This Olive, Pesto & courgette Ribbon Salad is the perfect summer salad! This is a summer go-to of mine, it looks and tastes so fresh and healthy, and compliments virtually any dish. I guarantee if you take this courgette ribbon salad to a dinner party or gathering you will get some serious kudos for it!
I have used home grown courgettes, which have so much more flavour that the supermarket ones! I love “spiralizing” or “zoodling” or “noodling” or whatever you want to call it, its such a great way to change the form of a vegetable and use it in different ways.
There are many ways you could “do” this salad, depending on the occasion, what you have in the fridge and your creativity/energy levels. My sister and I sat and discussed the bowl of healthy greens that sat before us today at lunch, feta, sun-dried tomatoes, preserved lemons, and even chorizo made an appearance- who doesn’t love chorizo! I hope you enjoy this Olive, Pesto & courgette Ribbon Salad as much we both did today.
For the salad:- 4 medium courgettes washed and “zoodled”
- ¼ cup of kalamata olives halved lengthways
- ¼ cup of lightly toasted pinenuts
- ¼ cup finely shaved parmesan cheese
- 1 cup sweet baby peas (I use frozen)
- 1 cup washed baby spinach leaves
For the dressing:- ¼ cup of basil pesto
- juice & rind of 1 large, ripe lemon
- salt & pepper
Optional:- fresh basil leaves
- Wash courgettes, chop the ends off, and put through a spiralizer to make courgette noodles, set aside on a plate lined with 4 paper towels, sprinkle a generous amount of table salt over the zoodles and set aside to rest- this will draw out the excess fluid from the courgettes.
- Wash baby spinach and fresh basil leaves if you have these, and set aside to dry.
- Bring a small pot of lightly salted water to the boil and cook baby peas for 2-3 minutes, remove from heat, discard hot water, and douse in cold water to stop them from overcooking.
- Lightly toast pinenuts until golden brown in a hot dry pan- ensure you keep a close eye on them because they can burn quickly!!
- Halve the kalamata olives lenghthways and finely shave the parmesan cheese.
- To make the dressing combine pesto, juice and rind of 1 lemon, and season to taste with salt and pepper
- Return to the zoodles and gently squeeze with a handful of paper towels, toss the noodles around and keep squeezing to encourage the water out, you may need to do this a few times and renew the paper towels with dry ones as they become damp quickly!
- Place zoodles into a salad bowl, along with baby spinach, peas, olives and pine nuts- leave a few to dress the salad with when ready to serve.
- Toss with salad dessing prepared earlier until well mixed through.
- Sprinkle over the shaved parmesan and remaining pine nuts and serve.
