RECIPE: Raw Pumpkin Pasta Lemon, Mushroom & Thyme

This raw pumpkin pasta with lemon, mushroom and thyme is a recipe inspired by one of my favourite Nigella Lawson recipes. While it may not be a traditional Italian recipe, this pasta has all of the fresh clean flavours that you would expect from great Italian food. The original Nigella recipe is absolutely delicious in it’s own right so you should definitely give it a go – I have only really changed one thing about this recipe so it will be easy to try the Nigella version too.

The original recipe is basically a mushroom, lemon and thyme pasta. All great flavours together and the fact that all these ingredients are raw give the pasta a wonderful fresh clean taste. Great for a side salad, healthy lunch or wonderful dinner. But then it struck me that this would be very easy to take one step further and turn it into a completely raw dish by using raw pumpkin pasta instead of normal pasta. Either way to eat it is delicious, but of course if you want to try something new or want ideas for a raw diet then this is a fantastic recipe. It will certainly have to coming back to the fridge for a midnight snack – that is if you have the will to have any left over from your meal!

Ingredients (serves 3):

Method:

Skip this step if you are using pasta instead of raw pumpkin pasta. Shave pumpkin as thinly as possible. I use a spiralizer for this set to the fettuccine setting. Obviously not everyone has one of these so you can just use a knife, mandoline (not a mandolin which is an instrument), cheese grater or potato peeler. Either way will still taste good – just the texture will be slightly different.

Soak the pumpkin in salted water overnight (the water should taste similar to sea water). This will help break down some of the starches in the pumpkin and make it more edible in raw form. Once the pumpkin has been soaked take it out of the bowl and squeeze it to get as much water from it.

Slice the mushrooms into pieces and marinate  in the lemon  juice, zest, olive oil, thyme and a little salt and pepper for about 5-10 minutes. If you are cooking pasta then you can do this while it is on the stove.

Chop the parsley or basil finely, combine the pumpkin (or normal) pasta in with the mushrooms, lemon and thyme and grate parmesan over the top. Sprinkle with a little olive oil and salt and pepper if required – although the salt probably won’t be needed  as you will have already soaked the pumpkin in salt and seasoned the mushrooms.

2 Replies to “RECIPE: Raw Pumpkin Pasta Lemon, Mushroom & Thyme”

  1. asha says:

    I have found that cutting the pumpkin in to half inch strips and lightly slicing with a potato peeler is a quick and easy method of making the ‘pasta’ for someone (me!) who doesn’t have a spiralizer. I use a potato peeler in a similar way with carrots or zucchini too.

    1. Gabriel Power says:

      That is a great tip Asha! Have added your helpful advice to the article. Thanks : )

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *