How to prepare zoodles (zucchini noodles) and brief overview of spiralizers

Since we started on the paleo diet (more on that in another post), The Boy and I have been substituting zoodles (zucchini noodles) for pasta instead of eating wheat or even gluten free pasta.

Granted, it doesn't taste like pasta and the texture is different but it's not a bad alternative and we feel much healthier for it. It's lighter for sure and I love that we are getting so much more vegetables in our diet. A favorite dish is a chicken pesto zoodle.

Baked zucchini with grape tomatoes and Parmesan cheese

The Boy has been looking around on Facebook and the interwebz a lot and finding recipes that he has been wanting me to try. This is one such recipe. I think he found it on a posting by someone on Facebook.

It's such a simple recipe and it tastes incredibly fresh and light, but tasty at the same time.

Ingredients:

• Zucchinis cut into half (however many you need, I used one zucchini per person)
• Grape tomatoes (2 or 3 tomatoes per zucchini half)
• Shredded Parmesan cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Slice the zucchinis into half, but be careful to slice them so that they are able to lay flat, so slice into the curve if the zucchini is curved.
• Then, slice out a little bit of the curved bottom end of the zucchini along the length of it, so that it will lay flat.
• Place all the zucchinis flat with the middle side up in a baking tray lined with aluminium foil or baking paper.
• Drizzle a small amount of olive oil across all the zucchinis.
• Sprinkle and thin layer of Parmesan cheese on top of all the zucchinis.
• Salt and pepper the zucchinis to taste.
• Place the halved grape tomatoes flat side down (so they don't roll off) on top of the zucchinis to cover the length of each zucchini.
• Sprinkle a bit more Parmesan cheese on top.
• Place in an oven set at 180°C and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes, until the cheese is melted but the zucchini is cooked, but still slightly crunchy.
• Serve while still hot.

This is a super simple dish and very, very tasty. It's great as a light starter for a dinner party, which was how we served it. Everyone loved it.

I hope you enjoy this.


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Zucchini soup ... in the Thermomix

Continuing my adventures of the ginormous zucchini, I used the remained of the zucchini after the zucchini bread to make zucchini soup for dinner. Basically, it's just a large pot of creamy vegetable soup - very healthy, if you leave out the butter in the recipe, which I did not. :-)

This was a super easy recipe and I found it here.

Here's what the RECIPE looks like:

Ingredients:

• 1kg zucchini sliced
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 50g butter
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Instructions:

• Melt butter in large stock pot
• Add all vegetables. Coat vegetables with butter stirring constantly
• Add salt and pepper, stir to combine
• Add chicken stock. Simmer until vegetables are soft
• Cool slightly. Blend until smooth

Note:

• Blend with a stick blender until smooth and then add a dollop of cream or sour cream to serve. The cream is optional.

I did change up the vegetables a little bit, just based on what I had in the fridge. I had part of a green capsicum left that I used up and instead of 2 medium potatoes, I used 4 small potatoes instead, also because that was what I had.

I decided to simplify my job even more by doing all my chopping in the Thermomix. I just put each vegetable into the Thermomix and cut it at speed 5 for about 3 seconds. I wanted them chunky, so I didn't cut for too long, I didn't want it to turn into mush.

After chopping everything in the Thermomix, I just followed the recipe and cooked it the way the recipe said, but added a step or two.

I coated the vegetables (and there were a LOT of vegetables) with the butter in the pot, and then added an additional step - I covered the vegetables and sweated them in the spot, stirring ocassionally for about 15 minutes. This browned the base a little and really got the flavor out of the vegetables. It smelled so good.

After I sweated the vegetables, I added the stock and brought it to a boil. Once boiling, I put the whole pot into the oven at 120 degrees C to simmer for 15 minutes.

Once that was done, I took the soup out and blended it with the stick blender until it was creamy and smooth.

The soup turned out to be very tasty and very very good.

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Zucchini bread ... in the Thermomix

I was given a HUGE zucchini by my boss recently and decided that I would make some zucchini bread and zucchini soup out of it. There was so much zucchini that it really was a several recipe thing to get through it all. The zucchini bread, I could take in to work and let the boys have some as well.

I have never made zucchini bread before, so I decided to look up the interwebs for a recipe that was easy to follow and "Deanna proof" meaning "easy for dumb people who can't bake to make". :-)

I found this recipe and thought it looked straightforward enough to follow. And to make it even simpler for myself, I had my friend convert it to a Thermomix recipe for me.

Here is what the RECIPE that I used looked like:

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 235 ml vegetable oil
• 400g white sugar (if you like it sweet)
• 225g grated zucchini
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 375g plain flour
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3rd cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 165 degrees . Grease two 20x10cm loaf tins with butter.
• Chop up walnuts in Thermomix, spped 6, 3 - 5 seconds, remove
• Chop up zucchini in Thermomix, speed 5, 2 seconds, remove
• In Thermomix, beat eggs until light and frothy, speed 6, 3 - 5 seconds
• Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Reverse speed 6, 3 - 5 seconds
• Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts. Reverse speed 6, 3 - 5 seconds
• Make sure everything is mixed properly, if not go again, reverse speed 6, 3 - 5 seconds
• Divide batter into prepared tins.
• Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

My measurement of the walnuts were a little less accurate and I used 1/2 cup of walnuts instead of 1/3 cup of walnuts. Other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe exactly. (I have learned that with baking, exactness is a virtue!)

I also cooked mine in a muffin tray so that they were individual zucchini bread muffins. I find those easier to store and eat. I cooked them in the oven at 160 degrees C for 40 minutes instead of the recommended 60 - 70 minutes for the loaf.

And the verdict?? OMG!!! The zucchini bread was delicious. I'm definitely making this again, even more often than the banana bread muffins that I make, which we love. The Boy even said that this was better than the banana bread muffins.

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