Last week I shared a photo on twitter of the giant zucchini pasta bowl I was having for dinner. I may have casually mentioned how ridiculously low-calorie it is and I was quickly bombarded with questions on how to make it! I’m certainly not the first person to do this so there are many other tutorials out there, but here’s my quick-and-easy version.
I recommend using 2 medium sized zucchini per person. After cooked that will make about 2 cups. I’ve made this dish plenty of times and weighed the zucchini the first few times using my EatSmart scale and each time it came in at about 9 ounces or 35 calories of zucchini.
Wash ’em well and pull out your handy dandy julienne peeler. The one I use is $15 on Amazon. I tried to find one locally and couldn’t so I’m grateful my Mom got me this for Christmas! You’ll often see people use big spiralizer machines to make veggies pasta but I wasn’t sure how often I’d use it so I didn’t want to fork over the extra cash for it.
The peeling part is super easy and takes just a few minutes to shred the zucchini.
I missed talking to you guys via video so I shot a short one showing off my mad peeling skills.
Once peeled you can sautee it in a pan, or throw it in the microwave with the sauce for a few minutes like I do. My favorite way to make it right now is with 1/2 a cup of delicious Newmans Own’s sauce and 1 Tablespoon of cheese (which comes to a whopping 130 calories!) I rarely have pasta anymore as it’s just a total calorie bomb and I can’t help but eat way past my fullness levels with it. It’s been nice to have a lightened up version of this classic comfort food.
I’m not sure how well it would be received by non-health freaks. If I was trying to sneak this into kid’s meals I’d probably make the pasta with a mix of 50% traditional noodles and 50% zucchini. I peel mine with the skin on, but you could peel that off first so all the noodles are beige colored and I suspect you could sneak it past those who are typically run screaming away at the sight of veggies.
Have you had vegetable noodles before?
What toppings or sauce would you use on zucchini pasta?
