We all enjoy a nice bowl of heart warming pasta. However, usually piping hot, heavy, carbo-loaded pasta is the last thing that you want in the middle of the scorching summer, especially when you’re trying to keep your beach bod in perfect shape! Well, not to worry because this recipe resembles pasta, but guess what, its raw zucchini noodles! I know what you’re thinking…Really Erinn, Zucchini doesn’t even closely resemble pasta, but it DOES! Use your imagination and think outside the box…you’ll be glad you did. You’ll feel satisfied and feel fuller longer than if you would’ve just had a plain old bowl of pasta. And, you’ll keep slimmer too! That’s good news all around don’t you think?

Hopefully you can use it at your next family dinner or Friday Date with your Hunnie. I made this a couple of weeks ago for my Family and they loved it. They’re by no means vegan and they we’re absolutely stuffed at the end of the meal! But, they of course had room for Kelly’s Bake Shoppe Brownies…I mean who wouldn’t?

Here’s the Recipe broken up into sections, you’ll put the Zucchini on the bottom and the Marinara on top finished with the Vegan Parmesan!

For the Zucchini Pasta

3 Yellow Zucchini

3 Green Zucchini

1 Spiralizer (I use the PADERNO brand)

Cut the ends of the zucchini off and make a 1 inch slice in the top of the zucchini. Make sure you have the right blade in the machine before using it (I used the smallest one) Push one end of the Zucchini into the top of the spiralizer and the other into the “spikes”. It should sit there comfortably. Now spin the lever in a clockwise motion until long zucchini noodles come out of the spiralizer, you’ll be done when you have no more zucchini to spin! 🙂

Marinara Sauce

3 C Tomatoes (7-8 Medium Roma tomatoes)

1 C Fresh Lemon Juice

4 Tbsp Tamari (gluten free soy-sauce)

4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil

4 Tbsp Chopped Yellow Onion

6 Cloves of Garlic, Peeled

1 ½ Cup Sun-Dried Tomatoes

1 tsp Sea Salt

In a High Speed Blender, combine all the ingredients and blend until smooth. Salt to taste.

 Vegan Parmesan

1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast

1 Cup Raw Cashews

2 Cloves of Garlic

2 tsp Salt

In a food processor, pulse the cashews (about 15 pulses). Add the nutritional yeast, salt, and garlic and pulse for an additional 7-10 pulses. It should be completely combined at this point and be ready for dusting on your pasta!

Here you go, a delicious Summer Pasta that won’t increase your waistline!

xo

Erinn

**Photo Cred: tastespace.wordpress.com