I plant a garden every year at my parent's house (I have a yard full of trees, thus too much shade for my own garden at home) and between what I plant and what my parents plant, we have very abundant crops. The garden's about 200' x 300' and there's 37 rows! Let me just say that I spend the majority of my summer pulling weeds because we garden organically and use no herbicides to assist with weed control. My two hands are all the control we need! Well, that and a good rototiller!
Zucchini is one of those vegetables that grows quickly, produces quickly and continues to produce through most of the gardening season. Inevitably, we end up having so many zucchini that we aren't sure what to do with it all! We give it away to friends and family, donate it to food pantries, eat as much as we can, freeze it, dehydrate it and there's STILL more!
My mission this year? Eat as many zucchini as we can in ways I haven't eaten them before (as well as the old ways that are tried and true), ways that are delectable and, well, down right delicious. I found a new way and when I tried it, I was hooked. I AM hooked. And I will make it over and over and over! The recipe/idea was found in a raw food cookbook (don't stop reading because you saw the word "raw" - trust me!). But first, I needed a special piece of equipment...
I found a great deal on Amazon for a spiral vegetable slicer by Paderno Cuisine about a month ago. It literally cuts veggies into "noodles" just like spaghetti! I bought it on sale but if you look around you can find one that costs less. I found one that looks exactly the same (same little holes in the side and everything!) from a different manufacturer but that is only $21.99. Hmmm, if it walks like a duck...
I picked my first zucchini and knew I wanted to make it into "noodles". First, let me say how easy this little device is. Insert the blade by dropping it into place, load the zucchini and that's it:
It's not electrical so it runs as fast as your hand can turn the crank and push it through. SO easy my 10-year-old was able to use it while I took pictures!
And it's just plain fun. Had I read the directions, I would have read that I needed to cut a notch out of the zucchini so that the noodles would only be a certain length. As it turned out, I didn't put that notch in it and ended up with some strands that were 12 feet long (I measured it to see!). From a zucchini. TRUE story! Look at this one noodle:
No big deal, though. I just cut them into smaller lengths. But seriously, how fun is this? I didn't cook them this time because I didn't want them to break apart although I think a quick steam or boil would make them taste much more like spaghetti (I liked the "crunch" similar to spaghetti squash). What I DID do was sprinkle the noodles with a very liberal amount of salt and left them sitting in a colander to drain off the liquid. I rinsed them with water after 30 minutes or so, heated up some pasta sauce and put the hot sauce over my "noodles". The sauce warmed up my pasta because it was at room temperature to begin with. A little sprinkle of Parmigiano Reggiano on top and, well...can I just say it? YUM!!!! The looks? It looks pretty green in spots, but it would look just like regular pasta if I would have peeled off the green skin first. With so many of the vitamins and nutrients found IN that green skin, it's best to leave it on, though. It's a fab dose of goodness most bodies couldn't and shouldn't pass up!
This little slicer says it works great with potatoes, carrots, apples - pretty much anything that isn't too hard or too soft. We will be having fun with the interchangeable blades. I can't wait to see and eat what we cut next because I have a feeling if it fits and can be cut, it will be!
