Recipe: Healthy lemony basil pesto pasta with courgette and broccoli

This is a really easy and tasty seasonal dish using home grown basil from the garden that I often make when I”m short of time. We are ardent carnivores but tend to eat vegetarian food during the week and this dish is absolutely delicious. We eat unholy amounts of garlic and so that sauce packs a powerful kick, do reduce the amount of cloves you put in if you’d rather go for a less intense flavour. But I find this is a lovely low calorie version of pesto that really zings and it’s all ready within the time it takes to cook some pasta.

Ingredients:

For the sauce
– Four handfuls of washed basil leaves
– 250g fat free natural organic yogurt
– Three peeled garlic cloves

For the pasta
– Two large courgettes
– Large broccoli head
– Small brown onion
– A head of garlic
– Rapeseed oil
– Green pasta (I use a spinach infused organic version) 
– One lemon

Instructions:
1. Put water on to boil
2. Place all of the sauce ingredients in the blender and whizz them until smooth. Set aside. I use a lot of garlic raw in the sauce because I like it to have a real kick but do lessen this if you prefer subtlety. 
3. Wash and slice the courgettes and chop the broccoli. Finely chop the onion and sauté on a medium heat for five minutes until soft, but don’t let it brown. 
4. Put the pasta in the water and cook according to instructions. 
5. Add the garlic to the onion in the pan and cook for another three minutes. Add the courgettes. 
6. Five minutes before the pasta is finished, add the broccoli to the water. 
7. Strain the pasta and broccoli and stir in the onion / garlic / courgette mix. Stir in the sauce, squeeze some lemon juice on top and serve immediately. 

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