I know Saturday was a bit of a freakishly weird warm day for Cape Town winter, but it got me hankering after this dish which I originally found on the amazing vegan food blog, Simple Veganista. I’ve made this meal a couple of times and have adapted it according to mine and Andrew’s tastes. As we near summer and are preparing to get our nekkid bodies out, a lot of peeps are looking to cut their intake of sugar and carbs. Someone once told me when I went vegan that I should always make sure that one of my meals every day is a salad – and this dish, whilst pretending to be pasta, is totally a salad. It is raw vegan food, but if you’re a carb monster like myself, feel free to swap the zucchini noodles for pasta – the flavours will carry through either way. I added pine nuts to my recipe for extra yumminess, and you could probably add some beans to the dish too if you’d like – chick peas or cannellini beans would go best. It’s ridiculously quick and easy to make (the most amount of time is spent on peeling the zucchini and cucumber, which is not much at all) and it really is a great meal to whip up when you’re on the run but still trying to stay on the health bandwagon.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 big zucchinis aka marrows (I used a julienne peeler to slice mine, but you can buy spiralized zucchini from the shop or make your own with a spiralizer)
Cherry tomatoes
Rocket leaves
Jalapeno slices or Olives
Pea Shoots

For the sauce:

1 medium sized cucumber (the bigger your cucumber, the runnier your sauce will be)
1 large avocado
Juice from 1 lemon
A handful of basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Place your zucchini noodles in a mixing bowl. In a blender, blitz all the ingredients for the sauce until smooth. Toss with noodles and then place on a plate and decorate as desired with tomatoes, olives, rocket and pea shoots. Easy, huh? Enjoy!