Thanks to the popularity of gluten-free/sugar-free/raw/vegan diets, there is no shortage of inspiration for dishes to feed yourself and your family. No need for wall-to-wall carbs, nor protein and potatoes every meal. Use vegetables as the cornerstone of your menus, with the occasional addition of fish or meat.
Invest in a cheap spiraliser — mine is like a pencil sharpener and makes light work of courgettes, spinning them into courgetti (spaghetti-style strips) in minutes. Keep one in your Passover culinary kit. And a mandolin will help you make “lasagne” sheets out of butternut squash.
My courgette with avocado pesto takes minutes to pull together, is as pretty as a picture and will leave you feeling saintly. Any leftover pesto makes a great dip.
- Heat oven to 200°C and roast a head of garlic until the cloves are soft. You need only one clove for this recipe, but you might as well roast a whole head of garlic and use the leftovers in other dishes over Pesach. I find roasted garlic far less harsh than raw.
- Blitz the hazelnuts in a small food processor until finely chopped — but not so they are dust. You want some texture.
- Pop the soft garlic clove out of the skin and into the food processor bowl.
- Spoon in the avocado flesh, a tbsp of lemon juice, basil and 3 tbsp of olive oil and blitz again.
- Taste and add salt, pepper and more lemon juice and/or olive oil, to taste.
- Spiralise the courgettes or peel them into long ribbons with a potato peeler. Either eat them raw, or steam or sauté for a couple of minutes until al dente. I put them in a lidded frying pan with a tbsp of water and leave them over a medium heat for a few minutes until they are just tender. Do not let them get too soft.
- Mix the courgettes gently with the avocado pesto and top with the reserved basil leaves and few halved cherry tomatoes and optional parmesan.
