A New View of Healthy Eating: Intuitive Cooking: Spiral Veggie Saute with Vegan Cashew Basil Pesto

By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

The last few days I have been honored to shoot a series of videos with Tom Shanahan of Spiritual Adrenaline. We prepared 13 cooking videos, so I’m the lucky one with lots of incredible whole food delicious left-overs. One of cooking videos featured Raw Spiral Veggies with Cashew Basil Pesto. For that dish, I spiralized organic zucchini, sweet potato, butternut squash, and golden beets, and created a vegan, dairy-free pesto with raw cashews, basil, lemon, olive oil, and sea salt.

Today, with the left-over already spiralized veggies and the cashew basil pesto, and the addition of a beautiful organic heirloom tomato, I created one of my very favorite dishes ever. (I’m so glad I can cook another batch tomorrow!)

Enjoy a few of the photos and have fun creating your own veggie saute with left-overs!

• Simple Ingredients: Spiralized raw veggies, cashew basil pesto, heirloom tomato, organic extra virgin olive oil, and garlic and sea salt (not in photo)

•  Beautiful heirloom tomato: Lightly saute in organic extra virgin olive oil, with fresh garlic, and sea salt.

• Saute: Add the spiralized veggies to the saute pan and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally

• Plate and enjoy!

EXCERPT: A New View of Healthy Eating: Spiral Veggies with Nut-Based Creamy Dressing

Learn how to spiral colorful veggies and create a simple dressing with raw cashews and basil.

Basic Salad Dressing: Raw Cashews & Basil Pesto

A vegan, dairy-free, creamy dressing is the base for this colorful raw spiral veggie salad. With fresh basil and lots of garlic, this refreshing dressing is a perfect alternative to a cheese-based pesto.

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

• ½ cup raw cashews, soaked 3-4 hours in water
• ½ cup fresh basil leaves
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp sea salt
• ¼ cup organic extra virgin olive oil

SIMPLE STEPS

• Place all ingredients except organic extra virgin olive oil into food processor.
• Add olive oil little by little until smooth.
• Taste and add extra garlic, lemon juice, or basil leaves to create a taste that’s right for you.

For this recipe and  more, my book, A New View of Healthy Eating is available now, and I can ship to you. (Or come to one of my events: Oct 9, 11am-1pm, The Farm at South Mountain; Oct 15, 9-11am)

Join our e-mail list for recipes, culinary techniques, and upcoming events.