Part of the fun of being in the East Bay last weekend was going to WF. I got to stock up on fun things like spiralized squash, which I’d never had the patience to tackle with my own appliance. I can do zucchini, but when it comes to sweet potatoes and carrots and butternut squash, I think I’d rather just pay more to have it done for me.
Which you can! If you live near a fancy enough store. Sadly, Nugget is not there yet…further reminding me of why Whole Foods still holds that special place in my heart.
I boiled it in water, like I would normal pasta, and stopped it juuuuuust short of being cooked all the way through. Not quite al dente, but not limp noodle status either. The Goldilocks level of in between was perfect.
I used half in my lunch right away, and put the rest away for another day. Feel free to double this (using it all) for a full meal for two, though.
The rest of the salad included arugula, smoked salmon, vegan cashew kale and basil pesto, lemon juice, and roasted salty almonds. And a very important squeeze of lemon juice on top – at least half a lemon per bowl.
There are plenty of tweaks for this…white beans and/or sun dried tomatoes in lieu of the salmon, parm or pecorino romano for extra umami, roasted pecans or walnuts instead of almonds…etc.
I think I’ll be enjoying this for the next few days 🙂 It’s almost like I took my vegan Winter salad and changed the form of squash from roasted to spiralized to fit the change in season. Spring and summer will be all about spiralized things if I can get some zucchini planted soon.
Have you ever made a non-zucchini veggie (or fruit?) into noodles on your own spiralizer? I see plenty of recipes all the time for things like that. I know TJs sells spiralized carrots in the freezer section but I’ve never tried them. Can anyone vouch for them? Are they mushy from being frozen?
I certainly can’t make weekly trips out of town to WF just for squash (although it sounds like something I’d do).
I’ve used my spiralizer for apples, cucumber (love!), daikon, carrots, and zucchini. Any harder or too small veggies i use my mandolin (with the cut resistant glove! That part is critical!) and use the julianne slicing blade which basically makes slaw.
Do you have a cuisinart? I know there’s a slicing blade that you can do a large volume of harder veg as slices.
The TJs frozen carrot spirals weren’t as mooshy as i was afraid they would be, basically just cook them superfast. There’s not a ton per package though so for a dish for the fam you would definitely need multiples. I’ve seen fresh butternut squash cut into zigzag fries at TJs too that you could just roast but those won’t be around much longer.
Maybe spaghetti squash baked in the instapot..?
Do you have Fresh Direct? They sell them. Here in NYC the stores sell them like it’s their main staple—buttnut squash, beets, I have seen so many different route veggies mixed turned into spiral noodles. Ask nugget why they don’t supply them. I know here, if we ask, they produce. Salad looks YUMS! We’ve been traveling a lot and was recently In the Greek islands No sight of any modern day spirals at all and we are leaving for Capri and Calabria the heart of pasta land curious if they are there- doubtful- but they do have all gluten free so I guess for them it’s enough. They don’t go against custom in these more remote places and just improvise I guess. We constantly reinvent the wheel so each decade looks irreconcilable from the past.
I think I’ve seen spiralized veggies at Safeway. Near the prepped salads and stuff…..
ha! so true. no fresh direct here. those were the days…
good to know!
The tj frozen spiralized carrots weren’t mushy at all. I incorporated them into a coconut curry kind of dish. My 2 yo loved it!
I’ve used my Cuisinart spiralizer for successful sweet potato ribbons, daikon, carrot (if it’s thick enough), zucchini & yellow squash and onion spirals! Love this thing.
https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CTG-00-CSPI-Food-Spiralizer-Black/dp/B06X942WRB
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