A quick, easy, and healthy 10-minute meal: sauteed courgette and mushrooms with a fresh homemade vegan basil pesto served with pasta. A great way to use up courgettes!
I’ve been getting creative with how I cook with courgette the past couple of weeks, as the courgette plants over at our allotment have absolutely exploded and we’re now in a race to use them before they go bad!
That’s not even counting the number of courgettes we’ve palmed off onto friends and families!
If you are new to growing your own vegetables, courgettes are a very easy, beginner-friendly crop – but they do always leave you wondering what to do with all your courgettes around this time of year.
One fantastic solution is these easy courgette fritters which go with basically anything and everything.
Another is this fresh basil pesto pasta recipe which I served here with sliced courgette and chestnut mushrooms.
Making vegan basil pesto
The below recipe is my go-to easy pesto recipe. The ingredients are:
- Fresh basil
- Lemon juice
- Pine nuts
- Garlic
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
That’s it! Super light, fresh, and healthy – and easy to adjust and adapt according to your tastes.
I’ve also made this pesto with almonds instead of pine nuts and that also tastes great, as does bulking it up with spinach.
Other pasta recipes you might want to check out include this creamy red pepper pasta dish, or maybe this amazing jackfruit bolognese!
Courgette and mushrooms
I recommend sauteeing your courgettes and mushrooms for this recipe for a really quick and easy version.
Make sure you slice the courgette thinly so that it cooks on both sides. It can be a good idea to add the courgette a couple of minutes before the mushrooms so you can cook them enough.
To make this recipe really speedy, I get my pasta on, start sauteing the veg, and then whip up the pesto while all that’s happening.
Once you know what you’re doing, this recipe should take no more than 10, 15 minutes tops! Serve with a squeeze of lemon, some fresh vegan parmesan, black pepper, and more fresh basil leaves.
Easy Courgette Pesto Pasta
The perfect summer dinner and a great way to use up courgettes. Fresh, homemade vegan pesto with pasta and sauteed courgette and mushrooms.
Ingredients
- 1 medium courgette
- 125g chesnut mushrooms
- 150g dried pasta (I used farfelle)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Vegan Pesto
- 1 handful (roughly 10 leaves) fresh basil
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Cook the pasta al dente according to package instructions. Reserve the pasta water.
- While cooking, make the pesto. Combine all the ingredients except the water, and blend.
- If the pesto is too chunky, add a little bit of water at a time and blend until it's your desired consistency.
- Heat your olive oil in a pan, then saute the mushrooms and courgette on a medium-high heat until the mushrooms are cooked and the courgette is golden on both sides.
- Add the pasta, pesto, and about 1/2 cup pasta water and cook for another 1 -2 minutes until combined.
- Serve with fresh grated vegan parmesan, black pepper, and more fresh basil.
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