Zucchini Noodles

I run hot and cold in many ways, my boyfriend can attest to this. I either like you, or I don’t. There are very few people I feel ‘meh’ about, it’s love or hate.  I’m the same way about things, for example, I hate Apple products, why? who knows, it started somewhere and it just falls in the hate category now.

Same goes with food. When I was a kid I decided I hated pretty much every food on earth. I would eat a handful of things, including chicken sandwiches, plain, with no bun. That’s how my mom had to order for me at the drive-thru. I made the poor woman order me an oversized chicken nugget. I didn’t eat cheese on a burger until I was in my 20′s.

So a couple of years ago I decided that all of these foods I hated could not be as awful as I thought they were, other people were eating them and seemingly enjoying them. So I started out eating things like onions, which I absolutely hated, and ended up loving them. The biggest obstacle for me has probably been vegetables and sauces. I didn’t care for either, of any kind.

Zucchini is pretty innocuous, as far as vegetables go. It doesn’t really have an offensive texture or an obnoxious flavor. It’s pretty… plain. Which is what I like. I started out eating zucchini in dishes that more or less masked any texture or flavor, just to get used to the idea of eating something I didn’t like (or had convinced myself I didn’t like). Eventually I added more zucchini and less other things until the zucchini became the center of my meal. This is great because zucchini is a low-calorie alternative to pasta (yes, pasta) that I use all of the time now.

I’m currently working on learning to love broccoli, and really I’m pretty much done with that, I’m a broccoli convert, it’s tasty. Next up is fruit, I only like one fruit, apples, which is ironic since I mentioned how I hate Apple. If that makes any sense.

I use zucchini noodles as a base for many meals, or many times I just eat them alone (not alone as in just me and my zucchini noodles on a Saturday night, alone as in with no sauce or other food). They’re great with spaghetti sauce and honestly, I don’t really miss pasta anymore.

Zucchini Noodles

You can do these a few different ways, if you’re not sure about the idea of just cooking up a zucchini and eating it all by itself, you can add some pasta to it like I did in this version. But honestly, it’s not needed, just cut it, saute it and eat it.

Start with 1 LARGE zucchini or a few medium zucchini, chances are your store won’t have one this big.

My boyfriend grew massive zucchini in his garden this year, so one was plenty.  Clean the zucchini and cut off the ends (or use the ends as a place to grip while you’re peeling like I do), then use a julienne peeler to cut it into noodles.

Cut just down to about where it starts to get seedy, then throw the rest out or maybe use it in a soup or something.

If you must, cook up a small amount of pasta (this kind of defeats the purpose of the zucchini noodles, they’re supposed to replace pasta). I recommend using wheat pasta or none at all.

Season the zucchini however you like, this is all I normally use.

Then saute in a little bit of olive oil until it starts to get tender. How tender is up to you. I don’t like it to get mushy, I still like it have a little bit of crunch to it, so how long you cook it depends on your taste. It really doesn’t need to cook for more than a few minutes.

If you’re adding pasta you’ll want to drain it then toss it in with the zucchini for a minute or two. I like to add a little bit of Parmesan cheese to it at this point.

Then that’s it! I’ve eaten plenty of meals comprised of nothing but sautéed zucchini noodles. But it’s also good with sauce. I’ve successfully replaced pasta with zucchini in several meals, including spaghetti. It’s a huge calorie saver, and it tastes great too!

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16 Dec This entry was published on December 16, 2011 at 10:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.