Spiralized Cucumber Coleslaw with Parsley Pesto

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July Redux: Get Your Fruits and Veggies in Shape

With produce galore, now’s a great time to enjoy lots of fruits and vegetables. Show us how you’re serving the bounty of gardens and orchards in shapes like ribbons, noodles, cut-outs, or other creative cuts.

Summer is really the best time of year for fresh fruits and vegetables! I’m always trying to experiment with new flavors and veggies so this prompt helped me take it a step further by thinking about some traditional dishes that I would like to improve… So I set out to create flavorful, fun shaped, crunchy, non-conventional coleslaw.  I hate mayo so this recipe is 100% mayo free!! Adding more veggies and taking away the mayo definitely pumps up the nutrition in this classic dish. I’ve had my spiralizer 2½ years and I’ve actually only used it for zucchini, squash, and sweet potatoes so I opted to try it with a nice juicy raw veggie- cucumber.

Veggie noodles are seriously the best- I love the smoothness   they provide in a warm dish so I was hoping they would taste just as good cold. Adding parsley along with basil to make a less traditional more herby sauce was a delicious twist on pesto. I used cashews because I rarely buy pine nuts (expensive $$) but you could use any nuts. The olive oil and lemon juice can also be added to taste and more water might be needed for thinning the sauce.

This is a great side dish for a summer dinner- would be great with grilled meats or delicate fish. It really adds a pop of freshness to any meal. I think it would be a fun twist on coleslaw for a party or picnic as well- anything that uses pesto instead of mayo is pretty much golden.

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers

1 10oz package cabbage (or 1 head)

1½ cup loosely packed basil leaves

1½ cup loosely packed parsley leaves

1 cup cashews (or pine nuts)

1 tsp salt

2 garlic cloves

2/3 cup olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice

¼ water (to thin)

Directions:

1. After washing produce, spiralizer cucumbers TIP: Using kitchen shears, cut the noodles periodically so you don’t end up with 1 foot noodles
2. Chop cabbage if using a head, otherwise just remove from package into large bowl
3. Measure out herbs and pulse in food processor with cashews, salt, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and water to create pesto paste (add more water if needed)
4. Spread the pesto of cucumber and cabbage until thoroughly combined, serve cold

Linking up with my Recipe Redux friends to see what healthy fresh fruit and veggie creations they came up with!

Have you had spiralized veggies? Do you like them??