Zucchini spaghetti are vegan, gluten free and guilt free pasta for the 21st century! Easy and quick to make, zucchini spaghetti are also versatile and friendly to many different toppings and sauces. I paired them with Roasted Artichoke Hearts with Cashew Crumble, sprinkled with crushed red pepper flakes, and walked away satisfied!

Cooking zucchini spaghetti takes almost no time at all, as the dish is done in less than 15 min. However, transforming zucchini into spaghetti does take some time and some specialized equipment. You’ve likely noticed the rise of spiralizers and spiralizing. My local grocery store chain even carries spiralized vegetables (zucchini, summer squash, carrots and butternut squash). My first attempt at zucchini spaghetti did start from the store bought spiralized zucchini. We absolutely loved the flavor and I wanted to make zucchini spaghetti part of our regular dinner menu. So I needed to find a more cost-effective way to enjoy zucchini spaghetti without paying inflated price at the store or buying a spiralizer.

Here, America’s Test Kitchen came to my rescue. ATK has an excellent post on how to spiralize and cook spiralized vegetables, and one of the suggestions they give is to use mandoline slicer to make spaghetti. Bingo! I resurrected my mandoline slicer from the basement bin of infrequently used kitchen implements, and bought two nice and long zucchini to test this method out. As you can see from the picture, this experiment was a success and two zucchini gave enough spaghetti for 3-4 servings.

All this makes me extremely excited because I finally found something I can use my mandoline slicer for, and I found a low calorie, healthy and satisfying substitute for one of my favorite foods on earth, spaghetti!

Zucchini Spaghetti

What you’ll need:

2 long zucchini

1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

cooking spray

What you’ll do:

1. Spiralize zucchini using a spiralizer or a mandoline slicer.
2. Heat the skillet with some cooking spray on medium heat.
3. Add zucchini spaghetti and minced garlic to the skillet. Use tongs to gently move zucchini spaghetti around so it cooks evenly.
4. Give yourself 5-10 minutes of cooking time and enjoy!

Note: The resulting spaghetti are a bit wet, and what I like to do is to pour excess liquid out once the cooking is done. You can decrease the amount of moisture if you roast the zucchini (this is the method ATK post recommends), or if you scoop put the middle. I think I may try to do that next and see what happens. In that case do remember that you can use what you scoop out in a soup, or a stew. 

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