We are still loving this cool kitchen gadget for making all kinds of spiralized vegetables. One of our favorites is zucchini zoodles with pesto, garlic lemon butter, or marinara sauce.

We can’t wait for the abundant zucchini harvest to roll in! When it’s time for summer squash harvest bonanza, there are so many wonderful dishes to make. Another of our favorites is to make zucchini pizza crust.

If you’re just looking to create healthier but delicious dishes, spiralized zucchini recipes are the way to go for delicious pasta using healthy, low-cal veggie noodles.

Last year, we planted a variety called Lemon Squash which indeed resembles a bright yellow lemon and has become a favorite veggie. The softball sized fruits seem to have a slightly tangy flavor and they’re delicious in all manner of recipes.

Lemon squash are also great for slicing, grilling and sandwiches.  Add to that another bonus: unlike baseball bat-size zucchini, these prolific and attractive round fruits are pretty darn easy to give away! 😉

Speaking of zucchini, any experienced gardener cannot claim they don’t know what they’re getting into when they dedicate a corner of their garden to growing zukes. What is special about this growing season,  is that we actually planted zucchini with a specific purpose in mind.

With spiralizers, growing zucchini is like growing spaghetti!!

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The Spiffy Spiralizer

We had procured early on a gadget called “The Spiralizer“.

With several family members with gluten sensitivities ranging from mild to extreme, we’ve found numerous workarounds with “pasta” made from quinoa, corn, rice, and Jerusalem artichokes, AKA sunchokes.

These are all good substitutions, and we’re grateful to have so many options these days. However, most of it is still high in carbs and starches, and gluten free doesn’t guarantee that it’s healthy. For anyone watching their weight or health conscious, it’s important to cut back on starches because of how they convert to sugar and get stored as fat.

We were delighted to discover the spiralizer and how it can render vegetables — especially summer squash — into spaghetti-like noodles. This way we could reduce our carb intake, eat healthy veggies, and still have an array of sauces to top off our “pasta”.

With “pasta” made out of 100% vegetables like squash and zucchini, you can make guilt-free, healthy pasta. This summer… and likely every summer from now on, we’re putting this coolest kitchen gadget to work making fantastic vegetable “pasta”.

Spiralized Zucchini – Even Great for Zucchini Haters!

Due to some mishap with zucchini squash years ago (a minor case of food poisoning at a local restaurant), my brother had developed a strong aversion to undisguised zucchini dishes. But when this personally repulsive (though innocent) veggie is rendered into long strands and served al dente with marinara, cheese, and or garlic butter topping, it’s a different story.

My brother, who used to hate zucchini, now returns for seconds and third helpings of zoodles. He loves spaghetti and making zoodles with a spiralizer allows him to enjoy zucchini without it being “hidden” from his awareness in breads and casseroles.

Not all gadgets you see advertised are actually as good as the commercials, but the Spiralizer actually does an impressive job. The gadget also works like a horizontal mandolin for slicing smaller veggies like lemon squash, carrots, kohlrabi, beets, potatoes, turnips, and firm fruit like apples.

Any way you slice it, dice it or spiralize it, this handy little gadget is a kitchen workhorse that will turn your garden goodies into healthy gourmet delectables that all will love.

So, if you’ve been thinking about it, we’d definitely recommend to go ahead and get one. If you get one, please let us know how you like it and what you’re making. We’re betting that you’ll be loving this awesome kitchen gadget too!

Here’s a helpful video demonstration of how to use the Spiralizer.

Ideas for How to Use Spiralized Zucchini

Keeping it simple, you can simply use spiralized zucchini and other veggies exactly as you would pasta noodles.

For Spiralizer Recipes, just use the spiralized vegetable zucchini in the same way you would use spaghetti pasta. So far, we’ve used spiralized squash and zucchini veggie “pasta” with:

• Marinara spaghetti sauce
• Parsley pesto with pumpkin seeds
• Chopped up some and baked into casseroles
• Chopped into soups
• Zucchini “ramen”
• Chinese noodle stir fry
• Steamed and eaten plain or topped with a little garlic salt and butter
• Chopped and folded into omelettes with Italian cheese

Next, we’re going to try adding a few ingredients to make it into patties and fry up like burgers, stir fry like asian noodles, and fried with onions to make “hash browns”. (Dons chef’s hat and lab coat and heads for kitchen).

Here’s to healthy, low carb, high nutrient, gluten free pasta!

Parsley Pesto with Spiralized Zucchini

When you’re craving pesto… but out of basil!

So I was craving pesto with fresh basil, tomatoes, garlic and olive oil using that new kitchen gadget to make zucchini “spaghetti” for a scrumptious, guilt-free healthy summer pasta. Out to the garden… uh-oh. Not enough basil!

You know that moment when you get ready to make something, only to find that you’re missing a key ingredient? That’s what happened one time when I planned on making a pesto sauce for our garden fresh zucchini spaghetti, only to discover that we didn’t have enough basil left. (NOTE to self: plant more basil next year!)

Parsley to the rescue! We had tons of it just sitting there in the garden waiting to be harvested.  I didn’t think it would taste that good for pesto, but if you ever find yourself in the same position—or you just want a new twist to a traditional recipe—this Parsley Pesto is poppin’!

If you prefer zucchini noodles with a marinara sauce, here’s a delicious zoodles with arrabbiata sauce on our recipes website.

Poppin’ Parsley Pesto Recipe

If you want to print the printable version, you can find that on our recipe website as Parsley Pesto Recipe With Pumpkin Seeds.

INGREDIENTS:

1 c Parsley, (washed)
1/3 c Olive Oil (extra virgin cold pressed)
1/2 c Pumpkin Seeds (or Pine Nuts) (We prefer to toast of roast them for added flavor)
1/4 c Parmesan Cheese (or your favorite Italian blend)
1 clove Minced Garlic  (try black garlic for an amazing treat)
Dash of Lemon Juice
Salt & Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

If you’re going to toast the pumpkin seeds (or pine nuts), do that now. We just pop them into our toaster oven for 3-4 minutes until lightly toasted. Some of the pumpkin seeds actually do “pop”… puffing up a little.

Meanwhile, place all ingredients in a food processor. Add the seeds or nuts. Blend till smooth. It will look like your typical basil pesto.

Then top the pesto on veggies, sandwich spread, spaghetti, or … just dip your finger in and taste it. ?

The whole process takes just 20 minutes max.

When we first made it, I thought it would have an overly “parsley” flavor, which I don’t typically mind unless basil pesto is something I’m craving. But it’s pretty subtle.  You can even, make it half & half with basil and parsley which we did one time and it was fantastic.

Pesto is one of my favorite sauces because it’s so light and adds a “summer” flavor to any dish.  Also, it’s extra special when we can use garden veggies, because of course nothing compares to home-grown!

Wishing you great gardens and happy harvests!