Lifestyle, Food, FitnessCarl ThompsonAugust 02, 2016Simple Meals, 10 Minute Meals, Debenhams, Morphy Richards, Spiralizer, Courgettes, British Farms, Healthy Food, Food Porn, RecipesComment

Get Summer Ready With This Simple 10 Minute Meal - Kale Pesto & Spiralized Courgette

Lifestyle, Food, FitnessCarl ThompsonAugust 02, 2016Simple Meals, 10 Minute Meals, Debenhams, Morphy Richards, Spiralizer, Courgettes, British Farms, Healthy Food, Food Porn, RecipesComment

How many of you are still working hard on getting beach body ready for your summer holiday? Unfortunately I've pretty much done all my holidays for this year...thats except a stag do in Budapest and for those of you who have been on stag a do will know that you can't exactly class them as a relaxing holiday! So therefore I'm going to pass over to you my favourite Summer ready recipes, starting with this homemade kale pesto with chicken and spiralized courgettes. It really is so quick and simple to prepare/cook especially with my new Morphy Richards Electric Spiralizer.

We all have busy lifestyles and convenience is staring us in the face whenever we visit the supermarkets. Two things I noticed when buying these courgettes. 1. You can actually buy pre-spiralized courgettes, although they are over double the price of the non-sprialized version and you only get 250g which is just over 1 normal sized courgette. For those of you (like me) who eat a truck-load of this awesome vegetable will know that when you cook them, they reduce due to the water content - so 1 is just not enough. 2. Some supermarkets have a 'wonky veg' or 'Imperfect' ranges sourced from British farms. I would suggest buying these because from the normal packaged courgettes you can get 3 for £1 or buy the imperfect ones and you'll get 4 (and they were massive compared to the 'perfect' ones) for only 85p and you are also helping British farmers and reducing food waste.

Flipping back to convenience, I've used a couple of old crappy plastic spiralizers in the past before I purchased this electric one and not only is the electric one a hell of a lot quicker but also easier to clean. With the hand powered plastic rubbish, you have to push the courgette into the blade quite hard, therefore you'll get a build up of courgette residue that is hard to remove just by running under a tap. With the electric one it is totally effortless to spiralize as is the cleaning.

INGREDIENTS

2 Large handfuls of Kale.
10 Fresh basil leaves.
Olive Oil
Salt
4 Garlic cloves
1 Handful of Pine Nuts
Parmesan Cheese
2 Courgettes
Cherry Tomatoes
Mixed Peppers (Optional)
Chicken (Optional)

First things first, spiralize two courgettes using the Morphy Richards Electric Spiralizer if you are lucky enough to have one and place to the side.

Blend the kale, basil leaves and olive oil in a blender, adding the garlic cloves, pine nuts, pinch of salt and about 50g (or handful) of parmesan cheese whilst continuing to blend. Add more olive oil if the mixture is struggling to combine properly.

If you are making the chicken version, cut up some chicken pieces and fry in olive oil until cooked. Into the cooked chicken add a generous helping of the kale pesto, mix well.

Add halved cherry tomatoes, a pinch of salt and the sliced mixed peppers. Stir.

Add in your spiralized courgettes, continue to stir, coating all of the courgettes with the mixture.

Add about 25g of parmesan cheese shavings or a small handful and mix everything together thoroughly.

Toast some pine nuts and serve by towering the spiralized courgettes with the cherry tomatoes and mixed peppers. Add a teaspoon of the uncooked pesto on top with a single thin slice of parmesan cheese and sprinkle over the toasted pine nuts.