Thursday, April 4, 2013

SCD Zucchini (Courgette) Noodles with Peanut and Ginger Sauce


Zucchini noodles are easy. Super, super easy. And there are recipes from A-Z all over the web, from Alton Brown to AgainstAllGrain (I guess that just covers "A," actually). So, no surprises with crafting the zucchini noodles. Trouble is, I couldn't find anyone talking about how to dress them! Here's my first attempt. I really enjoyed it, and Alex did too. We gobbled 3 zukes worth in one meal.

If anyone hasn't made zucchini noodles before and is wondering whether they taste like real pasta... The answer is no. They don't. They're just a little bit crunchy in a way that veggies are and pasta isn't. But they're a pretty good substitute. They took to the peanut sauce very well.

Ingredients:
zukenoodles
3 zucchinis
.5 tsp salt
sauce
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp honey
.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
.5 tbsp minced fresh ginger
.5 tsp sesame oil
salt, to taste

Directions:
1. For the noodles: Take a peeler and peel the green off. Then, peel off strips of zucchini, rotating the zuke so that you don't shave off one side while leaving the other with 'meat.' Stop when you start to hit seeds. Line a baking sheet with several layers of paper towels, set your oven to 200, and lay the zucchini strips on the sheet. Sprinkle with .5 tsp of salt (I almost over salted these, do not do it.) Then heat at 200 until they're dried out, which for me was about 35 minutes.
2. For the sauce: Mix all of the ingredients except for the sesame oil until smooth. If the peanut butter doesn't want to get smooth (like the peanut butter at the bottom of a natural peanut butter jar), you may want to put it in a sauce pan and melt it a bit.
3. For the meal: Put sauce into a pan and toss with the zuke noodles. Add the sesame oil just before serving.