Tag: Spiralizer

Raw Zucchini Pasta with No-Cook Tomato Sauce

Posted in Pizza and PastaTagged , , , , , 2 Comments
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Raw Zucchini Pasta with No-Cook Tomato Sauce, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Confession time: raw food is not really my thing. And I don’t mean salads or smoothies or just munching on fruit or veggie sticks or nuts. That doesn’t count and those I love. And I love different types of quick and easy breakfast ideas, like energy balls or muffins that you can just whip together.

What I mean here is taking something that you feel like should be cooked, for example a soup or maybe a stir-fry and making it raw, or as you may have learned from the recent cookbook review I wrote on “Raw Vegan”, without using temperatures above 150F.

And yet: couple of things I tried actually changed my mind on perhaps not all types of raw food recipes, but definitely on a handful of them. One of the raw foods I like is this quick and super easy and super raw take on spaghetti and marinara sauce.

For spaghetti I use spiralized zucchini noodles aka zoodles. I’ve been using zoodles for some time know and they are fantastic. Even when you do cook them they are done in no time and make a simple pasta-like dish, or stir-fry, or even as that classic – spaghetti and meatballs! They taste great in a salad, with no cooking required, too. So, I suppose it was a no-brainer that they would work with a no-cook tomato sauce.

Speaking of which, the no-cook sauce did need some development to make into something that does not taste like you are just chugging down some canned tomatoes. Adding canned beans (I suppose this may disqualify the recipe from being technically “raw food” but it’s as raw as this one will get) to boost the protein, flavor and creaminess, and adding nutritional yeast really made the flavors pop!

Try this sauce with other things as well, and you will not feel like you are missing anything. For this specific pasta dish, topping everything with some chopped olives (I recommend Kalamata here as they are a bit edgy) will make a great dish even better. Enjoy!

Raw Zucchini Pasta with No-Cook Tomato Marinara Sauce

What you’ll need:

  • 4 large zucchini, spiralized
  • FOR SAUCE
  • 1 28 oz (800 g) can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 15.5 oz (440 g) can white canelini beans
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1 tablespoon umami spice mix or 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano and 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
  • FOR SERVING
  • kalamata olives, sliced, for serving

What you’ll do:

  1. Place all the sauce ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth, which should take about a minute.
  2. Pour the sauce over the spiralized zucchini and toss well to combine.
  3. Serve immediately topped with sliced olives and enjoy!!!

Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2019

 

 

Zucchini Noodles with Cherry Tomatoes and Corn

Posted in Main Course, Pizza and Pasta, Tips & TechniquesTagged , , , , , 3 Comments
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Zucchini Noodles with Cherry Tomatoes and Corn, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Who ever invented a spiralizer deserves one of those Breakthrough Technology prizes – future generations of parents will not know the painful process of getting kids to eat zucchini or summer squash, or even beets because with this magical machine all kids will be diving into is spaghetti, and who doesn’t love that!!!

What I like about zucchini noodles is that they cook really fast, they have a lovely texture, and a bit of chew to them – very similar to a broader noodle pasta variety, like fettuccine. The recipe here combines only a handful of ingredients and, once you have your zucchini noodles ready, it only takes 15 minutes from start to finish. So, it is ideal for a quick lunch, or a healthy dinner after a very, very busy day. It looks very glamorous, it tastes crisp and delicious, and you will get all your recommended daily servings of vegetables in one plate – but, hey, who’s counting those, right?

The easiest way to get zucchini noodles, or many other kinds of noodles, is to buy them from a grocery stores. Almost all I go to carry those, so grab them and try them. If you like them, stop grabbing them from the store and buy yourself a spiralizer. The gadget is going to pay iteself off after 5-10 times of use, depending on how much you spend, because buying zucchini and doing the spiralizing yourself is much, much cheaper – I did the math and came up with the number 5. It will cost you five times more to buy pre-spiralized veggies than to do it yourself… Plus, once you have a spiralizer you can do all sorts of fun stuff with it, like these Spiralized Oven Fries.

Hope you give this recipe a try!

Zucchini Noodles with Cherry Tomatoes and Corn

What you’ll need:

4 pieces of zucchini, medium sized, spiralized

1 onion, finely diced

10 oz (275 g) cherry tomatoes, washed and halved

1 1/2 cup frozen corn

Cooking spray

Fresh parsley, nutritional yeast, fresh or dry oregano, fresh or dry basil – these are all possible toppings for you to consider.

 

What you’ll do:

  1. Spray the bottom of a large and deep frying pan, or even a wok, with cooking spray and put over the medium high heat.
  2. Add the diced onions and brown for 3-4 minutes, until soft, slightly browned and translucent.
  3. Add the tomatoes and let them sauté for 3-4 minutes.
  4. Once the tomatoes are soft, add the corn and let it thaw as it cooks. No need to thaw it ahead of time. It will take about 5 minutes for corn to be ready for the next step.
  5. Add the zucchini noodles, mix everything gently together, and sauté for another 5 minutes. Serve immediately with a dash of fresh basil or a sprinkle of nutritional yeast on top!

Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2017

 

 

 

Spiralized Oven Fries

Posted in Appetizers, Soups, Salads & Side Dishes, Tips & TechniquesTagged , , , 2 Comments
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Spiralized Oven Fries, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

From time to time it’s good to do things just for fun, with no hidden agendas or pretense of deeper meaning attached. This recipe is my example of doing something just for fun and just because.

Few months ago I acquired a spiralizer, one of those machines you hook your vegetables or fruit to and get long, lovely and elegant noodles of various width. I’ve been using it to make great zucchini noodles, and I love it! But, there’s a limit to how much zucchini noodles a person can eat and still remain excited about seeing them on the plate, so I’ve been trying to pace myself and find other things to spiralize. I tried apples – that worked! I tried sweet potatoes and beets – ditto! I tried jicama – thumbs down, and the same goes for celeriac.

One vegetable that did work – meaning it produced a pile of lovely noodles – were baking (Russet) potatoes. So, I decided to have a bit of fun with them and bake them into little piles of potato yarn which we can call Spiralized Oven Fries. All you need to make this recipe happen is a muffin pan, some seasoning of your choice, and a hot oven. What you’ll get is a fun take on oven fries – the fries that look like spaghetti. And that is exactly what I said this post is all about – pure fun!

Spiralized Oven Fries

What you’ll need:

4 medium baking potatoes

Freshly ground black pepper

Freshly ground crushed red pepper flakes

Salt (optional)

Cooking spray, or olive oil

What you’ll do:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 F (220 C).
  2. Wash the potatoes well, and pat them dry.
  3. Spiralize the potatoes without peeling using a fine gauge spiralizer, the same you would use for making zucchini spaghetti.
  4. Season the potato “noodles” with any seasoning you like. I suggested freshly ground black pepper and ground crushed red pepper flakes, making this quite spicy, but you can use any seasoning you like. Let stand for couple of minutes.
  5. Oil the muffin pan with cooking spray or oil.
  6. Take a handful of potato noodles and gently place them into the individual muffin holes. Don’t press them too hard – let the noodles fall where they may, more or less, and try to arrange them so they fit neatly into the space.
  7. Place the muffin pan into the oven and roast for 30 minutes or so, until the tops start to brown. You don’t want them to burn but a bit of browning is nice.
  8. Take the fries out and let them cool for a bit. Then using a fork gently lift them out and plate them. The sort of “muffins” are not really held together by anything so they will fall apart if you are not careful. But if you are you will end up with a serving of fried that had never looked funkier. And that’s worth it!

Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2017