When Zucchini Makes You Drool Joost-a Like Pasta Fazool!

Pasta! Who doesn't love it? With alfredo, cheese, pesto, tomato sauce it's just plain good! But when you really think about it, if you ate the pasta alone without any sauce whatsoever, what would it taste like? In actual fact not much of anything. Pasta, on it's own is very plain. We eat it more for it's texture since really the only thing we can taste the most is the sauce itself.

Most pasta is made by using enriched flour and eggs. When you eat it, it's always one of those foods that sits heavy in your stomach and you're sorry you ate so much of it, but it was just soooo good type dishes. What if I told you that you could still have pasta, and have it until you were stuffed?!

Well seeing how pasta doesn't have much of a taste on its own, a common vegan substitute is zucchini. That's right!  Think about it. Zucchini on its own doesn't have much of a strong taste. But it can give you some awesome pasta-like noodles. You are going to need a contraption called a spiralizer (if you don't already have one, read on for how you can also use a potato peeler). This kitchen tool will actually cut your veggies into spiral shapes for noodles or curly fries. After searching every department store and specialty store I could not find a spiralizer anywhere. I ended up buying mine online from amazon.com for about thirty dollars. You don't need anything fancy, mine is one of the cheaper models. Do read the reviews and find out which is the best for you.

A spiralizer is very easy to use. All you do is stick your veggie onto the machine and hand wind it through the blades. Super easy, super quick, super simple to clean up, and super healthy! Here is a picture of just one of the many noodles the spiralizer can cut. This shape is great for pastas, curly fries, and fancy salads.

Of course you can also cut pasta into its more conventional spaghetti shape with the spiralizer. I tend to just like the look of this one. If you don't have a spiralizer, you can also use a peeler and just peel the zucchini like crazy until it's gone. Then use the peels (without the skin) as your noodles. Before buying a spiralizer I did this, it just takes a lot longer but if you're curious try this option.

Here's a quick recipe for Pesto Pasta:

For the Pesto:
1 cup spinach
1 cup basil
1 cup raw unsalted pine nuts
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste
(Will make about 4-5 servings)

For the noodles:
1 spiralized zucchini (per person)

For Garnish:
1 tomato (sliced into wedges)
1 small can of sliced black olives (you can also use kalamata olives as well)

Place all the Pesto ingredients in a food processor and process using the "S" blade until smooth like so:

Place about two to three spoonfuls of sauce over the zucchini noodles and mix:

Then add olives and tomatoes for garnish:

You're done! Looks good, right? Almost like.....pasta? It tastes like you're eating something jam packed with calories, when in actual fact it's just a salad in disguise. Definitely one of my favorite recipes.

Try it and let me know what you think!

Melissa
Our Daily Veg