I read Challenge Sophie’s blog post on eating healthily the other day with great interest. One thing that caught my attention was the fact that she has given up pasta and potato, and so is being quite inventive at mealtimes. She mentioned courgette spaghetti, or “courgetti” (or zuccini noodles “zoodles” for my American friends!), which intrigued me… could courgette actually work as a carb substitute? I had to find out.
As I’m sure you realise, this is thin strands of courgette looking a bit like spaghetti and designed to replace spaghetti in a mid-week meal. Think eating healthy fresh vegetable instead of white stodgy pasta…
And as you can imagine, it is incredibly easy to make. Wash the courgettes, slice strings using a julienne peeler, fry for a couple of minutes in a teeny bit of oil until soft and hot. If you’d rather use no oil at all then you can steam the strands of courgette in the microwave for a couple of minutes. So quick!
I used this julienne peeler from Lakeland, also available from Amazon – very cheap at £3.50 so definitely worth a try. If you’re keen and want to spend a bit more then lots of people recommend this larger plastic gadget from World Cuisine, available from Amazon.
I served the courgetti with yummy pork meatballs in a tomato and chilli sauce – the meal looked great; we couldn’t wait to get stuck in!
Of course the proof is always in the eating, and we were very impressed. We both like courgette (which is a good start!), and use it a lot in our meals, but there was something about preparing and cooking it this way that made it a bit different. And it did indeed work as a replacement for pasta – ok, perhaps not quite as filling, but it was really very tasty, and perfectly healthy. Yum!
Thanks Sophie for the inspiration to make my meals a bit more healthy. Let me know if you try it!
You can buy the Sharp Peel Julienne Peeler I use from Lakeland, also available from Amazon if you prefer. If you’re keen and want to spend a bit more then lots of people recommend this larger plastic gadget from World Cuisine, available from Amazon.