I may be the last person on the planet to discover this, but I’m going to tell you anyway because I’m so excited. Heh.
My garden runneth over. Specifically, my zucchini is going crazy. I’m shredding and baking and freezing, but my Zucchini Stamina was waning. And then I saw all of these recipes suggesting you cut zucchini into spaghetti-like strands, but they all required a mandoline. I do not own a mandoline, on account of I am 1) cheap and 2) clumsy, and I prefer to keep my money and my fingers.
However, I own a pretty nice “kitchen gadgets” set, and within it I found a julienne slicer (similar to this one). Zip zip zip, perfect zucchini “noodles.” Naturally gluten-free and low-carb, and all you have to do is heat them up a little before topping with your favorite sauce (I’ve been making this easy roasted tomato sauce with our tomato bounty).
In short: Yay! More uses for zucchini, and I love having another pasta alternative. Now… anyone know if I can cut it up this way and freeze it for later “noodle” use, or will it be mushy…?
Apologies if you’ve seen this before, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t refer you to Marge Piercy’s “Attack of the Squash People”.
Alas, it will be mushy if you freeze and then thaw it. But then it will totally be ready for zucchini bread/cake/muffin recipes!
That’s what I was afraid of, Lylah. I normally only freeze shreds for baking. But I want to save some “spaghetti” for later in the year! Hmph!!
(And Jenny, I have seen that before, but it always makes me smile.)
I just saw this really cool vegetable-pencil-sharpener-tool thing at the cooking store the other day. How cool is this one??
http://thecoastalcupboard.com/blog/view/gadget_of_the_week_gefu_spiral_peeler/
Agree that it probably won’t freeze well, but! Shredded and roasted cabbage makes an delicious base for tomato sauce, and while it might not be From The Garden, it’s available in the middle of winter.
I never thought of this before. Thanks for the idea. We are getting a lot of zucchini. It is the only thing producing right now. I’ve been making breads, muffins, and a few cakes and cookies like crazy. My freezer is full at the moment, so I can’t freeze any right now. My son would have so much fun making zucchini nodles.
I wonder if dehydrating would work?
The shreds (fresh or freshly thawed) also hide nicely in spaghetti sauce – in case anybody is trying to sneak extra veggies 🙂
This is a bit of a bunny trail…when we were looking to reduce our carb intake I started to come up with alternatives that wouldn’t leave me making two meals—one for the kiddos and one for us.
I found large packages of broccoli slaw in the local grocery store. I tried steaming it up and using it in place of pasta. This works very well with spagehetti sauce and the like. It is quick and the texture is great. It has a bit of bite left to it, similar to al dente pasta.
Anyway, I wanted to throw that out there as yet another gluten-free option. It is very mild in flavor and I often keep a package in the freezer for last minute use.