Garlicky Pumpkin Sauce with Zoodles & Veggies

One day I'll perfect the art of food photos... until then, here we are. 

No surprise that I'm still on the zoodle train... but last night I was inspired to try a new kind of sauce to go along with my go-to meal.  I had some leftover pumpkin puree left from my Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bread with Pumpkin and Nutella (have you tried it yet??), and thought "why not make a concoction out of this?".  See what I came up with below — and definitely give it a try.  This would taste particularly amazing with shrimp and linguine (in my very biased opinion). 

​INGREDIENTS:
1 Zucchini, washed and zoodled 
1/2 cup pumpkin puree 
5 cloves garlic, peeled 
1/2 sliced red onion 
1/2 cup diced carrots 
5 mushrooms, sliced 
1/4 cup blanched cashews
1/2 cup chickpeas, rinsed 
1 tablespoon butter, softened 
Salt 
Pepper
Nutmeg 
1/2 tablespoon olive oil 
Grated parm

DIRECTIONS: 
On low heat, sauté onion and garlic in greased pan (I use Chosen Foods Avocado Oil cooking spray).  

At this point, also add 3 whole garlic cloves to soften for the pumpkin sauce (keep them whole as you will take them out once you are blending with the sauce). 

Once cooked down, add sliced mushrooms and carrots and allow to slow simmer. 

While veggies are simmering, take washed zucchini and zoodle, set aside. You can of course use good 'ol noodles for this. 

Meanwhile, take softened butter, and 3 garlic cloves from simmering pan, pumpkin puree and cashews and add to blender (I used a Magic Bullet).  Once added, mix in olive oil, salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Blend away until rich and smooth. 

Back to the simmering veggies:  Add in 1/2 cup chickpeas and zoodles and cover, allowing zoodles to soften for about a minute.  

Mix in the pumpkin sauce, coating all veggies and zooddles evenly.  Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes. 

Serve with some freshly grated parm. So good.