I made this raw vegan dish after hosting a dinner, having some leftover lemon basil pesto and myself feeling really “heavy” with all the cooking and also eating and drinking…. So the next day I really wanted to have a very light dinner and also making good use of my leftover. Raw vegan pasta reminiscent dishes use a certain vegetable that can be cut into the shape of the original pasta. In this case green summer squash, aka zucchini replaced canneloni. Or lay it down and call it ravioli. The filling was finely chopped kochlrabi marinated in the lemon basil pesto. Then rolled up and sat on a bed of pepper sauce.

This recipe yields for 2, it is your date night dinner 🙂

Ingredients (yields 2 portions)

• 2 smaller green and/or yellow summer squash (zucchini) (sliced on mandolin into 1-2mm thickness)
• 1 medium size or 2 small kohlrabi (chopped into smal cubes)
• salt, pepper, olive oil
• to garnish and serve: finely chopped pine nuts or pumpkin seeds, micro greens, edible flowers, garlic blossoms

For the lemon basil pesto

• 1/2 cup chopped basil
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove minced
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1 lemoon
• 1 red thai chili minced well (or chili flakes)
• 1-2 tsp nutritional yeast

For the red pepper sauce

• 1 red california pepper
• 1 tomato
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 shallot
• 1/3 cup of soaked cashew
• olive oil, salt, black pepper

Instructions

1. Start making the lemon basil pesto. Add all ingredients in a bowl and mix them well.
2. Chop the kohlrabi, season with salt and pepper and mix into the pesto. This will be the filling in the canneloni.
3. Blend all the ingredients of the pepper sauce in Vitamix or other high power blender.
4. Slice zucchini on mandolin about 2 mm thickness. Season lightly with salt, black pepper and olive oil. Set them on a sheet for a few minutes to marinate. This will also help the zucchini soften up a bit, make it easier to digest.
5. For plating spoon some pepper sauce in the bottom of a shallow bowl. Roll up zucchini, place on top of the sauce and fill with the kohrabi lemon basil pesto. If you can only lay them, like an original canelloni dish, that is fine too. Sprinkle with chopped or ground pine nut/ pumpkin seeds. I really liked it with the pumpkin seeds.
6. Decorate your plate with micro greens, herbs and edible blossoms.

ENJOY!