Courgetti with a pine nut, basil, spinach and yoghurt pesto

The comments on my last post about courgettes/zucchini made me giggle. I find it a bit odd that two English speaking countries have such different names for the same vegetable. My Italian heritage leads me in the direction of preferring zucchini, but for the purposes of this blog post, I think courgetti has a better ring to it than zuccheti.

If you haven’t heard of courgetti, it’s courgette spaghetti or noodles, and I can’t get enough of them. I hadn’t got round to buying a spiralizer, so when Rachel’s Organic asked if they could send me one, I was beyond excited. I’ve only had it a couple of days, but I can already tell that all of my meals in the near future are sure to involve spiralizing. Once we’d spiralized a courgette, we were left with a little courgette mushroom. Isn’t it so cute?

As well as a spiralizer, Rachel’s Organic also sent me some of their delicious yoghurt and a bounty of fresh ingredients, which meant I spent all day yesterday in the kitchen. I was in heaven. And the result? Courgetti and king prawns, served with a pine nut, basil, spinach and yoghurt dressing. You might think adding yoghurt to a pesto-style sauce won’t work, but it really does. Here’s how you can make this super tasty and healthy dish:

Ingredients

• 2 courgettes
• 200g of king prawns
• 1 clove of garlic
• 50g of pine nuts
• Handful of basil leaves
• 50g of spinach
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 1.5 tablespoons of Rachel’s Organic fat free Greek style natural yoghurt
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Wash the basil and spinach before adding to a blender alongside the garlic, pine nuts and olive oil. Pulse until you have a rough paste. Add in the yoghurt and pulse again for about 30 seconds to bind all of the ingredients.

2. Chop the ends off the courgette and spiralize until you have courgetti. Add a drop of olive oil to a pan and saute for a couple of minutes. Then toss in the prawns and heat for another couple of minutes until the prawns are heated through.

3. Remove the courgetti from the heat and stir in the yoghurt dressing. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

I like quite a rough pesto, but if prefer something smoother, simply pulse the ingredients for a little longer. I also add a spoonful of the dressing at a time so as not to add too much – if there is any leftover, I keep it in the fridge, as it makes a great dip.

This recipe goes to show how versatile an ingredient yoghurt can be. For a long time I was guilty of categorising yoghurt as purely a breakfast dish, to be served with lots of fresh fruit. Sure, that’s still one of my favourite ways to eat yoghurt, but from now on I’ll be experimenting with it a little more.

I’d love to know, do you use yoghurt in any other dishes? And are you a fan of courgetti?

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