Zucchini Garlic “Noodles”

by KitchenRebel on June 12, 2014

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I just love zucchini. You can’t go wrong with colourful veggies.

Zucchini or courgette is packed with antioxidants, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Potassium, Manganese. The high water and fiber content makes it a great food for weight loss and lowering cholesterol. It has anti inflammatory properties, helps prevent gout, cancer, diabetes. Its good for your heart, eyes, skin and hair.

I don’t think there is anything bad about zucchini. A member of the squash family, either green or yellow in colour. They are very mild in flavour.  You can eat em raw, cooked, grilled, sautéed. Just eat em!

I think everyone loves Spaghetti aglio e olio (Spaghetti with garlic and oil) they just don’t know it yet. It’s basically garlic noodles. And who doesn’t like that? When I saw Shannon Lin’s Zucchini Noodles Aglio et Olio’ I knew I had to try it. I am also doing a Veg and Fruit Detox Cleanse and knew I’d need new exciting meat free recipes.

This recipe did not disappoint. Garlic-y Noodle-y, healthy goodness. So tasty and comforting it didn’t even taste healthy!  My meat eater loved it too, even though he said it would be better with chicken.  (He thinks every thing is better with chicken. Even chicken.)

I added mushrooms and tomatoes my garlic ‘noodles’ because I had them on hand.

ingredients

2 Green Zucchini
2 Yellow Zucchini
Mushrooms, sliced (optional)
Cherry Tomatoes (optional)
3-4 Garlic cloves, crushed or sliced
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Chili Flakes (optional)

instructions

  1. Slice/ julienne zucchini. I used a julienne peeler (see note*). Toss zucchini generously with salt and let sit for about 20 mins to remove excess water. Discard excess water, rinse zucchini very well. Then drain well and pat dry with paper towels.  This will make your zucchini tender noodle-y and not watery.
    Omit this steps 2 and 3 if you are not adding mushrooms, or other vegetables.
  2. Roast tomatoes: Toss a cherry tomatoes in olive oil, roast under broiler until brown as you like it.
  3. Heat a large pan over medium high heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, sauté mushroom, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. I did it in two batches. The second batch I did not add any extra oil. Set mushrooms aside.
  4. In the same pan, on medium high heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add garlic and stir fry for a few seconds until fragrant.
  5. Add zucchini noodles and stir fry for about a minute
  6. Add mushrooms and tomatoes, season with pepper or chili flakes, and toss together.
  7. Garnish with parsley, basil or other fresh herbs (Optional)

*The julienne peeler I used was a new one. While it worked smoothly, it was a pain in the ass to clean. If anyone has any suggestions on how to clean it easily, I’d love to hear from you. Until then I’ll go back to using the simpler, cheaper $5 version I always tend to go back to.
Also if you’re thinking of buying one of these spiralizers don’t bother, it didn’t work for me AT ALL.

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