I wanted a thai noodle fix. I had cashews and zucchinis and thought: Hmm, I’ll halve the rice noodle amount and do the other half as zoodles. It sooo hit the spot. I love half halving the carb as while I don’t believe they’re evil per se, I do believe we have the ratios a little wrong of sauce to other ingredients to carb, if you know what I mean.
There are a few components to this dish but rest assured, no individual part is at all difficult or takes up time. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to add finely sliced chicken breast, tempeh or beef, or stir fried veg as another element to the meal.
I hope you love it. As I said earlier, you can add a few bits of leftover chicken or beef or a few strips of fried tempeh for a higher amount of protein. I had some leftover pork mince that i’d cooked up with tamari, stock and maple and a bit of veg a couple of days ago, so we had it with a bit of that on the side. It was delicious. What I love about it was that it gave me a thai noodle dish fix, minus the hidden sugar which is often quite high, and with big increase on nutrient variety with the half half zoodle / noodle factor, the blitzed herbs and the wholefood ingredient packed sauce. There’s even protein in the cashews and a bunch of other good stuff. Nutrient variety contributes greatly to satiety and excitement achieved from a real food meal. Big flavour. Big nutritional pay off. Winning all round!
Loved it? Next time, make double the sauce and blitz double the herbs and freeze half in jars for less work next time.
Do let me know how you go either over on facebook or on instagram @lowtoxlife #lowtoxlife
Real Food. Happy Bodies.
Cashew and Zucchini Thai Noodles Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 130 g pad thai style rice noodles (uncooked weight) I used an organic brown rice noodle. Can’t do grains? Just do another 150g zoodles instead.
- 280 g raw zucchini, spiralised (use a ‘zoodle maker’ of if you don’t have one, just grate on big grater side as an interim measure)
- 3/4 cup coriander leaves
- 3/4 cup mint leaves
- 1 cup cashews, crushed roughly first and then roasted in a 180C oven until deep golden brown (about 10-15 mins)
SAUCE
- 1 1/4 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp juice of 1 lime or lemon taste
- 3 tbsp tamari / soy sauce / coconut aminos
- 2 tbsp maple or rice malt syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
GARNISHES (all optional)
- 1/2 cup coriander leaves
- 1 stalk spring onion/scallion fine chopped
- 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
Instructions
- Get your water boiling in a pot for your rice noodles. Cook them 4-5 minutes in plenty of boiling water until tender, strain and drizzle with sesame oil to stop from sticking, and set aside.
While the water is warming to the boil / rice noodles are cooking:
- Blitz your herbs until they are fine chopped in a blender, TM or mortar and pestle. Set aside.
- Mix up your sauce in a little cup with a bit of a stir. Done. Easy. Set aside.
- Spiralize your grate your zucchini.
- Chop your garnishes to have ready.
- Then, heat a large frying pan with your sesame and coconut oils.
- Toss in your sauce and bring to a boil for a minute to cook off the fishy smell of the fish sauce
- Then toss in your zoodles and the fine blitzed herbs
- Toss through your rice noodles, separating them out with a set of tongs in each hand to ensure they coat with the sauce and mix well with the zucchini.
- Toss in the crushed, toasted cashews and stir through briefly.
- You’re done. Pop into a bowl and garnish with whatever you have at the ready from the garnish list.
- NOTE: If you’re doing zoodles only, grain free, be sure not to leave them cooking in the sauce for literally more than a minute or 2. They will turn to mush otherwise.
