Yes, yes I know. Pasta isn’t Paleo. But guess what? Zucchini pasta definitely is Paleo. :)
Jeff and I embrace minimalism. Meaning we try to make sure that what we own, use, purchase, etc. all has a reason and meaning behind owning it.
If you walked into our house the majority of “things” you would see are large objects of furniture, a few pictures on the walls (very specifically chosen and framed - mostly from our wedding) and anything visible is constantly used. I do have a few photo boxes filled with papers under the bed ;) and I get the urge to purge every couple months (actually I’m itching to do it right now) but the majority of my “things” can be found in the kitchen.
Even though there’s so many different appliances, tools, fancy spoons plates and bowls I could purchase…just like for the rest of the house, I try to limit my kitchen to the necessities. I don’t own an ice cream maker or a pressure cooker or a sous vide machine or a bread maker and we voluntarily got rid of our microwave. I did recently (recently meaning within the last year) pick up this fun little spiral slicer.
Typically I’d be completely fine with my cutting board and knife but after having dinner with our friends and after using their spiral cutter to make pasta out of vegetables, I decided I wanted to add more variety and pick one up. Although I don’t use it as much as I would like since I purchased it, I did use it to make this Paleo Zucchini Pasta.
Pasta is typically quite heavy but when you use vegetables in place of wheat flour, white flour or even gluten free pasta, the dish becomes quite light and delicious. Perfect for a hot summer day or night. I grew up having pasta every Sunday, so I’m no stranger to that type of meal, but with a really great sauce the delivery system for the sauce could be anything!
For this dish I decided to throw this together as quick as possible so I used raw zucchini pasta. You could saute the zucchini if you’d prefer (but not for too long so it doesn’t get mushy, unless you like it like that) but I went for raw zucchini noodles topped with a warm vegetable-filled sauce.
Paleo Zucchini Pasta with a Very Veggie Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 zucchini, spiral sliced
- 10 strips of bacon, chopped
- 1 cup portobello mushrooms, chopped
- 3 green bulb onions, sliced
- 1 cup eggplant, cubed
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cups chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 cup water
- onion powder and garlic powder, to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 organic eggs, over easy (optional)
- dill, minced (optional)
Directions
- Slice zucchini noodles. (I used the Chipper Blade on my Spiral Vegetable Slicer, but you can also shred using a food processor or thinly slice the zucchini noodles by hand.)
- Add chopped bacon to a large skillet over medium heat and stir constantly for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Add mushrooms and onions, stir well to combine and let sit for a few minutes.
- Add eggplant and sea salt to mixture. Let cook 2-3 minutes until eggplant becomes soft.
- Add chopped tomatoes, water, onion powder, garlic powder and minced garlic. Raise heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
- If topping pasta with egg, crack both eggs into a small frying pan over medium heat and cover. The eggs will finish in 2-3 minutes, around the same time the tomato sauce will come to a boil.
- Plate the zucchini. Pour the tomato sauce over the zucchini noodles, sprinkle with fresh minced dill, top with one egg on each plate (not shown in photo) and serve.
- Enjoy! :)
