To buy or not to buy a spiralizer? That is the big question of the day….brought to you by my new favorite recipe: butternut squash noodles with fresh veggies and a tangy tahini sauce.
Let’s back up. Last week after a long morning of yoga, followed by a paddleboard adventure, I did the worst thing ever…..I went grocery shopping while starving. While trying to keep myself from opening bags of chips and hungrily crunching my way around the grocery store, spraying chip crumbs on everyone in my haste to inhale them, I tried to distract myself by trying to figure out what we’d eat for dinner.
All of the usual suspects – veggie stir-fry with this and that, big green salad with this and that, vegan pita pizzas, etc etc – all sounded so…usual. I decided it was time for a new ingredient. Something to freshen and re-energize our week night dinners. But what?
I was grabbing our usual bag of kale salad mix when something caught my eye – oooohhhh, butternut squash noodles? Why, yes. Yes, please. They were sitting in a nice little package, all bright orange and already spiralized and ready to go. So I grabbed them and shoved them in my cart. Then I started thinking about what to do with them and ended up with pine nuts, tahini, lemons, and some fresh veggies…..and chocolate, cold brew, and snacks (naturally…).
When my husband got home later that evening we got to making dinner out of our bright orange friends and were so pleased with how it turned out that we both thought out loud: should we get a spiralizer?….and before I yelled out an emphatic YES, I also thought to myself: are they hard to use? Easy to clean? So if y’all have one, I’m begging you to tell me more..
I did a little research and it seems you can one for about $30 – not bad for a kitchen gadget – but if it’s $30 to spend my life cleaning out little blades and strange crevices, count me out (I’ll stick with the pre spiralized veggies, thank you very much!).
Now to this spiralizer inspired recipe:
Ingredients:
- 3.5 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 tsp red chili flakes (or to taste
- 1 butter nut squash (we used the equivalent in a packaged variety)
- 2 medium carrots – chopped
- 2 mini bell peppers – sliced
- 1/4 red onion, diced
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
- 1 clove garlic
- juice of 1 lemon
- 3 tbsp tahini
- 3 tbsp water
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- salt and pepper, to taste
Place onions and 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and saute for 3 minutes. Add bell pepper and carrots and saute for another 2-3 minutes. In a seperate pan, combine butternut squash noodles (see how to make them here) with 1 tbsp olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper and red chili flakes in a pan and saute together for about 3-5 minutes or until tender. Once noodles are done, mix in the veggie mixture. While letting the noodles and veggies cool slightly, use about 1/2 tbsp olive oil to lightly toast pine nuts (usually 2-3 minutes – don’t burn them!). Once toasted, add pinenuts to noodle mixture.
To make the tangy tahini sauce: blend together garlic, pinch of salt and pepper, 1 tbsp olive oil, lemon, tahini, water and soy sauce until smooth.
Pour sauce over noodle mixture and serve.
What’s your favorite veggie spiral?
Stay sweaty friends!
XOXO
Jamie
alyse says
August 17, 2016 at 9:43 pmYum! Sounds so good – I tried spiralized sweet potatoes recently and LOVED them. I’m also on the spiralizer fence – would love to know how the ease of use and cleaning stacks up!
Jamie says
August 22, 2016 at 10:32 amME TOO. Totally on the fence. Totally into making that sweet potato toast, btw. I saw you post and was like, I WANT THAT.
Nicci says
September 26, 2016 at 6:09 pmYUMMM I don’t know how I missed this… I have a spiralizer…on the cheeper side of spiralizers. The being said, it’s awesome for zucchini and cucumber…any of the “softer” (somewhat phalic shaped) vegetables, and super easy to clean. It doesn’t have the strength, nor do I have the patience, to work a sweet potato/butternut squash in there, though sweat potato noodles are the bomb.
Jamie says
September 27, 2016 at 2:06 pmUm, I’m coming over to spiralize my life!