Ok – I realized this is extremely similar to a recipe I have already posted. However, it turned out quite a bit different. Just a few small changes this time. I guess I will leave both recipes up so you can see the variations and pick what sounds best to you!
I know I have given several “zoodle” recipes already, but it’s summer time and there is nothing better than garden fresh veggies! I was visiting my parents last week and picked up lots of goodies at the local farmers market including these beautiful heirloom tomatoes, zucchini and yellow summer squash. This recipe is a favorite of mine and it’s so easy!
You can use any size tomato for this recipe – so if you are growing multiple varieties and want to use cherry tomatoes and large heirlooms go for it! If you have cherry tomatoes, I like to cut in half and if they are larger, just cut down accordingly – maybe into quarters. Spread them on a jelly roll pan. (that’s a baking sheet that has a lip around the sides) Drizzle on some olive oil, red wine vinegar, about a tablespoon or a little more of minced garlic, a dash of kosher salt and some red pepper flakes. The pepper adds some nice heat, if you are sensitive to spicy, then go light on the pepper flakes, but don’t worry we will balance out the heat later. Shake the pan around to make sure your tomatoes are all coated. Throw in the oven set at 375 degrees and bake until they are starting to burst. (cutting them in half saves some time here)
Next, let’s make our “zoodles.” And – oops! I forgot to take a picture so here is an old one so you can see what type of “zoodles” I used this time. My mom bought the same spiralizer I have and I thought it had the blade for the noodles that are more like spaghetti style set up, but it was the ribbon blade and I decided that was even better! I actually used about 3 small zucchini and one larger yellow summer squash combined.
Squeeze any excess water out by placing between paper towels. These really didn’t have much excess water as they were super fresh! Heat some ghee butter (or olive oil if you prefer) over medium-high heat and add your “zoodles.” Stir well to coat in your butter and then cover. I actually added a dash of water to help mine steam as I said these were super fresh and had almost zero excess water. If your zucchini is watery you won’t need to add any! These took about 10 minutes to cook through.
Once your tomatoes are starting to pop, you can pull them out of the oven and add to your cooked veggies. I use a spatula to scrape all of the bits from the pan as the juices make a nice, light sauce for summer.
Stir together your veggies and the “sauce” and then add some crumbled goat cheese. This makes for a super creamy, but still light sauce and also helps cut a little of the heat from your crushed red pepper flakes.
I like to sprinkle a little extra on top of each bowl just before serving. That’s it – I hope you enjoy! I’ve also made a similar sauce on top of regular pasta if you have been “zoodled” out like my husband would say.
Creamy Roasted Tomato Sauce over Zucchini
Ingredients
- 3 small zucchini
- 1 medium yellow, summer squash
- 1.5 pints tomatoes any size, add more if you like
- 1.5 tbsp olive oil
- 1.5 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1.5 tbsp minced garlic
- salt to taste
- 2 tbsp chrushed red pepper flakes
- 2 tbsp ghee butter can substitute olive oil if you prefer
- 5 oz goat cheese approx
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut your tomatoes into pieces and spread on a jelly roll pan. Add your olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. Toss together to coat the tomatoes well and put in the oven.
- Make your zoodles. We used the ribbon blade on the spiralizer and loved the texture for this recipe. Squeeze any excess water between paper towels.
- Heat the ghee butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Add your zoodles and stir to coat them in the butter. Cover with a lid and let steam for approx 7-10 minutes. The cook time will depend on the water content of your veggies. (the more water the faster they will cook).
- Once your tomatoes are starting to burst, remove them from the over and add to your cooked zoodles. Use a spatula to scrape off all of the extra bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Crumble the goat cheese and add about 1/2. Stir together well. Add more of the cheese to taste and top with a few crumbles before serving if you like. ~Enjoy!
Garden Zucchini Bowl
It is such a great feeling when are able to make entire meals (or most of the meal) from your own garden! I had some monster zucchini as my lead producers this year. We were headed out of town and I couldn’t risk them going bad so I spiralized and threw in the freezer to enjoy when we returned.
I love this spiralizer. I borrowed a similar one from a neighbor previously – Lindly. It might be the same one actually.. I ordered from Amazon. Zucchini really holds water and therefore tends to lose some density, especially when it’s been frozen. Fresh is definitely the best! I used 2 pretty large zucchini for this recipe.
Even when using fresh, start by wrapping your spiralized zucchini in between some paper towels. Try to get as much of the water out as you can.
These are the garden goodies I picked this day to use in this dish (minus the peppers – I didn’t include them). That’s fresh basil, oregano, parsley, cherry tomatoes (several varieties) and some fresh thyme.
Heat up some olive oil and add some minced garlic and a diced shallot. Cook for a few minutes and then add in a pound of ground pork. I also threw in some fennel seeds and crushed red pepper. Simmer until your pork is cooked through.
Slice your tomatoes in half or if you are using larger tomatoes you will want to quarter or smaller. Chop up your herbs (Basil, oregano, parsley, thyme) and add the tomatoes and herbs to your pork.
Next, I added approximately two cups of tomato sauce. I had some in the freezer from last years garden. I simply cook the tomatoes down on the stove, pour in a freezer bag and freeze until ready to use. You could use a canned one as well (but it won’t turn out as good – sorry!).
I let this simmer for a couple of hours. The longer the better, but if you are short on time – 20 minutes should suffice.
Lastly, I squeeze out my zoodles. Heat some olive oil and minced garlic for flavor and add the zucchini. It only takes about 7 minutes to cook through – maybe less. That’s it – place your zucchini in a bowl and top with as much sauce as you would like. Enjoy!
Garden Zucchini Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 zucchini large
- 2 dozen cherry tomatoes
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallot medium
- 1 lb ground pork
- 4 tbsp garlic minced
- 1 tbsp fennel seed or more to taste
- 1 tbsp crushed red pepper
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- 2 tbsp thyme fresh
- 3 tbsp basil chopped
- 3 tbsp parsley chopped
- 2 tbsp sage chopped
Instructions
- Spiralize your zucchini. Wrap in between paper towels to get the moisture out.
- Heat olive oil in a pan and add diced shallot and minced garlic. Cook until fragrant.
- Add ground pork to pan, fennel and crushed red pepper. Cook pork through.
- Add your sliced tomatoes and chopped herbs. Stir together well and add in tomato sauce. Simmer for 20 minutes or more.
- Heat some olive oil in another pan with some minced garlic. Add the Zucchini noodles and heat through approx 7 minutes. Use a medium-high temp to try and crisp up the zucchini a little more.
- Top the zucchini noodles with your sauce and serve hot.
Creamy, Roasted Tomato and Chicken Zoodles
Like usual, we had a few things in the fridge that needed to be eaten before going bad.. rotisserie chicken and cherry tomatoes were a couple of those things. I tend to overbuy tomatoes anytime I find beautiful heirlooms.. I just can’t get enough! Any day now we will start picking our own right out of the backyard! In my opinion there is nothing better than eating your own homegrown tomatoes. In my family we call the cherry’s “Karen’s candy.” That’s because my sister ate them as if they were candy.
I used a mixture of zucchini and yellow squash zoodles this time. You can make your own or at our local grocery store I like to purchase the Cece’s: https://cecesveggieco.com/products/#noodled. First thing I do is wrap my “zoodles” in paper towels to soak up any extra moisture. Then on to the tomatoes. Set the oven to 450 degrees. Roll your cleaned tomatoes onto a jelly roll pan with some olive oil. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt, add some minced garlic, crushed red pepper and some vinegar (I used champagne vinegar, red wine vinegar works as well). Toss together well and place in the oven for approx 10 minutes. They are finished when they start popping open.
Next, add a little oil (olive, avocado or ghee work) enough to coat the pan. Over medium heat, add a little minced garlic for flavor and throw in your rotisserie chicken. Stir occasionally until the chicken is heated through. Squeeze your zoodles in your paper towels and add them to your pan. Stir together until the zoodles are cooked through. Should take about 6-7 minutes.
Grab your pan of tomatoes from the oven and stir into the mix. Use a spatula to scrape any bits left on the pan into your mixture. Mix this together well and you are almost done. I wanted to make this a little creamy and decided to add some goat cheese.
Stir in just enough crumbles to make your creamy texture. The flavor of goat cheese is strong enough that you don’t need much. And it soaks up the juices in the pan well. If you are a goat cheese lover like myself, you can add a few extra crumbles on top of your bowl. That’s it – enjoy! How simple right?!
If you don’t like goat cheese you could use cream cheese or even a little plain yogurt. Also on the red pepper flakes – they add heat so if you are sensitive to spicy use sparingly.
Creamy, Roasted Tomato and Chicken Zoodles
Ingredients
- 4 Zucchini and/or squash Large
- 2 Pints Cherry tomatoes
- 4 Tbsp Olive oil Divided
- 2 Tbsp Minced garlic
- 2 Tbsp Red pepper flakes Approx
- 2 Tbsp Red wine or champagne vinegar
- 2 Tsp Salt Himalayan
- 1.5 Cups Rotisserie chicken
- 2 Tbsp Goat cheese Crumbled
Instructions
- Spiralize your zucchini and squash (if not already done). Place between paper towels to soak up moisture.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place cherry tomatoes and 1/2 of olive oil on jelly roll pan. Add pinch of salt, crushed red pepper and 1/2 of minced garlic. Mix together well. Place in oven for approximately 12 minutes.
- Heat remaining oil and garlic in pan over medium heat. Add the rotisserie chicken and stir until heated through.
- Squeeze the zucchini noodles and add to the pan. Mix together well until cooked to desired doneness. Approximately 7 minutes.
- Once your cherry tomatoes are popping open, remove from oven. Use a spatula to scrape all juice and any remaining bits from pan into zoodles mixture. Cook for a few minutes to let flavors mix.
- Add in your goat cheese crumbles. Stir until mixed together.
- If you love goat cheese like we do, top your bowl with a few extra crumbles.
Spiralized Cucumber & Tomato Salad
Last night.. I actually got my husband to eat fresh green beans – and he loved them. Polished off the pan! I am so happy. I will share that simple recipe with you later this week. It’s absolutely gorgeous weather in the Phoenix metro right now. We are all trying to enjoy this and soak up as much as we can before the ovens are turned on.. and ran all summer long. So I often take my lunch to the patio and enjoy it outside this time of year.
Most of the time I am looking for a super quick, simple and healthy lunch option. The spiralizer that I have is so easy to access, use and clean it really helps speed up the process for things like this. I knew that I had a few cucumbers in the fridge and wanted to be sure to use them up while they were still fresh! So I pulled 2 large cucumbers out, washed and cut off one end and started spiralizing. I used the coarse noodles – like spaghetti noodle size blade. So much fun.. I love transforming foods into noodles and such.
If you have ever made a cucumber salad before, or actually if you have ever eaten a cucumber before, you know that they are very watery. So – for the first time, I decided to use a little of the salt method for this. I sprinkled on some Kosher salt and mixed together well letting the (cucudooles) sit while I dug for what other ingredients I had in my fridge to turn this into a salad. Hehe.. I will have to think of a better name for them! About 5 minutes later – I squeezed the cucumbers between a LOT of paper towels to take out quite a bit of liquid. You will never get it all and if you do – I’d like to see what that looks like.
Next, I added some cherry tomatoes, cut in half. I cut them in half because it’s so much better when those tomato juices mix in with everything else. I also had some quick pickled onions already in my fridge – so I added the remainder of a jar. I have found I really enjoy keeping the pickled onions on hand and they are so easy to make!
I then added some dill weed – you can use a dried or fresh. And then top off with about 1/2 cup of plain, non-fat, Greek yogurt. (organic of course) That is something else I like to pretty much always have on hand. Much better than sour cream, so many uses and it really stays fresh for a long time. Mix this all together really well. You might want to cut up your cucudooles if they were in the really long strands. Just like you would cut up a kid’s bowl of spaghetti noodles at a restaurant.
There is is – that simple. It’s great when you eat it right away, but even better when you let it sit at least for a few hours. Great idea for a summer BBQ side or if you are like me, lunch. You could even throw in some rotisserie chicken if you wanted to add some protein for your lunch. This will still get pretty watery – that’s just what you get with cucumbers!
Spiralized Cucumber & Tomato Salad
Ingredients
- 2 large cucumbers
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes approx
- 1/3 cup pickled red onion
- 2 tbsp dill fresh or dried
- 1/2 cup plain, non-fat, Greek yogurt
Instructions
- Wash your cucumbers and cut off one end. Spiralize using the coarse noodle (spaghetti noodle size) blade.
- Sprinkle with Kosher salt and let sit for approx 5 minutes. Squeeze out the water between several paper towels as much as you can.
- Wash and cut your cherry tomatoes in half. Add your cherry tomatoes and pickled red onion to your cucumbers.
- Sprinkle in your dill. Mix in the yogurt and still well.
- Refrigerate for a couple of hours before enjoying. OR – eat now if you don’t want to wait.
Tuna “Zoodle” Casserole
I believe there are thousands of versions of tuna casserole online. My husband enjoys tuna and I was looking for inspiration for what to do with the canned version. I also recently obtained a new spiralizer and just really enjoy using it. And.. zucchini is in season here! Mine is not ready yet, but hopefully we will have some soon. For this dinner I basically took my mom’s old tuna noodle casserole recipe she had written in the cookbook she gave my sister and I each when we got married – and I used that as my inspiration. You have canned tuna, egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup and breadcrumbs.
I used my spiralizer to make zucchini ribbons. You just use the flat blade and it’s super easy. I spread them out on a cookie sheet on top of a couple of layers of paper towels and added another layer on top. I let that sit for 20-30 minutes. You don’t necessarily have to wait that long, but I had other things going on. Then you squeeze all of the water out with the paper towels and throw your ribbons in a bowl awaiting the rest of the mixture.
A typical start for me.. I melted some ghee butter (about 4 tablespoons give or take). I added some garlic – probably 3 tablespoons of that as well. And then a package and a half of organic white mushrooms. Cook that down until the mushrooms are done all the way through.
Then, I added some white wine. Any dry white will do – this particular night I had a California sauvignon blanc. I added about a cup, maybe a little more and let it simmer for about 12 minutes.
Then, I removed from the heat and stirred in about 1.5-2 cups of non-fat, plain Greek yogurt and some cracked peppercorns. Stir together well. Make sure you stir constantly – you don’t want the yogurt to curdle. Once that was done and mixed well – I drained a large can of tuna and added to my bowl of zucchini ribbons. Finally, I poured my sauce or “cream of mushroom” over the tuna and zoodle mixture.
Pour your mixture into a baking dish and top with breadcrumbs. In our case I found a great gluten free rice option at the grocery store. The gluten free breadcrumbs are larger and hold their texture better than the regular, fine breadcrumbs. I threw this in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.
The only thing I would have changed was I would suggest if you have extra long ribbons – cutting them up before adding to your mixture. Just makes serving a little easier – and maybe prettier than above. Otherwise it’s just like serving long spaghetti noodles and doesn’t impact the taste at all. My husband and I both agreed this will be added to a regular rotation for us!
Tuna “Zoodle” Casserole
Ingredients
- 5-6 medium zucchini
- 1 can tuna organic, low sodium
- 4 tbsp ghee butter
- 3 tbsp minced garlic
- 1.5 pckg white mushrooms
- 1 cups white wine dry
- 2 cup greek yogurt plain, non-fat
- 2 tsp cracked peppercorns
- 3 tbsp italian breadcrumbs gluten free
Instructions
- Using the flat blade of a spiralizer, create zucchini ribbons. This makes them more like the traditional egg noodles. It will seem like you have a lot – until you squeeze the water out.
- Layer a baking sheet with several layers of paper towels – spread your zucchini on top of the paper towels and then cover with additional layers. Let sit for approx 20 minutes.
- Over medium heat, melt some ghee butter in a saute pan. Add your minced garlic and saute for a few minutes. Add in your mushrooms and stir occasionally until cooked through.
- Once your mushrooms are cooked through, add your dry white wine and let simmer for 10-12 minutes.
- Remove your mixture from the heat and stir in your yogurt and cracked pepper. Stir consistently until well mixed – do not let your yogurt curdle.
- Squeeze the water out of the zucchini ribbons with the paper towels and toss into a mixing bowl. Drain your can of tuna and add to your ribbons.
- Add your sauce to the bowl and mix well. Pour everything into a baking dish.
- Top with your breadcrumbs and bake in the over at 350 for 20 minutes.
Sauteed Carrot Ribbons
Have I mentioned just how much I love veggies? Really any veggie, I just can’t get enough. I also love the colors you can find in these organic carrots. As I was smoking my chicken the other day – it felt like summer out and that called for some colorful summer sides. I was wanting to use my spiralizer for these, but found out quickly it is just much easier to use a vegetable peeler. The carrots just weren’t fat enough. Carrots are a great veggie to saute as they are firmer than other veggies and hold their texture well.
This may not look like very many carrots, but it makes a lot more than you would think. This was plenty for the 2 of us with leftovers for both as well. So.. cut off the top and skinny little bottom parts of each carrot. Then, take our your vegetable peeler and peel the carrot down the long side – lay the carrot flat on a cutting board and hold onto the large end. At least that is what I found the easiest. Also – for consistent ribbons, I just kept shaving down the same side. I think my favorite are the purple carrots – they are yellow in the middle. One of them was a lighter purple and my husband joked that it looked like bacon!
You end up with a bowl looking something like this. Of course you can use all orange carrots or whatever you prefer. Next, I melted some ghee butter in a pan over med-high heat. I added some mushrooms and a couple of rosemary sprigs. The mushrooms really soak up the ghee butter so I added a little extra. Probably between 2-3 tablespoons total.
Rosemary grows like a wild weed in Arizona – and it’s one of my favorite smells. Does anyone else do that? ..walk out to your garden and run your fingers through the herbs to smell the wonderful scents? Sometimes that is how I get my dinner inspiration. Some people don’t like how rosemary can be tough to chew in certain dishes. It will soften enough here that it should be fine, but leave the sprigs and you can easily pull them out if you prefer and still have plenty of the wonderful flavor.
Next – add your carrot ribbons to the same pan. Stir together and kind of rotate your carrots with the mushrooms so that everything in the pan soaks up the rosemary flavored butter. I also added about a tablespoon of garlic powder. I like how the powder sticks in this a little better, but you could always use fresh or pre-minced garlic as well.
Once your carrots are cooked through – sprinkle in some shredded Parmesan cheese just before serving and Enjoy! Pull the rosemary sprigs out if you would like before serving.
Sauteed Carrot Ribbons (with Mushrooms and Rosemary)
Ingredients
- 1 bunch carrots organic, mixed colors
- 3 tbsp ghee butter or regular butter or oil if you prefer
- 1 pckg white button mushrooms
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese shredded
Instructions
- Wash your carrots and cut the top and bottom off. Using a vegetable peeler, hold the carrot down flat on a cutting board and run the peeler along the carrot to create ribbons. Do this until the carrot is too thin to peel.
- Over medium-high heat, melt some ghee butter. Add your mushrooms and rosemary.
- Once your mushrooms are cooked about 1/2 way through or more, add your carrot ribbons and garlic powder.
- Stir together well until carrots are cooked through.
- Pull our your rosemary sprigs (if you choose to). Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese.
Mushrooms and Butternut Squash “Zoodles”
Vegetables have ALWAYS been my favorite. Cauliflower first. Extremely close seconds are pasta and mushrooms. When I was a kid in 1/2 day kindergarten, my mom had an in-home daycare in our house and therefore was always home with lunch ready when I got off the bus. One of my favorite lunches was her creamed cauliflower. I know, not healthy at all, but oh so good. I always felt extra special when she made me that meal. These days it is a very rare occasion that I eat cauliflower or any veggie prepared that way, but veggies are still my favorite. And once I discovered my body’s dislike to gluten they have become my favorite substitute for pasta as well.
Today, I needed something that would be quick to make and also wanted healthy. I dug through my refrigerator and started pulling out what I had on hand. Luckily I had a few shortcuts to help with the time and mess – I’ll share those here.
My first shortcut today – already “zoodled” noodles. I love the Cece’s Veggie Co options. They save so much time and mess and they are Organic – even better! Don’t get me wrong – once my garden is going with fresh veggies for zoodling and ricing again I will zoodle my own as well. I also had a package of baby bella mushrooms on hand and some already minced garlic. Sitting on my counter were some of the fresh lemons from our tree outback – we still have an abundance.
First things first, I always press any extra moisture out of my zoodles. I love butternut squash because they are denser and typically don’t hold the moisture like zucchini noodles do, but I still want to make sure I get any excess out. So, once I had them pressed in between some paper towels, I melted a little ghee butter in a pan on the stove, added about a tablespoon of minced garlic and sauteed for a couple minutes before adding in my mushrooms. I decided a little extra ghee would be needed as both the mushrooms and squash will really soak it up – so about 2-3 tablespoons.
Then, I squeezed in 1/2 of a fresh lemon (mine are very juicy), and stirred around until the mushrooms were about 1/2 cooked. I then added a couple tablespoons of parsley (I used dried this time – faster!).
I then added in my “noodles.” I like to pull them apart and add a little at a time so they aren’t all stuck together. I then sauteed the noodles for about 5 more minutes. I topped my bowl off with a tiny bit of shredded Parmesan cheese and there you have it – lunch!
Mushrooms and Butternut Squash “Zoodles”
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Ghee Butter
- 1 tbsp Garlic minced
- 1 pckg Baby Bella Mushrooms small
- 2 tbsp Parsley dried
- 1/2 lemon squeezed
- 1 pckg Cece’s butternut squash “noodles”
- 1 pinch shredded parmesan
Instructions
- Melt butter in pan and add minced garlic. Saute for a few minutes.
- Add mushrooms and saute until about 1/2 cooked or more. Sprinkle on parsley and squeeze in lemon juice and stir.
- Add the butternut squash and saute for approx 5-7 minutes.
- Top your bowl with a pinch of shredded parmesan cheese.