Zucchini Noodles

Recipe by Judi Mills, Traverse City GAPS Consulting

Ingredients:
large zucchini squash per person
Sea Salt

Equipment:
Spiral Slicer or Julienne Slicer

1. Heat oven to 200°F.
2. Wash and peel zucchini.  You can leave the peel on if you like the green color. Removing the peel makes it look more like spaghetti.
3. Insert the 1/8-inch slicing disc into your spiral slicer. Place 1 squash on the prongs and line up the de-seeding hole in the middle of the end of the squash. Turn the crank until you’ve reached the end and have beautiful noodles!
4. Alternatively, use a julienne slicer to cut thin strands of zucchini. Once you’ve reached the seeds in the middle, flip the squash over and start again until you’ve reached the seeds from the other side. Discard the center portion with the seeds.

Method 1 (for adding to a sauce):

1. Place the noodles on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels. Sprinkle with salt.
2. “Sweat” the noodles in the oven for 30 minutes until the paper towels have absorbed most of the moisture that the zucchini released. Wrap the paper towels over the noodles and give them a good squeeze to extract any remaining liquid.
3. Add them into your sauce and let them simmer for 5 to 10 minutes for ‘al dente’, or 10 to 15 minutes for soft and silky.

Method 2 (for serving as a bed of ‘noodles’ for a topping like Asian stir-fry or Bolognese sauce):

Heat a skillet with ¼ inch of water or chicken broth to boiling. Add zucchini. Reduce heat to medium and simmer noodles for about 5 minutes until desired texture is obtained (‘al dente’ with a little ‘bite’ is ideal).  Remove from heat and drain, reserving liquid for another use such as making soup. Serve with topping of your choice.