One of the things I love the most since I became vegan is to test and create new recipes that are as healthy and as tasty as possible.
As I mentioned in another post, I gained a little weight in the first few months when transiting to a vegan diet. What I’ve realized at the time was that I was consuming too much white rice and pasta. Among some of the modifications I made in my diet, was significantly to cut down the pasta and rice, and to include even more vegetables – mainly green ones in my dishes. With these modifications my meals are still large, with a lot of volume, more fibers and nutrients, but less calories.
Yet, one trick t I’ve learned a year ago and is probably the one I love the most, is to substitute the wheat spaghetti for the zucchini spaghetti. Now I eat a huge plate of pasta with no guilt, because I know I’m consuming few calories and lots of fiber. From time to time, I use different types of vegan sauces (carbonara, pesto, pumpkin cream, and Bolognese) and never get bored of eating this dish. This recipe is very simple to prepare and there is no need to cook the zucchini spaghetti. If you do not yet have a spiralizer, I added a link at the end of the photos!
- - 2 medium zucchinis
- - 2 tablespoon of tomato sauce
- - 200 grams of cherry tomatoes cut in half
- - 5-6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- - 4 tablespoon (or more if you like) of olive oil
- - ½ cup of basil leaves
- - 1 tablespoon of pine nuts (optional)
- - 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast
- Spiralize the zucchinis and reserve.
- In a medium pan, heat the olive oil and add the garlic. Stir till the garlic is pale golden color. Add the tomato sauce and the cherry tomatoes and shake the pan around a little. Leave it for 1-3 minutes (don’t allow the cherry tomatoes to melt). Add the zucchini pasta, mix it quickly and turn off the heat (it should be just enough for the zucchini pasta to heat and mix with the sauce. You don’t want the zucchini pasta to overcook). Serve immediately with nutritional yeast.
- You may also add whole wheat spaghetti to make it more dense. Just cut the zucchini spaghetti half and add the other half with cooked spaghetti of your choice!
