Cooking For A Better Tomorrow: Zucchini Caprese Salad with Spinach Walnut Pesto

I try so hard to be a good gardener! I want to be good at it and have this amazing garden in my backyard, but every year it just doesn’t go great. Last year, I shared my garden box. I grew more than just herbs and tomatoes for the first time. It went okay and I'm glad I did it. Sadly, when we moved, we had to leave it at the house, so I am back to not having a designated garden area. I think practice will make me better and I just haven’t been consistent with it.

My dream would be to have a neighborhood garden, but problem is I need to learn a little better what to do or someone else will need to be the leader. This year I ended up just doing tomatoes and herbs again. I have two old whisky type barrels - one for the tomatoes and one for my herbs. My tomatoes are there. Lots of them. They just won’t turn red. Have not had a single red tomato yet :( My herbs are doing good though. One of my favorite herbs to grow is basil and I personally have better success from seeds than I do from starter plants. Problem with seeds is they take a longer time to produce, but the plant is usually flourishing toward the end of summer when my tomatoes are going strong.

One of my favorite things to do with fresh tomatoes and basil is add some balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and occasionally slices of fresh mozzarella. Tomato, mozzarella and basil is a traditional salad, known as caprese. Today, I am making a different take on a caprese salad - Zucchini Caprese Salad with Spinach Walnut Pesto.

The inspiration for adding zucchini is I am seeing a lot of recipes that have noodle like pieces of zucchini. To get these noodles, most people use a spiralizer tool. I don’t own one of these and my guess is you don’t either, so I wanted to do this as easy as possible.

Couple of other things to note before we get started. For the mozzarella, I use the ‘little ones’, also known as pearls, which are a little bit smaller than the traditional bocconcini size balls. Any will work. You could even buy a big ball of fresh mozzarella and cut into bite size pieces. For the pesto, I decided to not do a traditional pesto. Traditional pesto is parsley, basil and pine nuts. Pine nuts are super expensive because they truly come from a pine cone and are extremely tedious to remove. Feel free to use traditional ingredients if you would like. Here is my recipe.

Zucchini Caprese Salad with Spinach Walnut Pesto

Servings: 4 small servings

Ingredients:

Zucchini, 1-2 depending on size

Cherry tomatoes, 1 c halved or quartered

Fresh basil, 2 T

Mozzarella balls, ½ c

Pesto (makes ¼ c):

Spinach, 1 c

Walnuts, ⅛ c

Lemon, ½

Garlic, 1 clove

Parmesan cheese, ⅛ c

Oil, ⅛ c

Salt and Pepper

Peel skin off of zucchini and trim ends. Continuing to use your vegetable peeler, shave off slices. Layer them on top of each other and then use your paring knife to make tiny thin strips. You want to end up with one heaping cup.

Better Bonus TIp: If you have a mandolin or julienne tool, feel free to use that. Or of course the spiralizer tool I mentioned above.

Add zucchini, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella to a bowl and set aside.

To make pesto, add spinach, walnuts, garlic, cheese, zest and juice of half of a lemon to a food processor or blender. Pulse until combined, scrapping sides as needed. Add oil and continue to pulse until smooth.

Better Bonus Tip: This will be easier if you have a small food processor because it doesn’t make a lot. Feel free to double or triple this. You can add to shrimp, a grain like rice or pasta or freeze for later.

Add pesto to bowl of zucchini, tomatoes and mozzarella. Mix to combine. Chiffonade basil and add to bowl with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Gently fold all together and serve.