I first tasted vegetable “noodles” a year or so ago when my mom and I discovered spaghetti squash. If you’re not familiar with this, please go to your local market, find one and look up a recipe for it. You basically cook the squash and drag a fork across the inside to form “noodles” then you top it with any sauce and meatballs, whatever you wish.
Recently though I have seen on Pinterest and Instagram zucchini noodles (not to mention-I’ve eaten them at Raw in Chicago and The Root Café in Cleveland). I have wanted to make some of my own but I knew 99% of the recipes online were created using a tool known as a vegetable spiralizer. Many people have used the Paderno Vegetable Slicer (which you can find on Amazon for only $30). Since I get a discount at Williams-Sonoma and they offered an extra 20% sale on it the other week, I knew I had to make the purchase. Fortunately, it only cost me $19. A great investment at that for sure.
I whipped it out this morning and put it to work. My mom left me with some organic squash from her farm in Kansas this past weekend and I used that plus a sliced sweet potato for the first test run. I cut the squash in half so it would fit onto the Paderno and sliced the outside skin off of the sweet potato. I spiralized away and let me tell you… a small little potato or squash can turn into a WHOLE LOTTA noodles.
Once I threw them in a pot of boiling water to lightly cook, I tossed some tomato sauce, nutritional yeast (to give it a cheesy flavor) and grape tomatoes with it.
Last night I grilled two pieces of organic chicken from Trader Joe’s with a light garlic and lemon pepper seasoning. I try to buy/eat organic as much as possible when consuming chicken and turkey. I find it very important to have the most natural meat without any hormones or antibiotics and luckily, two pieces of Trader Joe’s chicken breast only cost me $6! Steal. Anyhoo, I had some leftover so I threw it next to my “noodles” and bam – perfect lunch. If you don’t have a spiralizer or want to buy one, I would suggest using a mandolin slicer OR a basic knife. Although it will take quite a while, slicing the veggies very thinly will produce relatively the same effect.
- ½ large zucchini squash
- 1 small sweet potato
- ¼ cup grape tomatoes
- ⅓ cup organic tomato sauce
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 chicken breast
- 1-2 tbsp poultry seasoning
- Spiralize your zucchini into a bowl
- Peel your sweet potato and then spiralize it next
- Fill up a pot with water, boil and add "noodles"
- Cook for roughly 5 minutes, you want them slightly raw/slightly cooked (not soggy)
- Drain the noodles and add ⅓ cup tomato sauce and 2 tbsp nutritional yeast and mix
- Season chicken breast and grill to desired temperature
- Add chicken to bowl, slice ¼ cup grape tomatoes and top with 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- Devour!
