Tomato, Basil & Goat Cheese Zucchini ‘Pasta’

Posted by thesensitivefoodie on October 9, 2014 in Egg Free, Gluten Free, Vegetarian | 2 Comments

I am going through a ‘zoodle’ phase at the moment. If you haven’t tried zoodles yet, they are long strands of curly fresh zucchini and they are seriously good! It’s a great way to replace pasta in a recipe and to get lots of veggie goodness into a meal. I can’t resist appliances and gadgets, I have an addiction to them, which is a huge problem when I have a small kitchen and not enough storage space. But the Betty Bossi vegetable twister takes up hardly any room and it’s a gadget that is getting lots of use, so it’s definitely worth the $35 investment. I found mine at House homewares and have seen them at a lot of kitchenware shops too.

It’s fairy quick to do, a little bit fiddly, in that you have to twist it all the way to the end, and then un-twist it all the way back to get the next piece in, but it’s fun seeing the long curls of zucchini coming out as you twist. And we eat 2 whole medium zucchini’s per bowl each, plus the veggies I put into the sauce, and I could eat more, but I always forget to make extras.

I would love to have a huge kitchen, with lots of accessible storage. Actually, in my ‘when I win lotto’ dream house, I’d have a huge walk in pantry room, filled with shelves full of awesomely useful appliances, serving platters & amazing ingredients at my disposal. How cool would that be? And because I won’t need to work, I’ll have plenty of time to spend hours perfecting dishes and throw lavish dinner parties for friends and family. Best of all, I’ll be able to afford to have people to clean up after me 🙂 It’s nice to dream, until then, I have my Pinterest board to drool over and pretend 🙂

I have appliance that I simply ‘had-to-have’ but I haven’t gotten around to using them. I desperately wanted a smoker oven so I could hot-smoke salmon, ham, prawns, etc after going to an amazing smokehouse restaurant that used to me in Surry Hills. My hubby got me one for Christmas about 3 years ago and I was so excited…… it has been in the garage un-used ever since. I have no idea why I only ever remember it on a sunday night, when the opportunity to use it has passed for another week. The sous-vide machine was another one that hasn’t yet made it out of the box, I blame that one on watching Masterchef! They sous-vide everything and it looks like a miracle machine, perfectly cooked meat, every time… awesome! Except that I bought it on an online sale, and when it arrived it was way bigger that I expected. It would take up half of my kitchen bench space, plus I have no where to store it, so it’s in the garage in it’s box too, waiting for my ‘one day’ bigger kitchen.

I have tried lots of different sauces with my zoodles and they are all great. I love it with bolognese sauce, when I’m wanting comfort for without the carbs or want pasta but don’t have enough calories left in my meal plan for gluten free pasta. This pasta is a quick go-to recipe, it’s delicious, light & fresh. It’s a great healthy weeknight meal, that I can whip up in about 20 mins when I get home from work. The most time consuming part is making the zoodles, but since that is fun, it’s not a chore. And because it’s fun, other people like to help with the prep – score 😉

Healthy Tip – Zucchini’s are one of the lowest calorie vegetables with only 17 calories for 100g, making it great to fill up on when trying to cut back on calories. It has no saturated fats or cholesterol and it high in dietary fibre. They are also a great source of potassium which helps reduce blood pressure and heart rates by counteracting the effects of sodium.

Suitable for – gluten, low-lactose, egg, soy & nut free diets. Vegetarians.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 4-5 medium zucchini’s cut into thirds and put through the vegetable twister to make zoodles
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Optional – 1 tablespoon of ghee (or butter) (your body needs fats to get the most from the veggies, so it’s still good for you, leave out if you prefer)
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely diced
• 8-10 mini tomatoes, cut into halves or quarters depending on their size
• marinated goats fetta or chevre crumbled
• salt & pepper

Method

1. In a frypan, add the oil & ghee and heat over a medium/high heat. Add the onions and cook for 1-2 mins until just starting to soften. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the zoodles and gently stir until just softened. I find if I have the temp down too low, they get a bit watery, just up the temp a bit if that happens. Gently toss through the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper and cook until tomatoes are softened and the zucchini is completely cooked through. Remove from the heat.
2. Add the goats cheese & fresh basil leaves, stir through and serve

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