Recipe: Lemony Zoodle Spaghetti

Zoodles or spiralised zucchini is the runaway popular dish on the menus of chichi eateries serving New Age California cuisine that uses and sometimes overuses plenty of organic fresh produce.

But frankly as bravely health conscious as one might like to be, zoodles without noodles is slow chomping. It's just too much health on a fork and it's impossible to be that saintly.

Instead dilute the zoodles with the noodles ie some spaghetti, and spice it up and you have a far tastier dish, Zelda Pande's Lemony Zoodle Spaghetti, even if you feel a little guilty about the extra carbs.

A few fried bacon bits will add extra flavour for those who would like a meaty accent.

Lemony Zoodle Spaghetti

Serves: 3

• 250 gm uncooked spaghetti
• 1 tbsp butter
• ½ cup pasta water
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• ½ an onion, sliced lengthwise
• 2 tbsp garlic paste or 4 garlic pods, crushed
• 1 zucchini, spiralised, with skin on
• Zest of 1 lime
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
• 2 tsp freshly crushed black pepper powder
• 2 tsp chilly flakes
• ¾ cup fresh pea shoots, optional, available with certain vegetable sellers
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh chives per serving
• 2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese. per serving

Method

• Boil the spaghetti in a large saucepan till 1 minute short of al dente (please see the note below)
  Drain but preserve a cup of the pasta water (in which the pasta was boiled) and keep aside.
  Add 1 tbsp butter to the drained pasta.
  Keep aside.
• In a large frying pan saute the onions in olive oil and then add the garlic.
  Add the zucchini, black pepper, chilly flakes and saute for 1-2 minutes more.
  Add the spaghetti, lemon, lemon zest, pasta water.
  Cook for another 4-5 minutes or till the water is mostly absorbed.
  Ideally cook the spiralised zucchini as little as possible, so it remains a little crisp and does not become too soft.
  Add the dill, pea shoots and take off heat.
  Serve immediately in plates or pasta bowls and garnish each portion with 2 tsbp chives and 2 tbsp grated fresh Parmesan cheese.

Zelda's Notes: Al dente means 'to the tooth' or pasta that has a bite to it. Packets of pasta usually have their cooking time listed on them. To make a pasta al dente, subtract one minute or 1½ minutes from the regular cooking time.

For a vegan version of this pasta dish, use cashew butter instead of regular butter and use vegan cheese instead of Parmesan cheese.

For a Jain version, omit the garlic and onion and use ½ cup chopped leek tops.

Several types of tools are now available to spiralise vegetables. If you cook a lot of Chinese or make plenty of salads, a more heavy-duty spiraliser is meant for you to produce long thin strips of carrots, spidery rings of onions, mountains of cucumber coils that are far more tasty than fat thick pieces of the same vegetables.

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