I was reading Ella Woodward’s Deliciously Ella on the train back to London today, and this recipe popped out at me straight away. I bought a vegetable spiralizer at least 6 months ago, but I haven’t had much luck finding a good sauce for the courgetti that I had so much fun making. I absolutely love avocados (I probably eat at least one per day) and also pesto… and that’s how this recipe has made it to be my first blog post.

I have intentionally included a photo of the spiralizer I used (see above). It’s really nothing fancy – £7 from Amazon and requires a little arm work to get the courgettes through. However, as you can see, it absolutely does the job and as I have little-to-no biceps, I figure it’s a win-win situation. I also used a very cool avocado tool that was a flatwarming gift from our friend Luke – it splits, pits and slices avocados for you. (I’m easily pleased…)

The recipe in Deliciously Ella (p. 160) serves 4. However, it’s super easy to adjust this as 4 people require 4 courgettes, 4 avocados, 4 limes, and 4 tablespoons of olive oil – minimal maths = maximum happiness.

I adjusted the recipe a little for my taste, but it’s a very forgiving dish so there’s room to make changes and experiment with it. I switched the fresh mint leaves for some fresh basil leaves as I wanted a more traditional pesto flavour. I used some chilli flakes for an extra kick, and I also added some spinach and chopped cherry tomatoes for extra goodness.

So, shopping list: 4 courgettes, chestnut mushrooms, 120g brazil nuts, 4 avocados, mint/basil leaves, 4 limes, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Enter domestic God(dess):

1) Make up your courgetti.

2) Cut the mushrooms and heat them in a large plan (must be big enough to fit 4 courgettes worth of courgetti – you’d be surprised!)

3) While the mushrooms are on, place the brazil nuts in a blender for a couple of minutes. When I made this dish, I didn’t have a NutriBullet so this step was a bit of a struggle… If you add the 4 tablespoons of olive oil it may help the blender power through.

4) Then add the flesh of the 4 avocados, olive oil (if you haven’t already), mint/basil leaves, lime juice (getting a fork involved helps gain maximum juice-age) and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

5) I don’t like my courgetti totally raw so, at this stage, I added the contents of the blender and my courgetti to the mushrooms and let it heat for a couple of minutes whilst mixing.  If, like Jenna, you prefer your courgetti raw then just add the mushrooms to the courgetti and sauce once you’ve mixed them together in a bowl (note, additional washing up…)

And, voila! I added my spinach to the pan during step 5, and my chopped tomatoes once the courgetti was on the plate. This is more of a challenge than it sounds – transferring creamy courgetti (that seems to go on forever) from a large pan to a plate is not such an elegant sight…

I thought that this dish was seriously tasty. It’s amazing how creamy the avocado makes the sauce! It kept really well in the fridge too so I could have the extra servings over the next couple of days (although, eating noodles at work is not so hot). It was relatively inexpensive to make – there were no abnormal superfood/impossible to find ingredients so it really depends on where you buy your avocados! I am fortunate enough to live near a Lidl so the fruit and veg is really reasonable there. If you want something a little fancy for the weekend/special occasion/you don’t really need an excuse to be fancy, I imagine this would be really good with some salmon.

Enjoy!