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Roasted Red Pepper Zoodles with Goat Cheese

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Looking for a healthy way to change up your pasta night?  Have you ever tried incorporating zucchini noodles into your dinner routine? It’s time to give it a go starting with this easy and healthy noodles recipe with a zingy roasted red pepper sauce.  Top it off with a little goat cheese and you may never go back to regular pasta noodles again.

The vegetable noodle craze is here to stay. If you don’t own a spiralizer you an purchase spiralized zucchini noodles at most every grocery store. The key is to not sauté the noodles for too long, they cook quickly so keep a close eye on them.  Nobody likes a soggy noodle!!

The roasted red pepper sauce is a cinch to zip up in the food processor or blender.  Just add in all of the ingredients, give it a quick pulse and there you have it.  Healthy weeknight cooking doesn’t get much easier than this.

How beautiful and fresh does this look?  Bright and flavorful and packed with flavor, add this to your dinner schedule this week and let us know what you think!!


Roasted Red Pepper Zoodles with Goat Cheese
 
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Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 12 oz jar roasted red peppers
  • 1 clove garlic
  • zest and juice of 1 medium lemon
  • ¼ C fresh basil, packed
  • ⅛ tsp red pepper flakes
  • 2 Tbsp heavy cream
  • ¼ tsp each kosher salt and cracked pepper
  • 1 tsp good quality olive oil
  • 2 medium zuchinnis, spiralized
  • ¼ C goat cheese, crumbled
Instructions
  1. Using a blender or food processor add roasted red peppers, garlic, lemon juice and zest, basil, red pepper flakes, cream & S&P. Blend on high until completely broken down and mixed.
  2. Add red pepper sauce to a small saucepan and warm over low heat.
  3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add zoodles, tossing frequently with thongs until they begin to soften.
  4. Transfer zoodles to plates and spoon sauce over the top. Crumble goat cheese to garnish and serve immediately.

Lemon Kale Pesto

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We just love it when two loves collide…in this case we combined our love of kale and our love of pesto and mixed them up.  With this mashup, lemon kale pesto was born and we are definitely in LOVE with the combo!  Kale pesto is something you can easily whip up on a Sunday afternoon so it’s ready to roll for quick and easy weekday cooking.  You can use the lemon kale pesto on pasta, with sautéed veggies as a marinade for chicken, the list is endless.

Since kale is a heartier leaf you need to boil and blanch the kale to break it down before adding it to the food processor with the other ingredients.  Strip off the stem of the kale and add the leaves to boiling water for about 30 second.  Transfer the kale to a bowl of ice cold water – this is called blanching.  It stops the cooking and keeps the color vibrant.

One you’ve blanched the kale it’s time to throw everything together and make your pesto.  Add all of the ingredients to the food processor except for the olive oil, scrape down the sides until everything is all mixed up.  Keep the food processor running and slowly add the olive oil until combined.  Speaking of olive oil…use the good stuff, don’t skimp on cheap olive oil.  It makes a huge difference and makes everything taste that much better.  Always spend the extra few dollars when it comes to olive oil!!! Okay, olive oil rant officially over…at least for this post!

Now check out the beautiful vibrant color of this lemon kale pesto.   Gorgeous….almost too pretty to eat, but not really…you definitely need to eat this!! You will notice an earthier and heartier flavor when making pesto from kale instead of basil.  A great twist on a classic favorite, we hope you love this as much as we do!

Lemon Kale Pesto
 
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Serves: 1½ C
Ingredients
  • 1 medium bunch lacinato kale, stems removed
  • ⅓ C toasted walnuts
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • ⅓ C grated romano cheese
  • ½ C good quality olive oil
  • ¼ tsp kosher salt
  • ¼ tsp cracked pepper
Instructions
  1. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add kale to the boiling water and remove with a slotted spoon or thongs after 30 seconds. Transfer immediately to a bowl of ice water. Drain and dry kale on paper towels.
  2. Using a food processor add kale, walnuts, garlic, lemon juice and zest and romano cheese. Pulse until combined. With the food processor running drizzle in the olive oil, add in S&P. Pulse, stopping to scrape down sides with a spatula until fully incorporated and broken down. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 10 days.

Basic Basil Pesto – Homemade

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Make your own basic basil pesto. Fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic, Parmesan and olive oil, that’s it folks! Seriously, that’s all it takes to make ridiculously delicious, unbelievably fragrant (like, cannot stop smelling it…is that weird?) basil pesto. We are obsessed with this basil pesto, and it is just so much better when it is homemade. You will find that it’s really easy enough to make that you don’t need to waste your money buying it. Basic basil pesto is a versatile sauce.  There are so many things that you can do with it to totally transform a meal into something seriously awesome!

Here are our top 10 favorite ways to incorporate this deliciousness into your routine:

  1. Smothered on a wrap or panini
  2. Topped on your favorite fish
  3. Mixed into salad dressing
  4. Drizzled over caprese
  5. Used as a garnish on soup
  6. Tossed into a cold potato salad
  7. Served as a base for pizza or bruschetta
  8.  Topped over roasted chicken
  9. Mixed with avocado and spread on toast
  10. As a sauce for pasta, like our Pesto Pasta with Sausage, Spinach, and Jammy Tomatoes.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. We are confident that you cannot go wrong when cooking with basic basil pesto you made from scratch.

basicbasilpesto

Basic Basil Pesto
 
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Serves: 1 Cup
Ingredients
  • 2 C packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C toasted pine nuts
  • 1 cloved garlic, chopped
  • ½ C grated parmesan cheese
  • ½ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. In a food processor combine basil, cheese, garlic, pine nuts and ¼ C olive oil. Slowly drizzle in the remaining ¼ C olive oil while the food processor is running. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 1 week.