I’ve seen a lot of pins on Pinterest (why are so many of my sentences beginning like this these days?) about alternatives to pasta. For a few years now Monte and I have been using cooked, shredded cabbage instead of pasta.
This evening I tried grated zucchini instead of pasta! The children asked for pasta and sauce for dinner, so when they were eating their vegetable spirali pasta, I tried this new thing. It was good!
I grated my zucchini into wide strips with a potato peeler. I didn’t cook mine because I love raw zucchini. You could steam it or microwave it but I had mine fresh. Besides, after sitting under some hot bolognese sauce for a while it really softened up. It was a good meal. The zucchini I ate was a medium sized one, fresh from our garden, and I was pretty filled up afterwards (didn’t stop me from eating some ice cream though).
I have not been very good with my diet these summer holidays. I am having way too much fun being relaxed. I have the occasional couple of wines in the evening and I have enjoyed desserts and I have been baking goodies for the family and I am enjoying eating them. Eating some zucchini for dinner makes me feel a bit better about my occasional lolly binges and the glass of Pinot Grigio that I sipped whilst preparing my healthy dinner…
Would I do this again? Yes, I certainly would. I like the idea of yet another use for all those zucchinis we grow in the summer and I like the idea of another healthy meal option. I might actually try shredded zucchini sometime; it will be softer and it might be mushy but once it is mixed into the sauce it’d be good. Also, you can grate wide strips of zucchini and slice them into thin spaghetti-like strips for another variation.
Emma, the other night we had bolognese. Monte shredded the cabbage and added zucchini spaghetti to it too. It added to the texture and flavour, having both together.
Hi Emma
We used to cook shredded cabbage with a dash of both apple cider vinegar and chilli sauce. We’d simmer it for about 30 minutes so it was nice and tender, and we used to eat that with everything. These days we are even more boring. We shred the cabbage and steam it in the electric steamer. We eat it plain! What is the world coming to?? We can season it if we like but often we might just mix it into a curry or bolognese or something. We cook half a cabbage at a time, so we have half of it left over for next time, when we can just microwave it. Easy! :)
Hi Rebecca, this is a great idea! Could you tell me how you cook the cabbage when you use it instead of pasta (do you use a stock or anything?). Thanks!