Zucchini Noodles

One of the hardest things to give up when you go on a grain free diet is pasta. It is such a big part of our American diet and features prominently in our favorite comfort foods. Breaking the Vicious Cycle describes making noodles from zucchini using a vegetable peeler and I have done that many times. They end up a bit like egg noodles in proportions and that works for some dishes but it is still a big compromise we have found. I find that sort of noodle to work best in a “noodle soup” sort of application.

I don’t remember when I first heard about spiralizers but I think I hadn’t been on GAPS for very long. I decided early on that it was just one more expense that we were going to avoid and didn’t really need anyhow. After being on GAPS for about a year or so I decided to go ahead and splurge on one. I read lots of reviews on Amazon and worried about picking the wrong one but finally settled on the one you see pictured. It is the World Cuisine Spiral Vegetable Slicer. You can click on that link to see it on Amazon. The day that it came I took it out of the box and quickly made noodles for lunch. It was very fast and easy to use and the girls were delighted. It is something that my children can help to do and they enjoy helping. It also cleans up very quickly (if you do it right away). My only complaint is that it is yet another thing to store in my tiny kitchen. It doesn’t fold up or collapse at all so be aware of that.

The noodles that it makes have the mouth feel of spaghetti much better than ones made with a peeler do. My younger daughter hasn’t ever eaten grains and so she has no memory of eating noodles. I assume that is a big part of why she isn’t a fan of the zucchini noodles. She prefers spaghetti squash with it’s slightly sweet taste. My older daughter however does remember eating spaghetti and she loves these noodles. Spaghetti was also one of my favorite foods before GAPS and I love them too.

Below I’ve got a few pictures of our latest batch of zucchini noodle making. Despite not liking eating them Little J sure loves making them. In this first picture you can see thespiralizer loaded with a zucchini. I like to leave the stem on the zucchini because the last bit near the tines can’t go through the spiral cutter anyhow so that allows me to use the whole thing. Laying in front of it is what you have left after spiral cutting a zucchini. The center is cut out and the bit on the end that couldn’t be fed through it. I usually cut up the core and add it to the sauce that is cooking to go over the noodles.

Here are the girls making the noodles. Sorry about the photo quality. This was the first one I took and the only one that had both girls looking at the camera.

This was just over 2 lbs of zucchini. It makes a lot of noodles!

This is those same noodles after they were cooked. They shrink a lot and release a lot of liquid. I put about a cup of broth in the bottom of a wide pan to cook them and it was quickly swimming in liquid. I cook these with the lid off and turning them over with the tongs in the hot pan till they are the right texture. Like pasta made with grains they get softer the longer you cook them so test them along the way to get them just how you like them.

Here’s my cute husband showing off how long the noodles are. My older dd loves to slurp them up like the dogs in Lady and the Tramp.

And here it is in context with a meat sauce poured over the top. The sauce was largely broth flavored with some tomato sauce to keep the oxalate count low and ended up being really liquid. I’ll have to work on that.

The spiralizer also has blades to make thin slices and a thicker noodle. I haven’t ever even tried out those capabilities and for $30 I think I have more than gotten my money’s worth just in it’s ability to make these noodles. Have you tried a spiralizer? What do you make with it? Have you or your kids been missing noodles on GAPS? Let me know in the comments.