Why Avoid the Noodles? Healthy Vegetable Noodles
Why Avoid the Noodles? Healthy Vegetable Noodles
Summer is a time for eating light, refreshing meals. In this season, I like to eat more raw foods, and feel inspired to create natural noodle dishes!! These noodles are different than typical store-bought, dried wheat noodles. I’m talking about fresh vegetable spirals! The only device you need is a spiralizer, though you could also make do with a peeler or grater.
Vegetable noodles can be made from any firm vegetable or even fruit, such as carrot, beet, turnip, daikon, jicama, potato, squash, apple, or the most popular of all, zucchini. The larger the vegetable the easier it will go through the spiralizer. So try to pick the plumpest of the bunch.
The noodles can be served raw, sautéd or lightly steamed. You can even boil them into soups or stews. You can top your noodles with leftover chicken, salmon, or cooked legumes, along with fresh herbs and lightly toasted nuts or hemp seeds. Try mixing in a yummy pesto sauce, or a simple splash of lemon and olive oil with sea salt and chopped garlic. Or even use these noodles for your typical spaghetti and meatballs with tomato sauce! I like to serve my noodle dishes with a healthy, whole grain gluten-free bread, to complete the meal.
The noodles will stay fresh for days in the fridge, so you can make them all at once and have them on hand for the week. Kids love making these noodles too! A fun dessert idea would be to do apple “funnel cake,” using apple noodles and your choice of delicious toppings, like strawberries, chocolate sauce, maple syrup, whipped cream, toasted almonds and cinnamon. Yum!!
Eating this way is much healthier than loading up on carb-heavy wheat pasta. Unfortunately, modern day wheat is loaded with the hard to digest protein, gluten. Many people find they feel lighter and more energized when they avoid gluten. Plus, because vegetable noodles can be eaten raw, they are full of enzymes, and vitamins and minerals.
This spiralizer makes regular spaghetti sized noodles, as well as thicker cut noodles that are good for baking into chips! This other device makes finer, angel hair noodles.
