it takes to reach this stage. Don’t overdo it though!
Season to taste.
Spiralize one very large Zucchini for 2 people.
Cook some frozen peas in boiling water for 3-4 minutes, take off the boil and add the spiralised Courgette to the water. Leave to stand for 2-3 minutes to soften, more if you like them softer.
Drain both well and add your Walnut Watercress Pesto to the vegetables and serve immediately.

Can I freeze this Zucchini dish?

Zucchini with Walnut Watercress Pesto is best made and eaten fresh rather than frozen. Zucchini have a high water content and once defrosted would become watery and mushy, which would make the sauce too liquid.

Zucchini is so easy and quick to put through the spiralizer to create zucchini noodles, much better to prepare fresh when needed.

Regular pasta recipes:

Nutritional Info Links:

Zucchini with Walnut Watercress Pesto

Zucchini with Walnut Watercress Pesto is an amazingly light and summery lunch that can be prepared in minutes, especially if you make the pesto the night before!

5 from 1 vote

Author: ND

Servings 2

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PREP 20

COOK 10

Additional Time 10

TOTAL 40

Ingredients

For the Pesto

Instructions

Blend the Watercress, garlic, walnuts and Parmesan cheese in a blender until you have a finely chopped consistency.
Watch out for the walnuts, too much blending at this stage will turn them into walnut butter.
Keep blending whilst adding the olive oil slowly until you have a gloriously green sauce. Add as much or as little oil as it takes to reach this stage. Don’t overdo it though!
Season to taste.
Spiralise 1 very large Zucchini for 2 people.
Cook some frozen *peas in boiling water for around 3 minutes, take off the boil and add the spiralized zucchini to the water. Leave to stand for 2-3 minutes to soften, more if you like it softer.
Drain both well and add your Walnut Watercress Pesto to the vegetables and serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

*If using regular peas, cook for a little longer as necessary. If using Petit Pois (smaller peas), these won't need cooking as much.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Calories 385kcal

Nutrition Facts

Zucchini with Walnut Watercress Pesto

Serving Size

1 g

Amount per Serving

Calories

385

% Daily Value*

Fat

Saturated Fat

Polyunsaturated Fat

Cholesterol

Sodium

671

Carbohydrates

Fiber

Sugar

Protein

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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*Nutritional data is provided as a courtesy and is accurate to the best of my knowledge. You can verify it using the nutrition calculator of your choice. All data is based on net carbs, without sugar alcohol: Swerve, Erythritol, Monk Fruit or Allulose.

Zucchini with Walnut Watercress Pesto

What is spiralizing?

Ingredients for Zucchini Walnut Watercress Pesto