Spaghetti squash, cauli rice, etc actually good???

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CatherineLaurel
CatherineLaurel Posts: 197 Member
in Recipes
I'd love to try veggie subs for carbs but I'm afraid they'll be nasty. Open to suggestions on what to try, though!
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  • fornowiamwinter
    fornowiamwinter Posts: 79 Member
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    Spiralized zucchini is amazing! It's one of my favourite meals! Haven't tried the squash or cauliflower etc
  • CatherineLaurel
    CatherineLaurel Posts: 197 Member
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    How do you spiral it? Do you need a special tool or just a knife?
  • CatherineLaurel
    CatherineLaurel Posts: 197 Member
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    @fornowiamwinter
  • fornowiamwinter
    fornowiamwinter Posts: 79 Member
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    It's a special tool and it's expensive at all! And you can spiralize other veg too!
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,643 Member
    edited July 2016
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    Spaghetti squash is great, cauliflower is the devil (I hate it soooooooo much... you might like it... but if you do, you're probably wrong ;) ) and a spiralizer is a specific type of tool easily and fairly cheaply found online.
  • CatherineLaurel
    CatherineLaurel Posts: 197 Member
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    @BecomingBane haha thanks for your input! Maybe bed bath and beyond sells them...they sell everything
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,643 Member
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    They do sell everything... except the one thing that will get me back to my own time! :s
  • Bonny132
    Bonny132 Posts: 3,617 Member
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    Spiralized zucchini is great, I sometimes mix in some carrots too. A spiralizer is really cheap and you can spiralize any hard veg with it. I steam mine with some garlic salt or other spices, and make spag bol mmm
  • CatherineLaurel
    CatherineLaurel Posts: 197 Member
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    @Bonny132 do you put tomato sauce on it?
  • AlisonH729
    AlisonH729 Posts: 558 Member
    edited July 2016
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    You can get handheld spiralizers virtually anywhere. They are probably in the kitchenware aisle of the supermarket. And I know I've seen the Veggetti with the other 'as seen on tv' products in CVS. I have some other brand that I use fairly often for zucchini noodles** that I mix with regular spaghetti to bulk up a meal. Just zucchini noodles don't do it for me. Neither does spaghetti squash. I need to make spaghetti squash boats with hearty meat sauces for them to be filling.

    **This is about all the handheld ones are good for. I would like to make shoestring potatoes, or frizzled sweet potatoes. Or spiralized carrots. But you'll need a very study tabletop variety for those. Or possibly an old fashioned apple peeler.

    I'm not so into cauliflower, I think because fresh tends to be really expensive. I tried cauliflower pizza crust once (I'm a sucker for food experiments) but it was a disaster. Entirely too much work and again, NOT a sub for pizza crust. But Green Giant now sells cauliflower crumbles. Which again I think would be a nice add in with regular white rice served with stirfry or something similar.

    ETA: That I didn't have anything planned for dinner so I might pick up a bag and make spicy shrimp over fried rice/cauliflower...
  • CatherineLaurel
    CatherineLaurel Posts: 197 Member
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    @AlisonH729 that dinner idea sounds amazing. I really want to go buy a handheld one now and experiment! Yeah, I thought about trying cauliflower crust but when I looked up the directions and the comments it just didn't seem to be worth the effort.
  • Bonny132
    Bonny132 Posts: 3,617 Member
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    @cla11b I put tomatoe sauce and minced beef.

    I fry minced beef with garlic, onions, mushrooms and herbs and spices. I then add either tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes/passata or if I have a lot of tomatoes I quickly blanch them, skin them and chop them up to add with the beef. I steam the zucchini spaghetti with the spices till I can see the seeds showing through, then it is ready to be put in a bowl, with my bolognese sauce. Takes a few minutes (I don't use a microwave but it takes 60-90secs I believe)

    Beef can be exchanged for other types of mince or vegetarian options.

    I get a filling portion for 300cals

    A sprinkling of Parmesan or mozzarella on top is also really nice, or finely chopped bacon or pancetta mixed in with the bolognese.
  • AlisonH729
    AlisonH729 Posts: 558 Member
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    Here's the recipe for the shrimp. (Which if you like it is a great low cal protein! And in that case you should probably also try this recipe, and use the zucchini noodles instead of or along with the pasta.) And this one is for the fried rice. I think you could def sub half or even all the rice with cauliflower crumbles.
  • Bonny132
    Bonny132 Posts: 3,617 Member
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    ycab8djtn59o.jpeg

    This is my spiralizer, works like a giant pencil sharpener. I have cooked for 3 people using it with no issues. I mainly spiralize zucchini, potatoes and carrots. The other end of it slices really thin so perfect for slicing really thin, I use this to slice cucumber, potatoes, beetroot, carrots, sweet potatoes etc. Great for making vegetable crisps etc
  • CatherineLaurel
    CatherineLaurel Posts: 197 Member
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    Awesome! @Bonny132 that's looks so easy to use
  • gillybilly2015
    gillybilly2015 Posts: 1 Member
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    I personally love using spaghetti squash as a substitute for pasta. I find it more filling than regular pasta and I don't feel guilty eating it (or more of it!). Making a thicker sauce is nice because the squash can be a bit watery sometimes. I've also made cauliflower mashed potatoes, its a long process and can be a bit of a pain to go through all those steps if you are just cooking for yourself. It's one extra step than the rice, but adding a little bit of butter and garlic makes them taste very similar to mashed potatoes.
  • AlisonH729
    AlisonH729 Posts: 558 Member
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    Ooh I never thought of mashed cauliflower. I like mashed turnip which I thicken with instant potato flakes. (As you can see we like our starches, I just try to make them a liiiiittle healthier.)
  • WindSparrow
    WindSparrow Posts: 224 Member
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    AlisonH729 wrote: »
    Ooh I never thought of mashed cauliflower. I like mashed turnip which I thicken with instant potato flakes. (As you can see we like our starches, I just try to make them a liiiiittle healthier.)

    I like this recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/230816/garlic-mashed-cauliflower/ for garlic mashed cauliflower. For a high quality carby mash, one of my favorites is mashed rutabaga, carrot, and sweet potato.
  • kirstenb13
    kirstenb13 Posts: 181 Member
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    I don't think any of these versions are nasty - I don't think they are always very close to the thing they are trying to mimic but it tastes good as its own thing.
    I regularly make cauliflower fried rice which is really good and basically just a ton of veggies so you can eat a mountain of it for close to no calories.
    Often I use things like zucchini noodles to bulk up regular noodles rather than completely on their own.
  • RandiNoelle
    RandiNoelle Posts: 374 Member
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    Simple cauliflower rice can be really good... when mixed with lots of spices!! I buy a whole head, cut it up, and then pulse it through a food processor. I use it mostly for Mexican rice and stir-fry's. I've never used cauliflower as anything but rice (tortillas, pizza crust). It doesn't seem to many people here like it though. Lol! It's definitely a bit different but I love cauliflower.

    Zucchini and squash made into noodles with a spiralizer is good. I cook it in a nonstick skillet with a smidgen of olive oil, garlic, and Italian seasonings.

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