Tasty prawn courgetti

This prawn courgetti recipe is really simple to make and tastes amazing. You feel so virtuous afterwards as compared to the bloated, lethargic feeling after a bowl of regular pasta. I am not a fan of pasta in general, especially refined ‘white pasta‘ but I am a complete convert to courgette spaghetti (courgetti) and have been spiralizing all sorts of vegetables to see what happens and how to incorporate them into dishes.

The kids love them too and happily munch through their rainbow coloured ‘pasta’. Children are far more likely to try something new if they are involved in the process and making veggie pasta is so much fun – apart from the arguments over whose turn it is.

After a few weeks of using my julienne slicer to make the spaghetti, I finally invested in a spiralser from amazon. You can get anything from a hand-held mini one for a fiver to an all singing expensive one. I chose the middle ground and went for a spiralite which costs around £25 and I absolutely love it.

As courgettes are rather bland, the spaghetti pretty much goes with everything, we use it instead of noodles, with bolognese and often simply mix it with pesto and serve with some fish.

Reasons to love courgette spaghetti

• Its low carb and gluten free (ie helps with weight control)
• We don’t have to worry about portion control – a serving of regular pasta is a cup of cooked pasta (roughly the size of a fist). How many of us can stop there?
• It adds a whopping load of fibre and antioxidants to your meal
• Courgettes are very low calorie
• It’s fun to make
• It tastes great

The only thing to note is that as it’s so low calorie I do find I’m hungry later unless I make sure there’s plenty of protein and healthy fats with the meal.

To make courgette spaghetti

I use a spiraliser but you can use a julienne slicer, a regular veg peeler (although you have to chop to strips after) or even do the whole thing by hand. Either way you want to avoid the seedy centre which makes it go mushy. A spiraliser automatically removes this part which is a bonus, but if using a regular slicer, rotate the courgette and discard the seedy centre.

Raw foodies eat their pasta like this but I prefer to soften the spaghetti as it tastes more authentic. Courgettes release their water when heated and after numerous soggy bowls of pasta I realised that it’s essential to somehow dehydrate the pasta. There are various methods but I find the easiest and most effective is to put the raw spaghetti in a large pan or wok. Dry-fry for a couple of minutes until soft but not soggy. Transfer to a baking tray lined with a few layers of paper towel and place in an oven on a really low temperature (around 100).

Wipe clean the pan and reuse to make the sauce. By the time the sauce is ready (in this case 10 minutes max) most of the water has been absorbed by the towels, press the surface gently with another paper towel and the pasta is ready to eat. The best thing is that this stage can be done way in advance and the spaghetti keeps in the fridge for a few days so you have it ready to use on an as needed basis.

Note: If you want the spaghetti to look more ‘authentic’ you can peel the courgettes first, although as most of the nutrients and fibre are in or just under the skin, this does lower the nutritional profile.

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