Oodles of Noodles – Zucchini That Is

I wrote a few blog posts back about my health plan for the spring which included checking out the diet called the Whole30. It is a thirty day eating plan that eliminates the common inflammatory causing foods: dairy, legumes, grains and sugar. The idea is that you slowly begin reintroducing these foods at the end of the month, monitoring your body’s reactions, if any.

One of the decisions I made early on was that if I was going to eliminate many of the foods that give variety to my diet, I had to find alternatives that add texture and flavour to my meals. My husband and I love to eat pasta. It is one of my quick, always delicious, meals and we eat it about once a week in the winter. Pasta is certainly out in this diet, but I thought of ways to continue having this texture in my foods. Spaghetti squash is an alternative, but I have never enjoyed this vegetable. I find it time consuming to prepare and the results never warranting the effort. That’s where my new spiralizer comes in. I got the idea from a friend visiting in the winter who mentioned they have been spiralizing their zucchini as a pasta alternative. I remember thinking at the time that zucchini was a pretty lame excuse for pasta, but desperate times call for desperate measures. A short three months after this conversation, I found myself buying a spiralizer.

The spiralizer I bought is a very simple plastic machine with three different cutting blade attachments. The machine made very quick work of the zucchini and before long I had a mound of spaghetti-like strands ready for dinner.

One of my go to pasta recipes in the winter is a no fuss shrimp curry. I decided to make it with coconut milk this time and added onions, garlic, fennel, peppers, carrots, sweet potato and a jalapeño for heat. While the curry was simmering away, I gave the zucchini pasta a quick sauté in olive oil until  almost translucent. It went at the bottom of the bowl with the curry on top. Delicious.

Shrimp Curry with Zucchini Pasta

The zucchini experiment was so successful I decided to move on to carrots.

Carrot Salad with Curry Mayo, Raisins and Sliced Almonds

Disclosure: The carrots had been in winter storage way too long and were old and tough. Spiralizing them took some effort compared to the zucchini. I will definitely try carrots again but this time will use fresh.

I am quite excited now about the possibilities potatoes hold with this new machine. I’m thinking rösti potatoes, potato chips baked in the oven, and spiral crisps.

In conclusion, I think this is a kitchen tool that I will use even after I finish my month on this eating plan. It has very simple parts and is easy to clean. We’ll see.