KetoFLEX 12/3 Kitchen: Too Hot to Cook!

When it’s oppressively warm outside the last thing we want to do is to heat up the kitchen. This month’s cool and refreshing recipes give you quick and easy ways to eat healthy without breaking a sweat!

This month’s recipes Avocado Pesto Pasta (see the full recipe below), Sardine Pesto Salad, and Veggie Collard Wraps are available to members of our PreCODE and ReCODE programs.

Avocado Pesto Pasta

Yield: Four Servings

Tips:

● Feel free to substitute the zucchini noodles with hearts of palm or konjac noodles. One medium zucchini provides 5 to 6 oz of noodles or 1 1/2 cups. If you’re making the zucchini noodles yourself, you will need 4 medium zucchinis for this recipe. 

● If lectins are a concern, you can skip the tomatoes and substitute them with another favorite vegetable. Typically peeling the skin and removing seeds reduces lectins, but this is very difficult to do with cherry tomatoes.

● Optional toppings include cucumber, red or green peppers (also high in lectins; peeling & de-seeding helps), green or kalamata olives, and cannellini beans, with nutritional yeast or shaved manchego as a topping.

Ingredients:

● 24 oz zucchini noodles, USDA Organic, drained and rinsed
● 20 cherry tomatoes, USDA Organic, sliced in half
● 1 cup Avocado Pesto or your favorite dressing
● Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Using a spiralizer, julienne peeler, or mandoline, slice the zucchini into thin strips to make noodles.

2.  Place the zucchini noodles in a colander and toss with salt to remove excess moisture. Let it sit for 30 minutes. Afterward, gently squeeze the noodles to remove the remaining moisture.

3. Place your drained noodles in a medium bowl. I like to cut the zucchini noodles into 2-to-3-inch pieces to make the noodles easier to mix with the other ingredients.

4. Add one cup of Avocado Pesto (or your Pesto of choice) salt, and pepper to the bowl and mix well. Because the noodles have already been salted, you may not need extra for serving. Serve with sliced cherry tomatoes.