Sometimes you come across a dish that is so good you keep making it day after day. That is the case with this courgette spaghetti, courtesy of the excellent food blog www.deliciouslyella.com.  As soon as I saw it I had to make it. The delicate combination of flavours is incredibly spot on and no matter how much you eat, and I eat a lot, you never have that bloated feeling that you so easily can get with regular pasta. Even from the gluten-free variety I may add. This recipe is not time-consuming to make and, as every ingredient is ‘good’, you don’t have the associated guilt afterwards either.

The best way to get the courgette to emulate spaghetti is to invest in either a vegetable spiralizer or a simple Julienne vegetable peeler (which is what I’ve got). The lovely Ella advocates mint in this recipe but as I’m not a mint lover apart from in Pimms, I’ve tailored this to suit my own palette but try both to see what works for you. I always try to use organic and/or locally sourced vegetables. Enjoy x

Serves 2

To make the pasta:

2 small courgettes or 1 large – shredded into spaghetti

To make the sauce:

1 1/2 avocado

12 brazil nuts

1/2 cup of water

1/2 lime (juice of)

2 tbsp olive oil

salt to taste

a large handful of sliced chestnut mushrooms

(option: chopped mint)

Put the brazil nuts into food processor or blender until crushed and almost pulverized. In the meantime fry the mushrooms gently in a bit of olive oil until soft and cooked through. Add the avocado, oil, lime juice and water to the nuts mixture and blend until you have a emulsified sauce. When your happy with the consistency of the sauce add the courgette ‘spaghetti’ into the mushrooms in the frying pan and pour over the sauce. Heat gently for only a couple of minutes to ensure food is warm rather than hot to make sure all the goodness is retained then serve.

Add some pomegranate seeds and coriander for colour. If you are super hungry, as I always am, you can add some steamed kale and broccoli on the side. It makes for a very pretty dish that I think anyone could enjoy, vegetarian or otherwise. Hope you like it!