The Inspiring Spiralizer

Spring.  It’s right around the corner.  The February sun is tempting us, teasing us with the possibility of warmth, the possibility of something new, something worth rolling out of bed to experience, the possibility of inspiration.  While the weather can’t exactly decide what it wants to do and we can’t depend on the sun to create these possibilities, we have to find inspiration in other things.

I happened to find inspiration in a kitchen gadget that I received for Christmas called The Spiralizer.  It is a tool that can turn a regular run of the mill zucchini or yellow squash, in my case, into a beautiful bowl of spirally pasta.  Inspiring? Exciting?   It is if you haven’t eaten traditional pasta in months.  So, to me The Spiralizer is the best invention since the Salad Shooter.

Zucchini or squash pasta tastes healthy, but not healthy  as in boring or “I know that I’m really eating imposter pasta,” but healthy as in fresh, as in “mmmm this is different, this is good,” as in I want seconds!

My first attempt at using The Spiralizer was a great success.  I followed the recipe for Low Carb Zucchini Pasta.  (Shocking that I actually followed a recipe, I know!) OK, so I didn’t have any zucchini, so I substituted yellow squash instead. (Guess I didn’t follow the recipe after all!)  I washed and then cut the top and bottom off the squash, then pushed and turned it through The Spiralizer.  The result, as you can see by the picture, looked much like traditional wheat pasta.

Then I made a variation of the sauce that I use in the Italian-Paleo Eggplant with Crumbled Beef, Tomatoes and Mint (minus the mint) recipe.  This sauce is very different from the usual meat marinara sauce.  It does not call for tomato sauce or tomato paste, but rather fresh tomatoes.  It also calls for vinegar, but I use apple cider vinegar to add just a hint of sweetness.  This is an excellent sauce on top of eggplant, but the squash is much more fun to spiralize than roasting the eggplant.  However, why couldn’t an eggplant be spiralized?

See what I mean?  The Spiralizer is inspiring!  If only it was in spring.