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Baby Step Your Way to Better Health!

My best techniques, tips & tricks for the Instant Pot!

What do you do with Zoodles?

August 16, 2017 (UPDATED: August 21, 2019) by Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

What’s the deal with zoodles?

How to cook zoodles. Easy recipes and ideas on how to make these veggie pasta substitutes a staple in your home. Plus what spiralizer works the best.

If you’ve tried zucchini recipes before and thought it was a mushy mess, you may be a little worried about making spaghetti out of them. Spiralizing is used on many vegetables, especially when people are attempting a gut-healing or grain-free diet, BUT zucchini noodles, “zoodles,” are by far the most popular.

We’ve found that we LOVE zoodles in so many ways! People ask a lot on Facebook about how to use them after spiralizing, so I wanted to share some super easy recipes and techniques to use zoodles in your own kitchen.

They’re really not bad cold with a salad dressing, but they’re also great to have around to put into soups, with eggs in the morning, and a super quick saute with butter, ginger, turmeric and some green leafy vegs. Zoodles will keep in the fridge just fine for at least a few days.

I’ve recently seen them sold in a store, but I’m thinking they’re going to be prohibitively expensive for a kitchen steward’s budget and also probably have lost a lot of nutrients waiting for you to buy them from the deli fridge. They’re not hard to make yourself!

How to Make Zoodles

I shouldn’t get too far into this before explaining that zoodles are REALLY REALLY easy to make.

You do need a spiralizer of some sort, which can range from this very inexpensive manual version on Amazon (like twisting a pencil in a sharpener) to a KitchenAid attachment that is quite a bit more pricey but also more heavy-duty.

Then you just wash your zukes, trim the ends so they’re flat, and spiralize. Your spiralizer will have instructions on exactly how to do it, but typically it’s just twisting the veggie around for a while. You can go even more DIY with a julienne peeler, but this will be more manual labor.

On most spiralizers, including the one I use, you end up with something left over that looks like a “bolt” to me:

what to do with the bolt leftover after making zoodles in a spiralizer

More on how to use that later. Winking smile

PS – I don’t looooove the Oxo brand I have, but only because I cannot figure out how to get it to stick to the counter. I’ve tried the counter, a cookie sheet, a silicone mat, a cutting board – all with slippage errors. The mechanisms all work great, so if I have a willing child helper, it works out fine. Two child helpers and it’s my favorite kitchen tool ever!

My kids love the spiralizer even though it won’t stay put. If I have veggies ready to spiralize, they magically seem to get taken care of if I leave them for a half hour near the spiralizer. 🙂

kids help with making zoodles with a spiralizer

This is why I teach my kids to cook! And I’d love to teach yours, too – you deserve a break!

And now for all the ways we use zoodles in our house, most of which those kids actually enjoy!

1. Zoodles Just Like Spaghetti

zoodle spaghetti with white sauce or red sauce

I promise, no mush.

I served zoodles as a pasta substitute even when my meat-and-potatoes-and-bread father was visiting, and he actually ate the meal without complaint, so trust me when I tell you I know the tricks. Winking smile

First, DON’T boil them like pasta!

That’s how you get mushy zoodles.

I highly recommend one of three “pasta substitute” strategies for your zoodles:

quickly boil or steam zoodles to serve as spaghetti noodles

  1. Quickly saute in butter for about 3 minutes and cover with hot sauce.
  2. Put zoodles directly in sauce in a pot and heat with the sauce. Serve when the sauce is hot.
  3. Steam the zoodles for just a few minutes until they’re hot but not mushy.

You can do the pasta substitute with plain old jarred spaghetti sauce or any other sauce you use on pasta. Pictured is ALDI‘s organic sauce and Pinch of Yum’s creamy cauliflower sauce (heaven!).

zoodle spaghetti noodles with meat and marinara sauce

For leftovers, we typically just store the sauce and zoodles together and heat in a pot – still no mush.

If you must boil, add the zoodles to the boiling water and leave them for a quick 2 minutes, then drain immediately.

2. Zoodles as a Substitute for Rice

zoodles with chicken Tikki Masala instead of rice

Whether you seek a grain-free or Paleo diet or just want more veggies in your life, zoodles make a great option to put under all sorts of Asian dishes such as stir fry.

This one is a Chicken Tikki Masala that had a little sauce for flavor. We simply sauteed the raw zoodles briefly in some fat (or can also steam them 2-3 minutes) and served the chicken and veggies with sauce over top.

zoodles with chicken Tikki Masala instead of rice

Since our dish was in the Instant Pot, I’m guessing you could also just place the raw zoodles in the hot sauce, put the lid back on, and wait 5 minutes. They’d heat up just great! Zoodles would definitely work with some of my own Instant Pot recipes too:

  • BBQ Pork (very juicy!)
  • Curried Lemon Coconut Chicken
  • Sweet and Sour Meatballs
  • as a “side” with BBQ beef or BBQ chicken

So good, so easy, so much more nourishing than grains!

3. Zoodles in a Cold Salad

cold zoodle salad with dressing

This is by far the easiest – simply snip the zoodles into bite-sized lengths with kitchen shears, add your favorite salad toppings and a homemade dressing (here’s our basic Italian that takes about 2 minutes to make a huge batch), and you’re good to go.

cold zoodle salad with dressing

The zoodle salad is great on day one, good on day two, and does decline in quality as far as leftovers go after that. If you don’t like it on day 3, saute for a veggie side!

4. Zoodles as a Quick Veggie Side

zoodles sauteed in butter as a simple veggie side

Even my husband, who never liked zucchini before, goes back for seconds when I saute zoodles in butter. Pictured above from Instagram is homemade chicken shawarma, kale chips, steamed broccoli and buttered zoodles. We hit our veggie intake that day!!!

The trick is to saute quickly, 3 minutes maybe, plenty of butter or ghee, and add some favorite seasonings, like:

  • turmeric, ginger, and garlic
  • Italian seasoning
  • smoked paprika and black pepper
  • ground fennel and sage
  • curry powder or any Asian blend like garam masala
  • add fresh greens to sneak some more of those important vegetable in!
  • this is a great way to experiment with the spice blend you have in your cupboard that you have no idea what to do with! If you like the scent, sprinkle some on your zoodles and taste it.

We teach about how to consider seasonings and create-your-own in our online kids cooking lessons so you can delegate this side 100% to your kids after our classes!! Smile

zoodle close up with chicken stir fry

This pic above shows our zoodles as a “side” for a chicken stir fry. We had so many veggies that night that I shared a pic of the table on Instagram with 3 pans: One for chicken and greens, one for stir fried veggies, one for zoodles:

chicken stir fry with veggies and zucchini noodles

The zoodles look like I might have boiled them, but no – they just do tend to release a lot of liquid which I didn’t give time to boil off or I overcooked them slightly (it happens with 4 kids in the house! My timing isn’t always perfect for dinner!). Typically a quick saute results in zoodles coated in delicious butter and seasonings. Winking smile This time we just used tongs to get them out of the juicy-ness.

We also reheat them easily on our favorite cast iron griddle (that thing seriously gets used 2-3x/day!) – you can see a quick lunch here that I shared on Instagram with some other leftover veggies, and we had some meat on a salad as well:

re heating leftover veggies and zoodles on the griddle

5. Zoodles Instead of Noodles in Soup

Italian Wedding meatball zucchini and greens soup

This “Italian Wedding Meatball Soup” originally used shredded zucchini, but I knew zoodles would look even better. So beautiful!

Italian Wedding meatball zucchini and greens soup

And of course you don’t have to wait 10+ minutes for zoodles to cook, so you can practically serve this thing as soon as you add them in.

I made a HUGE double batch:

zoodles in huge pot of meatball soup

To go grain-free, substitute zoodles for any noodle-based soup and see how it goes! If you have green-phobic kids (or adults) in your household, peel the zukes first, then spiralize.

Can You Freeze Zoodles?

frozen zoodles

Simple answer: Yes!

The zoodles freeze fine without blanching, but they will create quite a bit of moisture in the bag.

I recommend thawing most of the way and then squeezing the water out while still in the bag, then open one corner and drain the zoodles into the sink. You can’t eat them raw of course, but they still work awesome as a super quick rice, noodle or pasta substitute (even faster than the originals!).

What Kind of Spiralizer Should I Buy?

I started with a fairly inexpensive Oxo brand, and while it does the job and I’m hearing from others that it may actually perform ok compared to some on the market, I’m not overly thrilled.

I’ve also heard mixed reviews on the KitchenAid attachment. For a while, everyone who shared about it loved it, and then a slew of readers reported that it was breaking or not able to handle things like sweet potatoes. Eek!

According to readers, it sounds like the Inspiralizer might have potential! You can find that at Sur la Table, which is ironically where I bought my Oxo with a gift card. It’s also sort of on Amazon, just from some 3rd party sellers currently.

I DO have a very affordable spiralizer now, and it was experiencing this brand that showed me some of the pitfalls of the Oxo (Oxo doesn’t stay “stuck” to the counter very well and is more gangly and hard to control/store). I love how the different blades store right in the apparatus instead of separately, and the material feels really thick and durable, like I won’t break it anytime soon. It really does everything right! BUY IT HERE!


The same brand also has this tiny mini spiralizer, which is just amazing for those of you who can’t handle one.more.thing. in your cupboards! 😉 It’s not much bigger than a 1-cup measuring cup, and for spiralizing just 1-3 zukes, it has become my tool of choice. It’s super easy to twist a zucchini (like a pencil in a sharpener, if anyone still uses pencils?) or delegate it to a child or husband. They can even work over a regular plate at the table with no setup, which means more kitchen space for my messes.

I don’t think it would do hard veggies like sweet potatoes or carrots well, but I highly recommend trying this little tool as a great intro to zoodles! BUY IT HERE!


How to Use the Leftovers from Spiralizing

what to do with the bolt leftover after making zoodles

As a good kitchen steward, I don’t want to waste a morsel of food. Sometimes my kids will grab these “bolts” and eat them raw, depending on what vegetable I’m spiralizing. Most of them don’t love the zucchini though, so I have a different strategy.

I simply chop them all small like the pic above and add them to whatever I’m making, if it would work. If I’m planning a raw salad OR know that my kids would pick out the little chunks from the “pasta” sub or whatnot, then they just go in the veggie saute we’re making or in eggs in the morning.

Here are some “bolt” zoodle leftovers with some asparagus, which I prefer to saute very quickly to be al dente so the timing is right for small pieces of zucchini:

what to do with the bolt from zoodles chopped up with other veggies

A little bacon grease never hurt zucchini anyway. Winking smile

Are you ready to try zoodles?

Let me know how you use them and look for others’ new ideas in the comments!

 

How to cook zoodles. Easy recipes and ideas on how to make these veggie pasta substitutes a staple in your home. Quick and easy recipes the whole family will love!

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About Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

Katie Kimball, CSME is a trusted educator and author of 8 real food cookbooks. She is passionate about researching natural remedies and making healthy cooking easier for busy families. She’s been featured on media outlets like ABC, NBC and First for Women magazine as well as contributing regularly on the FOX Network.

See more of Katie Kimball, CSME in the Media.

Over the last 10 years, Katie has spoken prolifically at conferences, online summits and podcasts and become a trusted authority and advocate for children’s health.

Busy moms look to this certified educator for honest, in-depth natural product reviews and thorough research. She often partners with health experts and medical practitioners to deliver the most current information to the Kitchen Stewardship community.

In 2016 she created the #1 bestselling online kids cooking course, Kids Cook Real Food, helping thousands of families around the world learn to cook.

Certified Stress Mastery Educator BadgeA mom of 4 kids from Michigan, she is a Certified Stress Mastery Educator and member of the American Institute of Stress.

See all blog posts by Katie Kimball.

9 Bites of Conversation So Far

  1. Vickilynn says

    August 24, 2017 at 3:04 pm

    I love the Paderno spiralizer, it works wonderfully. And the newer models (5 blade) leave very small leftover cores. I did not care for the Inspiralizer, it would not stick to any surface in my kitchen.

    I absolutely LOVE zoodles as my pasta fix since I am eating Keto. Thanks for all thes eideas.

    Reply
  2. Rebecca Beck says

    August 23, 2017 at 10:23 am

    We love zoodles! My kids have competitions to see who gets the longest noodle! Has anyone ever dehydrated them?

    Reply
    • Vickilynn says

      August 24, 2017 at 3:06 pm

      Yes, I have. I have a video on doing them, but they are easy. Just lay them on the dehydrator sheets and dry at 115 degrees until dried. To rehydrate, over with boiling water or broth and let soften for 15-30 minutes. OAR, toss them in boiling soup, lower heat and let simmer until soft.

      Reply
  3. CeAnne Kosel says

    August 22, 2017 at 7:22 pm

    How do you keep your pasta sauce from being runny with zoodles? My noodles are not much but there is so much extra water 🙁

    Reply
    • Laura Snell @ Kitchen Stewardship says

      August 25, 2017 at 3:46 pm

      Christy commented on this post with just the solution for you, CeAnne. If you salt the zoodles and let the water drain out of them before mixing with your sauce they’ll be much less watery.

      Reply
  4. Christy says

    August 22, 2017 at 2:48 pm

    I love my Paderno as well! To avoid extra liquid in your dishes, salt the noodles well and place them in a strainer for about thirty minutes. About 1/3 cup of liquid should drain-including most of the salt. Alternately, if you’re in a hurry, wrap them in a dish towel press/twist out as much liquid as possible. The last one works best with grated zucchini instead of noodles.

    Reply
  5. M. says

    August 16, 2017 at 10:20 am

    YUM, Katie. I have the Paderno spiralizer. It sticks very well to the counter, maybe TOO well. I need to use a good bit of effort to remove it.

    May I kindly ask for a link to the chicken shawarma recipe? Thanks and God bless.

    Reply
    • A says

      August 17, 2017 at 11:49 am

      That’s interesting, because I have the same problem with the Paderno as Katie does with the Oxo. Maybe it depends on your countertop material???

      Reply
  6. sara says

    August 16, 2017 at 9:45 am

    I love zoodles and anything made with a spiralizer! I just posted 10 of my favorite spiralizer recipes from around the web this week. http://cookwith5kids.com/2017/08/spiralizer-vegetable-recipes/

    Reply

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