Eat Zucchini Pasta Like a Dinosaur
This is a guest post written by the Paleo Parents.
Our family may eat a little different from yours. Two years ago we decided to throw out practically our entire pantry and devote ourselves entirely to eating real foods made in nature and not in factories. Along the way in this journey we shed 200 pounds, found health for everyone in our family and learned how to be a happy family.
You can call eating our way the paleo diet or the caveman diet if you wish, but we call it eating like a dinosaur, since dinosaurs only ate plants & meat. It’s a name we came up with for our three young sons. In fact, we wrote a book called just that, Eat Like a Dinosaur: a recipe & guidebook for gluten-free kids!
The central idea of the book and our overall food philosophy is that cooking and eating real foods with your kids being involved is very important. So of course, when we were asked to write a fun summer guest recipe, Wesley, two years old, dove into the kitchen to help make a summer meal!
When I think of summer foods, I think of the colors. Pink watermelons, violet blueberries, purple eggplant, orange cantaloupe, yellow squash, and, of course, red tomatoes and green zucchini. We are especially big fans of zucchini and use it in so many of our recipes.
Readers of Eat Like a Dinosaur will remember our ZuCakes and Zucchini Latkes. Few foods are more versatile, used in baking and roasting and sauteing and steaming (some might argue that the cauliflower has more uses; I’d have that argument!). Not only that, but it’s one of those rare and prized foods that no one can think of a reason to eliminate in any variation of elimination diet – which means it’s easy to digest!
So with this love for the summer squash in her head, Stacy dreamed up a recipe one night that seemed too good not to make. Yes, we often literally dream up recipes. It’s a hazard of being a food blogger, I guess. Stacy thought that zucchini spaghetti paired with basil and bacon would be delicious. So I decided to prove her right. What follows is a very simple recipe you can make in less than 30 minutes that makes an extremely appealing plate and a really terrific meal!
ZuSketti with Bacon and Roasted Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 4 medium zucchini
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 6 strips of nitrate-free bacon (we recommend the sugar-free from USWM), cut into 1″ pieces
save yourself money and buy ends & pieces instead of strips!- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, loosely packed
- 2 tablespoon fat of choice (we recommend lard or bacon grease), melted
- salt (sea salt recommended) and pepper (garlic pepper recommended)
Instructions
(Note: our belief is that the more you can get your kids involved in your food and the earlier you start makes a significant impact on getting your kids interested in eating healthy. On this occasion, we were helped by our 2 year old son Wesley. He ended up cleaning his plate. All steps marked with a ♥ symbol are perfect for little hands to assist with!)
- Cut off ends of zucchini and, with a peeler, mandolin or knife, cut into 1/8 inch by 1/8 inch “noodles”
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- ♥ On a baking tray, toss together tomatoes, bacon and basil with the fat (the basil will wilt, but it infuses everything with wonderful flavor)
- ♥ Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss again to fully coat
- Bake for 20 minutes
- While waiting, blanch zucchini noodles for 2 minutes in a pot of boiling water, run with cool water to stop cooking and drain thoroughly
- ♥ Toss all ingredients together in a serving bowl
If you want it to be a little creamy, we suggest that you mix in pieces of ripe avocado and fresh basil right before serving. Not only will that add flavor – but also some healthy, creamy fat!
Make this meal to impress your friends or to get your kids excited about veggies! Our kids picked out the veggies themselves from the Farmer’s Market that morning, so they were excited to see us make “noodles” from vegetables. Do you think your kids would have any less than fun doing the same?
The Paleo Parents, Matt and Stacy, blog at PaleoParents.com about food, healthy & green living and parenting. You can also follow them on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Their book, Eat Like a Dinosaur, is available in paper on Amazon, B&N.com and select local resellers or for your iPad, Kindle, Blackberry & Android or on Nook!
I love zucchini pasta, too! This looks like a simple, colorful, and summery dish. I can’t imagine trying to eat grain free without zucchini because of its versatility, as you mentioned. Zucchini and cauliflower are certainly my grain free lifelines!
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Great post! Love the recipe, photos, and philosophy shared! I’m a fan of Stacy, Matt, and their boys. We were so honored to have them speak at my support group’s last meeting, our annual picnic.
Can’t wait to try this recipe. I love the simplicity of it, yet it contains the flavors of summer and the much needed protein source, and one of my favorites at that.
Shirley
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This looks great and I’ve been curious about how to use zucchini for a pasta substitute. I love the analogy of eating like a dinosaur for GF and traditional foods kids.
One question though… Do you have many recipes for eating like a plant-eating dinosaur? Half of our family is vegetarian so I cook vegetarian meals at home. It makes it very tricky, since most GF and paleo recipes I find online are very meat-intensive.
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Stacy Reply:
July 22nd, 2012 at 7:02 pm
@Magic and Mayhem, I would say our book is pretty adaptable, where we suggest lard use coconut oil. Then you’ve got quite a few recipes that are noted as sides, where all you have to do is increase portions to make a meal. Ratatouille for example, or “bunny soup” made of carrots & coconut milk. Or spaghetti and meatballs, just omit the meatballs!
Our site has tags for side dish, too, like kale with apples. In almost all cases, snacks and treats will be vegetarian, too!
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Looks awesome! What tool is Matt using to make the “pasta”? Thanks!
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I made this for dinner tonight and it was great. I added a sprinkle on non-dairy parmesan cheese and a slice of garlic bread on the side. Great way to use up those huge zucchinis from the garden.
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Your manner of involving your children in the whole process from market to preparation is wonderful! And this dish looks so tempting — I especially like the bacon in it. A long time ago my old standby order was a BLT, but now it’s more likely something with bacon, tomato and zucchini. I guess that’s a BTZ…?
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i love how this meal was a family affair! it looks spectacular!
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I have made this recipe twice so far and my family LOVES it. Though I admit I have to double it for my family (5 little ones!) I have made a couple of “tweaks” though. Instead of bacon fat on the bacon, tomatoes, and basil, I use a little bit of EVOO, I also use the avocado to “cream” it up as you suggested as well as some organic garlic powder with the salt and pepper. It is a family fave now. Thank You so much for the recipes. You make Paleo so much easier with your creativity!
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