Courgette Noodles with Pea, Mint & Almond Pesto
Although a simple dish, this is one of the salads we like to make that people often ask the recipe for. It tastes like summer sunshine.
The mint lifts the peas to the next level, and the pesto itself is a really useful sauce to have in your repertoire, as you might imagine it works well with other types of vegetable, or pasta, or with chicken or fish.
Ingredients
Serves 4 as a shared side
2 Courgettes (best with a mixture of colours if you can find them)
200g Frozen peas
10g Fresh mint, leaves only
80g Parmesan
80g Toasted flaked almonds (toasted in the oven for 8 mins at 160C until golden)
80ml Extra virgin olive oil
1 clove Garlic, pureed
1 Lemon
Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and pop in the frozen peas. Bring back to the boil and cook for 30 seconds, just enough to defrost and cook the peas through to the centre. Strain the peas, then plunge them into cold water to stop them from cooking, and to cool them down quickly. This helps to set the chlorophyll and keep the peas a bright and vibrant green colour. None of that murky brown thank you.
Keep a small handful of fresh peas, a few mint leaves and some of the flaked almonds aside to use as a garnish later. Put the rest of the peas, mint and almonds into a food processor along with the parmesan, olive oil, garlic and the juice of the lemon. Pulse in the blender until you have achieved a pesto like consistency, not too chunky, not too thick. Add a touch of water, or more olive oil if required. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add a touch more lemon or vinegar if you feel it needs some more acidity.
Use a standard vegetable peeler to shave noodles off the courgettes (or if you have one you can use a julienne peeler). I like to work around the courgette so that each noodle has a strip of colour as well as a strip of white flesh to it. Keep shaving off the noodles until you get down to the seeds at the centre. These can be discarded, or used for another dish.
You can keep the pesto and the noodles separately in the fridge until ready to serve, for up to two days.
Just before serving, dress the noodles in a bowl with the pesto. Garnish with some roughly chopped mint, the remaining whole peas and flaked almonds and a fresh grating of parmesan.