don’t you love it when something dawns on you??
Sooner or later, this long snowy winter has to end, right? All of the snow is beautiful, and it does make you want to immediately run in the kitchen and start cooking. Especially when that cooking involves zoodles, or zucchini noodles. By this time you have all figured out how much I adore zoodles. When I first started zoodling, I was drawn to making summer salads. All of the sudden it dawned on me that it would be fun to experiment with warm zoodles. And then it further dawned on me that warm zoodles drenched in a pepper pesto are really like a salad, but just a warmed up version. Now that we have that all straightened out we can get on to zoodling.
have you started zoodling?
Zoodles are fabulous whether you are zoodling with a hand held zoodler or an attachment to your stand mixer. To put it another way, there is no excuse to not start zoodling! I have even noticed zoodlle noodles in the grab and go packages at the grocery store. So now that you have your big pile of zoodles, we have to have a delicious sauce for them to jump into. As much as I adore a traditional basil pesto, it was time to shake things up a bit. I immediately thought of roasted red peppers, and there was no turning back!
time to roast your peppers!!
Roasting peppers on the grill is a tempting treat. The fiery roasting transforms a delicious crispy pepper into sweet and savory perfection. Since there is a huge snow drift on my outdoor grill, it was time to get creative. I had never roasted peppers on my cook top before, but this was the perfect time to try! In other words, when the door is locked, go through the window. I laid the peppers on the open flame, and was astounded how quickly they were roasted to perfection. When they were evenly blackened, I put them in a big plastic bowl with a dish towel covering them. After about 20 minutes, the skin simply fell off, and I was left with delectable peppers.
taste testing time!!!
I put the roasted red peppers in the bowl of my food processor and added lemon juice, shredded gouda cheese, garlic, and pistachios. This pesto tasted so delightful, and was so fun to taste test, I barely had enough for my zoodles!! The next step was to saute the zoodles, one additional pepper, and sun dried tomatoes for a few minutes. Add a couple of scoops of this addicting pepper pesto, and a star is born. What? It is academy awards season isn’t it? The final step was to sprinkle some pistachios and a fresh grate of cheese on your new favorite dinner!
Printzoodles with red pepper pesto and pistachios
zucchini noodles sauteed with a mouth watering red pepper pesto, some more veggies, and topped with gouda cheese and pistachios. Love at first bite!
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: main dish
- Method: cook top
Ingredients
red pepper pesto:
2–3 roasted red peppers
zest from 1/2 lemon
1–2 TB fresh lemon juice
2 big cloves of garlic minced
2/3 cup pistachios
1/2 cup shredded gouda cheese
2–3 TB olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Zoodles:
8 small to medium zucchini spiralized into zoodles
1 big red pepper chopped
7 sun dried tomato halves hydrated and chopped
olive oil
salt and white pepper to taste
grated gouda for sprinkling on the top
pistachios for sprinkling on the top
optional: grilled chicken
Instructions
Zoodles:
Spiralize the zucchini into a large bowl and set aside
Prepare the red pepper pesto:
Roast the peppers on an outside grill or over a gas flame until charred on all sides
Place roasted peppers in a large bowl and cover with a towel for 20 minutes to make the skin easier to peel
Add lemon zest, lemon juice, minced garlic, and roasted peppers to bowl of good processor
Process until combined and peppers are pureed
Drizzle olive oil 1 TB at a time until desired consistancy
Add pistachios and shredded gouda cheese
Pulse until combined
Salt and pepper to taste
Zoodles:
Heat 2-3 TB olive oil in large saute pan
Add zucchini zoodles and pepper to pan
salt and white pepper
Saute for 2-3 minutes until slightly softened
Add sun dried tomatoes and 2 big scoops of red pepper pesto and cook on medium heat until heated through
Transfer to serving dish and top with grated gouda cheese and pistachios
Keywords: zucchini zoodles, red pepper pesto, gouda cheese, pistachios
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