Vegan zucchini "tagliatelle" (raw) with veggies and mushrooms

Pasta and pizza are definitely one of those things that people switching to grainfree or paleo diet tend to miss. There are some noodles that do not contain grains and beans (starchy noodles like tapioca or potato), but let’s be honest – they’re also not really healthy and they don’t taste so good.

If you don’t want to go for a fix of buckwheat noodles (they are glutenfree, but not grainfree), zucchini is a great and healthy choice. You can eat this “pasta” slightly pan-fried with a bit of garlic which will leave it nice and soft, or just raw, which – as I found out only recently – will leave them crispy, healthy and super tasty.

In this simple recipe I chose vegan option with pumpkin, olives and shiitake, but you can top it up with other veggies you like, tomato sauce, meat, or anything you would use for a regular pasta. 

Or I should say “anything except of poppy seeds”. You've never heard about pasta with poppy seeds? Never mind, I’ll explain one day, with the replacement recipe for countries like Singapore where poppy seeds are not legal.

Raw zucchini “tagliatelle” with non-raw veggies


Ingredients for one person:

• 1 medium sized fresh zucchini
• ½ small onion
• 1/3 cup of small pumpkin cubes
• 7-10 green olives
• 1-2 shiitake mushrooms
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Coconut oil

Instructions:

1. Peel off the zucchini skin.
2. Make zucchini “tagliatelle” by sliding peeler along the long side of zucchini. Don’t peel the middle soft part with seeds; we will still use it later. 
3. Put peels into the strainer, sprinkle with salt and stir, covering the peels evenly with salt, and leave it over bowl or sink to release as much water as possible (20 minutes minimum). Don’t overdo it with salt though, as you will eat zucchini straight like this.
4. In the meantime, cut onion to small pieces, heat up bit of coconut oil on the pan, add onion and wait until it starts turning transparent. 
5. Cut the remaining soft part of zucchini and pumpkin into small cubes and add them to the pan, along with olives cut in half and about 2-3 spoons of water from the olives. Add a bit of salt, freshly ground pepper, thyme and oregano. Cover with lid and cook for around 5 minutes and then uncovered for another 3 minutes. 
6. Cut mushrooms to thin slices, move veggies to one side of the pan and distribute mushroom slices over the pan bottom, lightly sprinkle with salt and bake them 2 minutes on each side. You can consider adding a dash of red wine here – I just love how shiitake taste with red wine.
7. Gently squeeze remaining water out of your “pasta” and form a nest on the serving plate for the rest of the veggies. 
8. Top pasta with veggies and mushrooms.

I’m sure this recipe would be even nicer if I used tomatoes or tomato sauce with couple of leaves of fresh basil. Unfortunately I can’t try that due to my allergy (I’m a living proof that tomato is a fruit – I only have fruit allergies and tomato is the worst). Anyway – you go ahead and try it and please let me know how was the result.