by Illaria Catizone
For those unfamiliar with zoodles, they are noodles made out of zucchini!
So many vegies are in season now, one of them being zuchinni! They are coming into full swing at the Co-op and maybe even in your garden?! They are cheap, yummy, and super versatile.
Zoodles are one of our favourite ways to enjoy them, in many dishes. Zoodles can be served raw or just lightly steamed, and a couple of zoodled zucchini will easily feed a whole family.
You can cheat and make zucchini ribbons with a potato peeler, but a spiraliser is a great tool to have in the kitchen.
You can find a really simple cheap sprialiser at your local supermarket, or op-shop if you’re lucky, or you can go all out and get a really sophisticated one online or at a specialty store; but really I found my small simple one works great for us.
A spiraliser has a blade that cuts long thin strips of zucchini and collects them in a jar, and zoodlefication is a great thing to enlist the help of the family in.
Once we have our zoodles, there are two main ways we like to use them: as a salad item, and as a pasta substitute.
As a salad item, we usually enjoy them raw, with a dash of olive oil, lemon juice, and a sprinkle of salt. We sit them on the side of whatever protein we are having that day, and we have a whole meal.
As a pasta substitute, I tend to lightly steam them first. Don’t overdo it, or they will turn into mush; your aim is to just warm them and soften them slightly. Then you can add whatever pasta sauce you like. Either tomato and cheese or pesto works particularly well.
And as something between the salad and pasta versions, you could try lightly steaming them, making a little nest on the plate, and topping them with a soft-boiled egg, and, for an extra-fun dish,seasoning them with salt, pepper, and mint leaves!
Carrots and cucumbers also work really well in the spiraliser by the way, but we tend to use these just for salads, as they’re not as yummy cooked.
Do you have a favourite sprialised summer dish!? Let us know in the comments 🙂