Zucchini Pasta with Spicy Peanut Sauce and Grilled Shrimp

First thing you need to do, right now, before even finishing this article is to click on this link and get yourself a Kitchen Active Spiralizer! 

What it does, if you aren't familiar with them, is twist zucchini and other vegetables into strands that resemble spaghetti.  So, this is perfect for Paleos, vegans, vegetarians, low carb dieters, and people on raw diets. You don't have to cook the spirals.  As you can see in the photo above, after you let the veg sit in the sauce you desire to use, things like salts or acids will break down the vegetables enough to make them soft. Of course if you choose to use a hot cooked sauce, that will soften the veg too.

So what I have for you here is a raw pasta salad with a spicy Peanut sauce, with grilled Shrimp on the side. 

Now obviously if you left the Shrimp out, this would be vegetarian,vegan, and raw. I don't think it's paleo though. I believe paleo does not allow peanuts.

So here is what you'll need and also the steps we took to make this amazingly flavorful and healthy 

dinner (or lunch if you want). 

1 pound of medium sized shrimp pealed and deveined.

2 medium Zucchini

1 medium Cucumber

1 large Carrot Shredded (you can use the Spiralizer, but it's hard when the carrot gets skinny at the bottom

Coconut oil. About 2 tbsp for the shrimp and about  1/4 cup for dressing. (You'll need to make sure it is liquified, so in the cooler months you may need to warm it slightly)

1/4 Cup of Creamy Peanut butter

1/4 Cup Rice Wine Vinegar

2 tbsp Sriracha

1/4 tbsp Garlic Powder

1 tbsp Parsley Flakes for the sauce and a pinch for the shrimp.

About a tbsp of Sesame Seeds. We used a mix of black and white, but either is ok on it's own too

Red Chili flakes to taste

Salt and pepper to taste.

OK... this might seem like a lot of work, but it really isn't and will all come together quicker than you may think by looking at this, so here we go;

Lets start with Shrimp. Place them in a bowl, give them a little salt and pepper, chili flakes (as much or little as you'd like), a pinch of Parsley flakes, and the 2 tbsp of Coconut Oil. Mix up and set aside. I put mine on skewers because I like to when grilling. You can cook yours however you'd like.  

Now, get your Zucchini and Cucumber and spin them through your Spiralizer (if you don't have a Spriralizer, you can use a vegetable peeler to make ribbons instead of "Spaghetti"). 

The 2 Zucchini and 1 Cucumber should leave you with about 3 cups of spirals. 

You'll want to lay them out on some paper towels and press them gently to release some of the moister out of them. Set this aside now too so you can make the sauce, and start cooking!

Now it's time to start to heat up your cooking surface. I used my grill so I went and heated it up on high. While its heating you can make your sauce.

In a bowl whisk together the rest of your liquified Coconut Oil, Peanut Butter, Vinegar, Parsley, Garlic Powder, Sriracha, Sesame Seeds, Chili Flakes and Salt and pepper. Give it a taste and adjust anything you feel you might want too.

At this point get your shrimp on the grill (I also grilled scallions too, and served them on the side, but you can leave them out if you'd like). They will need a few minutes on each side, so this will not take too long.

In the meantime get your spirals and Carrots into a bowl, and pour about half of your sauce over them. Toss this well and then go check on your shrimp. The rest of the sauce you can use for dipping your shrimp in.

Now you're ready to plate. I made a small pile of the pasta just off center on my plate, placed shrimp along side that and then spooned some of the Peanut sauce along side the shrimp. It looked pretty and made it easy to pass the shrimp though the sauce!

I know you will love this, and never miss the noodles that this would typically be made with. Actually you'll probably never want it with traditional noodles again!

Enjoy, and as always don't forget to add the love! And leave me some comments to let me know what you think.

XO -P