Do you know what is so much fun about this recipe? You get to make zoodles! Zucchini. Noodles. If you don’t have a spiralizer yet, go buy one. You can fancy-fy (clearly that is NOT a word) the zucchini and it might be that much more fun to eat! Go ahead, skip on the pasta noodles this time. If you are thinking about wanting to make some veggie noodles, head over to Amazon and see if you find one that’s appealing to you. Here’s the one I found and it was very user friendly and didn’t require any installation (this was right up my alley). It’s also easy to clean!
Once you’re done with the fun part of making the zoodles, you will want to heat up some olive oil in a pan so that you can cook the zoodles. Cook them for about 5 minutes or so and they should soften up. If you like them softer, keep them on the stove for longer but continue to toss and turn the zoodles to make sure they don’t burn. Once you’re done, set them aside on a plate. After they sit for a couple of minutes the water will begin to draw out and you will want to make sure to drain the water/pat dry the noodles before adding them to your plate.
…this brings back haunting memories from last week when we decided to make zoodles and meatballs. We did not see any water on the zoodles when removing them out of the pan so we put them right on our plates with the meatballs. All of a sudden we had a watery plate and had to pour some of that water off! We did not allow the zoodles to sit, and instead water just collected on our plates. Don’t make that mistake!
Back to these curly beauties. They’re so fun!
I found a tomato and basil sauce in the pasta section of Aldi last time I was there and really enjoyed it! This sauce would be good on it’s own but it’s nice to doctor it up and add in some fresh veggies and your own twist of seasonings. Extra love.
The zoodles won’t fill you up as much as regular pasta noodles so you won’t have any excuses to not have room for more vegetables on your plate! Plus, since you’re feeling all healthy you can even add extra cheese on top! Wooooo
🙂
Ingredients
- 24-ounce jar tomato basil sauce
- ½ medium size onion, diced
- 4 ounces white mushrooms, sliced
- 6-ounce jar tomato sauce
- 2 zucchini, cut into noodles
- Olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon Italian seasoning (basil, oregano, parsley)
- Optional toppings:
- Parmesan cheese
- Red pepper flakes
Instructions
- For the zoodles:
- Heat olive oil in a pan to medium high heat. Add zoodles and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring noodles in pan often to keep from burning.
- Set noodles aside on a plate or in a bowl. Allow to sit for a few minutes in order to draw out the water.
- Drain noodles before serving with sauce.
- For the sauce:
- In a large skillet, heat olive oil to medium high heat. Sauté onions and mushrooms for about 5 minutes, or until the vegetables become tender. Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste.
- Add ground beef to skillet and season with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to taste. Cook until fully cooked, or about 10 minutes.
- Add tomato basil sauce and tomato paste to skillet. Turn heat down to low and simmer for about 20 minutes. If you have extra time, cook in slow cooker on low for 2-5 hours.
