Faux-Pasta! Zucchini Noodles

This summer was a whirlwind of traveling and hectic work schedules, and I also found out one piece of health news which didn't thrill me too much. Apparently I have been gluten-intolerant for a while and just found out. Long story short, anything with wheat in it is off the table. Which includes pasta, and pasta is a necessity  Necessity is the mother of invention, so I present to you ladies and gentlemen, Zucchini Noodles!

Now when I saw these are amazing, they ARE amazing. Not like, here take a carrot stick and pretend its a Twizzler. No, this was the real deal. The idea is also to make a thick flavorful sauce sauce but I was pleasantly fooled, with this wheat/gluten-free, low carb, absolutely delicious pasta substitute.

I tried this back in 2008 with a potato peeler and ended up with linguine like ribbons, and also with a serrated slicer, for a thinner 'noodle'. But it took so long, made a mess and I could never make a big batch without spending all day in the kitchen. So I ditched it as a regular pasta alternative and made it every once in a while.

One of my dearest friends gifted me this genius contraption back in May, which I assume would be used probably to make curly fries. I had seen it at work with Zucchini from this post. I immediately fell in love, and had to have this machine!

If you are counting carbs, need to eliminate wheat or just love zucchini, please try this out!


Ingredients:

- 2 kg Zucchini will be enough for 4 huge helpings, the longer and bigger they are the longer the noodles will be.

- A big pot full of salted water, set to boil


Preparation:

- Bring the water to a boil and drop in the noodles, gently stirring them to untangle them a bit

- Using a timer, remove noodles after 3 min. This will give an al dente texture. If the zucchini stays too long it will be too soft and retain too much water which is not good and will end up turning your meal into a soup!

- Allow to sit in strainer for a while before serving.

- Let your imagination run wild with what to use them in; meat tomato sauces, cream sauces or even Asian dishes!


Is pasta a necessity in your menu? Or can you live without it?