• Pesto: Toast pepitas on the hot medium pan for 5-10 min. Stir them occasionally. In a food processor, combine the toasted pepitas, garlic, cilantro leaves, olive oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt, and black pepper. Pulse until smooth.
• Noodles: Spiralize the butternut squash with spiralizer zucchini with a spiralizer.
• Heat the oil in the large skillet and add the noodles. Make sure that you don’t overcrowd the pan. Cook in two batches if you need to. You don’t want your noodles soggy. Cook it for about 5 minutes, stirring gently.
• When the noodles are ready, transfer them to the medium bowl, add pesto and gently massage them.
• Move it to the plate, add some cherry tomatoes (I like to lightly stir-fry them for flavor), cilantro, and pepitas for garnish). You can also add parmesan cheese for garnish or nutritional yeast). Sprinkle with freshly crushed black pepper and flaky salt.

NOTES:

• **To toast the pepitas, pour them into a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook, frequently stirring, until the seeds are fragrant and the pepitas start making little popping noises, around 5 minutes.