Raw Zucchini Pasta with Walnut & Mushroom Sauce {Vegan}

The other day I was thinking about a recipe I used to love to make called "Mushroom & Cheese Paté". It was from Molly Katzen's wonderful cookbook, "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" - a vegetarian cookbook with so many creative ideas and lovely pen and ink drawings that it's still a favourite after all these years. It's the kind of book that makes me think of that poem, "Oh for a book and a cosy nook, and oh for a quiet hour..." because I could happily sit and read it for ages.

Well, there's not too many quiet hours around here, but I've managed to finally shoo the kids off to bed and I thought I'd share with you the recipe that came out of my memories of Mushroom Pate...

The original recipe had neufchatel or cream cheese and ricotta cheese in it, which is why I haven't made it in a long time. I had some leftover dairy free sour cream in the fridge, and I thought that it might be a good substitute for the cheeses. Then I remembered seeing a few versions of 'raw walnut and mushroom pate' on the internet (like this one), and I decided to kind of combine the two recipes. Or three.

I planned to make the raw paté for lunch and eat it with raw vege sticks, but my friend Brook was here and we got talking about raw recipes, and I just had to show her my Benriner, which makes the coolest raw vege pasta ever! So the mushroom and walnut pate turned into a creamy, raw, vegan mushroom and walnut pasta sauce, which we ate stirred into raw zucchini pasta. It was delicious!

The only problem I have with raw vege type dishes is that they usually leave me still feeling a bit hungry. So I was pleasantly surprised that this one stayed with me longer than usual - maybe because of the protein in the walnuts. I only needed one small piece of cacao nib almond cake to keep me going til dinner time - amazing! ;)

So here's the very simple recipe - takes hardly any time at all. Oh, and if you don't own a Benriner or vegetable spiralizer of some sort, you can just peel the zucchini with a potato peeler into thin strips. Takes a bit longer, but it's worth it.


Raw Zucchini Pasta with Walnut & Mushroom Sauce
- Serves 2-4 (depending on whether it's a main or a side dish)

1. Soak 1 cup (100g) raw walnuts in water for a few hours, or overnight. (If you forget to do this step, or you're in a hurry, it will work with unsoaked walnuts - just add a couple of tablespoons of water to the recipe.)

2. Grind up in Thermomix on speed 7 for 3 seconds:
- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic

3. Drain the water off the walnuts and place in the Thermomix bowl with the garlic:
- 100g mushrooms
- a small piece of Spanish onion (about a Tablespoon size)
- 3 teaspoons Nama Shoyu or Tamari sauce (or 2 tsp regular soy sauce)
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme (or a sprinkle of dried thyme)
- a small handful of fresh parsley
- a splash of extra virgin olive oil
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste

4. Chop on speed 5 for a few seconds, until finely chopped, but not completely pulverised.

5. Make your raw zucchini pasta (either with a vege spiralizer, or with a potato peeler) and place in a large serving bowl.
- 2 to 3 raw zucchinis

6. Spoon the sauce over the 'pasta', top with a good sized blob of raw, dairy free sour cream (optional), stir through gently and serve.