Zoodles with the Perfect Texture

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Zoodles are a delicious way of transforming my favorite pasta dishes into salad. My brain might know that they are zucchini, and my eyes will see the green on my plate, but my mouth doesn’t care. My method makes them with the perfect al dente texture. They also hold on to sauce a lot like spaghetti, which enhances everything about the taste. I make this every week , and every week it is worth the time.

Notes on Equipment

There are two pieces of specialized equipment you need to make these zoodles. Both are equally important.

Spiralizer

There are two main types of spiralizers. First are the hand variety, where you use some sort of device and your own muscles make the zoodles. You can probably put other veggies and such into your spiralizer, but as of today, I have not. When I was first starting out, before I had my KitchenAid, I got this spiralizer. It worked well and if you are just wanting to try out this sort of kitchen tool it’s a great place to start. I personally found it time-consuming and only used it every month or so.

This brings us to the second type of spiralizer. The type that you attach to an electric stand mixer. If you already own one, then all you need to buy is the spiralizing attachment. I got both my KitchenAid mixer and spiralizer attachment as wedding gifts (thank you!). Now I use them every single week.

Cheesecloth

You can find it in most grocery stores, but I always have to ask where it is. There are a lot of really fancy types of cheesecloth out on the internet for people who are making cheese, for this application all you need is basic cheesecloth. I cut what I need for one meal and throw it out afterward. One pack lasts me several weeks, so don’t be worried about the size.

Instructions

I always start my cooking by washing my hands and wiping down my counters. I strongly recommend you do too. Now wash and cut your zucchini in half, as shown in the photo below. The cutting helps it fit into the spiralizer.

Then put your cheesecloth in your bowl. Cut enough to cover the inside of the bowl. If your cheesecloth is very flimsy, you might want to double-layer it.

Spiralize your zucchini into your bowl directly onto the cheesecloth. After you have spiralized all of your zucchini thoroughly sprinkle it with salt. The salt will draw the water out of the zucchini. I normally let mine sit for about 5 minutes.

It will be done when it looks slimy. You might even have a puddle in the bottom of your bowl. If after 5 minutes your zoodles are not slimy, add more salt and wait for 5 more minutes. It takes a generous amount of salt to get the water out. I don’t think it tastes too salty at the end, because a lot of the salt leaves with the water. So don’t worry about over salting.

After your zoodles are slimy, twist up the cheesecloth and squeeze as much of the water out as you can. Zucchini contains a lot of water, so the total zoodle volume will decrease by about half-ish. Once all the water is out, put zoodles in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 1-2 minutes depending on how powerful your microwave is. I usually go for 1.5 minutes. Then immediately serve and eat!

Recipe Notes

This recipe is for a single serving of zoodles. You can double it easily without much fuss. But you will have problems if you try to make too much at once. Too much can be easily defined as more than one pasta bowl can contain, even when you make a small mountain in the bowl.

If you are making more than two people’s worth of zoodles, I recommend making it in batches. If you try to make too much at once, you won’t be able to squeeze out enough of the water and there is no telling how well the microwave is going to heat it.