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With over 50 five-star reviews, this zucchini pasta with avocado pesto is a well-tested and delicious low-carb alternative to spaghetti. Feel free to use store-bought zucchini noodles for an even quicker and simpler recipe.
save this recipe!Many families turn to pasta on busy nights. While we love wheat noodles as much as the next person, zucchini is soft enough to cut into the perfect spirals, and its neutral flavor makes it great as a pasta substitute!
This zucchini pasta is topped with a creamy avocado sauce with basil and lemon. It’s a true celebration of garden flavors. After making this so many times, I can confirm it works equally well with store-bought zoodles as it does with homemade ones.
Reader rating
“Just made it for my family and it was waaaaay better than I could have imagined! So delicious and creamy (not to mention healthy!)” —Namita
Here’s what you’ll need
- For The Pesto: You’ll need an avocado, garlic, fresh basil, olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Readers have had great success using dried basil and whole lemon slices cooked in the sauce and then removed. You might also need water to thin out the sauce.
- Zucchini: Any large zucchini variety works well. These get sauteed in a bit of olive until bright green.
to make zoodles
The easiest way to make zucchini noodles is with a spiralizer. If you don’t have a vegetable spiralizer, simply cut the zucchini into ¼-inch wide strips or peel into thin “fettuccini” using a vegetable peeler.
let’s make zucchini pasta
- Make the pesto in a food processor, adding water 1 tbsp at a time until it comes to a fluid yet thick consistency.
- Prepare the zucchini noodles by sauteing them in a splash of olive oil. Drain any excess water.
- Combine the noodles and sauce and then top with a bit of parmesan cheese for serving.
why not boil zucchini noodles?
While you would usually boil pasta, don’t go that route here! Boiling zucchini leaches out water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C and B6 in the case of zucchini). Instead, saute the zucchini noodles on the stove with a touch of olive oil until they are soft.
alternative sauce options
I love this creamy avocado sauce, but here are a few other options.
- Romesco is simple to make at home so if you have extra, toss it with zoodles.
- Marinara can be made with fresh tomatoes or bought in-store for a quick dinner.
- Traditional pesto uses a similar technique to this avocado pesto but with parmesan for creaminess.
Creamy Avocado Zucchini Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 avocado, ripe
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ cup fresh basil leaves
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 15 mL
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 30 mL
- Water as needed
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2-3 zucchinis, spiralized or cut into ¼ inch wide strips
Instructions
- Pesto: In a food processor or blender, combine avocado, garlic, basil leaves and lemon juice until smooth, then mix in extra virgin olive oil. Add water, 1 Tbsp at a time, until sauce reaches a fluid yet thick consistency. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Zucchini Noodles: Saute zoodles with a splash of olive oil over medium/high heat until slightly soft and bright green, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain excess water.
- Serve: Toss zoodles with sauce and top with parmesan cheese (you may not need all of the sauce).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!
This was delicious! I didn’t have fresh basil on hand, so I used about a tablespoon of dried. I also threw in a small handful of smoked almonds! My hubby loved it (he “doesn’t like avocado”), and even our 2 1/2 year old gobbled it up! Thank you!
Thanks for the healthy yummy recipe. Even my 10 yr old son said he would eat this every week! My hubby says he’d like it fried up more crispy. I wonder if the noodles would taste nice crispy?
Forgot to rate. This was excellent
You could bump up the heat on the stove and probably get them a little crispy!
soooo good! i also topped it with a sunny side up egg, delicious!
All are adequate for supper or just anytime.
That’s the fun of it.
Yummy.
It’s delicious! thank you for this great recipe!
Can you spiralize the zucchini the day before making?
Yes! Spiralized zucchini holds up well.
Yummy!!
Hi Sarah – I made some alterations to the recipe (which I hope doesn’t bother you – to me that’s the mark of a good recipe when it holds up to changes!) Just putting them here in case others want to try!
I bought some pre-zoodled kohlrabi to use (it was on discount!) to use instead of zucchini. Instead of using lemon juice, I used the ‘flesh’ (no rinds) of three full slices of lemon (my hubby had used lemon slices to bake on his ribs and had too many, and round slices are SO hard to juice so I just threw in all the flesh!) I used dried basil since I had no fresh and added enough water so it remained rather thick. I topped the dish with diced green onions since I can’t have dairy, though I thought about nutritional yeast and will try that next time!
This was amazing – I see so many possibilities with it! You could add cooked chicken to the dish. I can see using lime and cilantro instead of basil and lemon. I can also see subbing in dill instead of basil! I have a lot of the sauce left, and since it’s so thick I can see many different ways I can use it (like a dip or spread) or I can thin it for something else! Mmmmm, this would be great on fried chicken wings I think as a sauce!
Thanks so much for all the inspiration!
I’m so happy you found a way to make it your own! That’s what cooking is all about 😀
I love this recipe….. I did have to add more seasonings, and lemon. I bought the zucchini noodles at our local grocery store and they were already spiraled.
With SO many varieties of pastas these days that can appeal to any nutritional need THIS is a GREAT recipe. I used to avoid the “traditional white flour” because they were/are harmful equal nutritionally to paste or glue. In this recipe with recommendations here you could use healthier alternatives such as bean based varieties (one of my favorites) and exceed the basic nutritional value of your dish. 😋