The following is a guest post from Barbara of Gluten Free Homestead. You can read more about her below.
This summer I have been reaping quite a big harvest of zucchini from my vegetable garden. What better way to make use of all those zucchini than by making zoodles! Zoodles are zucchini turned into noodle-like swirls. They make a delicious and very healthy pasta substitute. Today, I am excited to share with you one of my favorite ways to prepare zoodles: cooked until tender and subtly crunchy, and then tossed with skillet beef in the tastiest brown gravy.
For the easiest way to make zoodles, I recommend using a spiralizer. I use a 4-blade spiralizer from Paderno World Cuisine. If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can also make the zoodles by hand with a julienne peeler. Either way, they are fun to make and very fun to eat too.
I hope you enjoy this quick and easy recipe for Skillet Beef and Zoodles!
Skillet Beef and Zoodles (Zucchini Noodles)
Yield 4
Ingredients
For Zoodles
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 medium zucchinis
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
For Skillet Beef Gravy
- 1 pound ground beef (grass fed recommended)
- 1 tablespoon onion, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups gluten-free beef stock
- 3 tablespoons tapioca flour
Instructions
Prepare Zucchini (Zoodles)
- Cut zucchini into zoodles using a spiralizer. Snip the zoodles with scissors or a knife to about 5 inches long as they are much easier to eat this way.
- To make sure your zoodles don’t end up soggy, place them in a colander and toss with salt until coated. Then put the colander in a shallow bowl for 20 – 30 minutes while the zoodles release their moisture, after which pat dry with paper towels.
Prepare Skillet Beef Gravy
- Meanwhile, add beef with onion to a skillet and season with salt. Brown in the pan and drain.
- Dissolve gluten free tapioca flour in broth before heating to thicken the gravy a little. Add this broth to the meat mixture, stir and simmer about 3 minutes.
- Heat two tablespoons olive oil in a skillet then add three cloves of chopped garlic and cook until fragrant about 2 minutes.
- Next, toss in the zoodles and cook for about three minutes. Stir and cook for one more minute. Then, let the zoodles sit for a few minutes to allow any excess water to be released. Drain them again. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Pour skillet beef gravy over drained zoodles and gently toss. Serve immediately.
Notes
Choose long and fat zucchinis for the best zoodles, and it is also important to keep the zucchini centered inside the spiralizer when slicing them
Barbara blogs at The Gluten Free Homestead where she shares healthy and delicious gluten free recipes and articles about gluten free living. Barbara started the blog after three members of her family were diagnosed with celiac disease. The Gluten Free Homestead developed Bouncy’s Great Gluten Free Adventure, an iPad game for kids with celiac disease to teach them about gluten free eating. Find more recipes at The Gluten Free Homestead or follow on Facebook and Twitter.
So salt is the secret! I can never get my zoodles to become anything but a soggy mess. I’ll try this!!
About the salt… A couple questions – does the zucchini absorb the salt, or does it perhaps rinse off? Does it make it Taste salty?
I have to limit my sodium to as little as possible because I’m pregnant and prone to high blood pressure. My sodium intake is a big factor in this if I don’t make a conscious effort to avoid salt at nearly every turn. Plus I really just don’t like food that tastes salty.
The purpose of the salt is to draw moisture out of the zucchini, but it does add salt to the dish. You could try skipping that step but be sure to use small zucchini which contain less water.
Skip the salt. Debydrate the noodles instead. People eat WAY too much salt today. Also, if you are looking to make the recipe paleo and/or Whole Life Challange (WLC) compliant, skip the tapioca and use garbanzo flour that still keeps the thickening agent but also adds far more nutritional value.
Dean, garbanzo flour is definitely not Paleo, for garbanzo beans or chickpeas are legumes, making your suggestion Primal not Paleo.
If one wants to sub out the tapioca (pulverized, cooked cassava/manioc/yucca root) for whatever reason, some good alternate thickening agents are agar agar, arrowroot flour, astragalus root powder, nutritional yeast powder, collagen hydrolysate or peptides, unflavored gelatin, coconut flour, gelled chia seeds or even some crushed egg yolks from hard-cooked poultry eggs. And, as an added bonus, most of these alternatives are Paleo- as well as WLC-compliant!