Zucchini Spaghetti

Check out this post for another version of zucchini "pasta." 

A few years ago a friend of mine decided she'd try a raw diet.  Whatever.  It seemed fine with me until I learned that every time she left home, she had to drag her cooler on wheels with her so she always had raw food to eat.  On one of her visits to Boston she came, cooler in tow, and proclaimed that I would eat raw for the weekend.  Resistance was futile.  Breakfast was a juice of kale, tomatoes, garlic, lemon and hot peppers that left me feeling nauseous.  She claimed it was a buzz from eating food that was "alive."  Okay.  But her dinner of zucchini "pasta" with a fresh sauce of tomatoes, onions, herbs, etc., even though it took two hours of chopping, was really quite delicious.  I recall wanting to go back a revisit this idea of zucchini pasta but I had forgotten about it until I recently saw a spiralizer.

I did a little bit of research and found several different versions.  Some of the metal ones are a few hundred dollars but after reading the reviews, I chose the $36 World Cuisine 48297-99 Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer found here.  It arrived about a week ago and I really love it.  I've eaten zucchini "spaghetti" almost every day.  It's great raw or cooked.  My favorite is raw zucchini "pasta" salad with sliced sweet red peppers, carrots and scallions with a Thai peanut sauce.  I've sauteed it with onions and garlic as a side dish which is also very good.

Today I'm feeling lazy so I'm going to make quick zucchini "spaghetti" with bottled sauce.  Let me show you how it works.

The machine attaches to the counter with four suction cups.  It has three different cutting blades all of which attach right to the machine so there's no looking for the attachments.

I washed one zucchini, cut off both ends and loaded it into the machine.

Start cranking and the "spaghetti" just rolls out.

Ten seconds later the entire zucchini is done and ready to go into boiling water.  I chose to leave the skin on but if you peeled the zucchini, it would look almost exactly like real spaghetti. 

Cleanup is really pretty easy.  The blade pops out, the crank portion slides right off and machine itself just needs wiping off and rinsing.

I boiled the "pasta" for about two minutes in salted water and heated up some marinara in another pan.  In less than 15 minutes, I was eating a healthy, low-calorie, (and vegan!) dinner.  Boiling the water takes the most time.

I may tire of my new gadget but during this time of year with fresh vegetables readily available, I'm taking advantage or it.  And it's helping me eat a lot better.

Do you spiralize?  If so, what do you make?