I’ve been on a search for a really good raw recipe for butternut squash for a few months now, ever since my disastrous experience making raw butternut squash soup. Well, I think I’ve finally found it! This phenomenal recipe is from Terilynn at the Daily Raw Cafe. Boy, is it good! Even my carnivorous husband liked it! 5/5 happy monkeys!
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
1 teaspoon sea salt
black pepper, to taste
1 cup Pesto (recipe below)
1 cup White Sauce (recipe below)
Directions:
1 Cut the “neck” from the bottom of butternut squash. Reserve the bottom portion for another recipe.
2 With a vegetable peeler, peel the neck.
3 Use a knife or mandolin to slice butternut squash in paper thin rounds (1/8-inch or less). Make a least 20 slices.
4 Place squash in a bowl of sea salt water and let set for an hour to soften. Under running water, rinse the squash thoroughly to remove salt.
5 Add one teaspoon of the pesto to the center of rinsed squash round. Place another slice of squash on top. Pinch the ends to close.
6 Serve with white sauce. Top off with black pepper.
Basil Pesto
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts (as always in my pesto, I used walnuts)
1 garlic clove, minced
sea salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste
Directions:
1 Place basil leaves in small batches in food processor and process until well chopped.
2 Add the nuts and garlic, process again until if forms a thick smooth paste. Slowly stream in olive oil. Stopping the food processor to scrape down sides of container.
3 Process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper
White Sauce
1 cup cashews, soaked for an hour
¾ cup water
juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
Directions:
In a blender, puree cashew and olive oil, until cashews break down. Add water, blend until you achieve a thin white sauce.
Terilynn offers the following tip to take the sauce further: Add 1/2 onion; 1/2 garlic clove, minced; dash dried leaf thyme, crumbled; salt and white pepper, to taste; and/or nutmeg, to taste
The No Food Diet 
Those look delicious!
Mmm, this really does look delicious! I think I’m going to have to find many uses for that white sauce recipe 😉
So glad you enjoyed the pasta “carbonara”–my hubby has actually been asking me to make it again, definitely a good sign! 🙂
This was a great recipe. Perhaps too much of the white sauce though. Really important too cut thin slices of the squash.
We used the lowest setting on our mandolin and the squash was still overwhelmingly crunch, so we put the slices in the oven for a few minutes to soften it up and then they were heaven. The white sauce was amazing. I put a dash of thyme in and nutmeg, and it was one of the best cashew-white sauces I’ve had. The pesto tasted bland to us, even after salt and pepper, so we added Parmesan. Whoops! So much for raw-vegan. I’d make it again the same way in a heartbeat though.
Jen, so glad you liked it! Thanks so much for the tip of using the oven to soften the butternut squash slices up (for those who are not 100% raw). I guess setting them in a bowl of salt water didn’t quite do it, huh? Thanks for reminding me about this recipe! I can’t wait to make it again one day when I have time.
Jen, I always add nutritional yeast in my pesto. That gives a cheesier taste and you woun’t need Parmesan 🙂