I’ve been trying to find ways to eat less carbs but I love all things noodles and rice so it’s difficult to come up with meals that don’t involve one or the other. Recently I made spaghetti squash for the first time and really loved it as a pasta substitute. Maybe it’s really because I love sauce and pasta is such a great vehicle for sauce! Mmmmm…
As I’ve been exploring other substitutes, I became obsessed when I saw this spiralizer on Paleo Blogs that made noodles out of zucchini. For one reason or another I never pulled the trigger on buying it. Call it laziness or procrastination, but the start of the new year convinced me to just add it to my cart on Amazon and alas I had this magical gadget in my hands.
After spin class last night, I rushed over to the grocery store to pick up my zucchini (a larger one that isn’t mushy is what you should pick) and I was able to finally see this baby in action. I read on the reviews about how easy this thing was to use but I really didn’t believe it until I started seeing my noodles come out so quickly.
It felt like sharpening a pencil and within less than a minute, I finished making noodles from my zucchini!
Since I had some ground turkey in my fridge already, I decided to make a quick meat sauce for my noodles. Just some onion, garlic, a can of petite diced chipotle pepper tomatoes with this turkey and I was ready! I decided to sauté my zucchini separately from the sauce since I knew I would have sauce left over.
This dinner could not have been easier and tasted great to boot! The zucchini didn’t have the same texture as the spaghetti squash since I might have overcooked it for a minute or so. Overall I am very pleased with the results and can’t wait to continue trying different pasta sauces on zucchini noodles. Why did I not buy this thing sooner??
Zucchini Noodles w/ Turkey Tomato Sauce
2-3 large zucchinis
16 oz ground turkey meat
½ medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-14.5oz can of petite diced tomatoes
1½ tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dries basil
½ teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
salt and pepper to taste1. Brown and season turkey. In a large skillet, heat up 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Add turkey meat and break it up into pieces. As meat starts to brown, add dries oregano and basil. If you like spicy food like I do, add crushed red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes.
2.Add tomatoes. I added 1/3 cup of water into my tomato can to help get all of the sauce out. Stir to cover the meat in sauce. Cover and cook on medium-low while you make your noodles.
3. Make zucchini noodles. Wash your zucchini and make your zucchini noodles by using your spiralizer. In a medium sauce pan, heat ½ tablespoon of olive oil in medium high heat. Add zucchini and cover for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, remove lid and stir the zucchini. At this point it should be cooked, I think I left mine on the heat for too long and it cooked too much.
4. Put together and serve. Remove zucchini and put on plate. Add sauce on top and serve!
Shelly’s Notes
- I did notice that after a little bit, my zucchini released a lot of water on the plate. I didn’t care too much and ate it all up anyway. For this reason, I think it’s better to cook the zucchini and sauce separately so you don’t get too much of a watery sauce, and so you don’t overcook the zucchini.
- Depending on how thick you want your sauce, you can either add a 14.5 oz can of petite tomatoes or a 28 oz can. I like my sauce to be a thick meaty sauce so I chose a smaller can of tomatoes.
