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Made this tonight for dinner and In fell in love with the avocado sauce. I’m going to put it on everything!!
Bhadra Lokuge
We are living in the deep of winter.
Deep, dark, frozen winter. We’re talking multiples of ten below zero where your hands get frostbite within like two seconds of being exposed to the air. Why/how/why? This is exactly why I am channeling the warm vibes by bringing avocado, zucchini, and tomatoes into my life in the ultimate cozy form of PASTA. If there was ever a category of food to bring me back to life, it would most definitely be my old friend, my first love, the sustainer of my winter days – p-a-s-t-a.
This recipe is two things: we’re embracing that healthy trend of spiralized vegetables that makes it *FEEL LIKE* we’re eating pasta when we’re actually eating zucchini, while also, like, ACTUALLY eating real pasta. As in spaghetti. As in get in my belly now because it’s thirty degrees below zero.
Are you down?
How To Make Our Zucchini Spaghetti:
I mean, if you’re completely honest with yourself, straight up zucchini noodles can really be just HARD TO DEAL WITH sometimes. They’re delicious for as long as you don’t think about them too much, and then all of a sudden, halfway through what started as a really delicious meal, you remember you’re eating zucchini spaghetti instead of carbs and just, ugh, NO. You’ve betrayed your inner food self in the worst sort of way.
And if you’ve ever tried to re-visit them the next day as leftovers? Not so much, healthy self. Not. So. Much.
So with the open-mineded-to-spiralized-zucchini approach in half of your brain (we are so there, I know we are), and the loyalist-to-carbs in the other half of you brain (equally as powerful a force around here), you will now find yourself staring at a heaping bowl of this zucchini noodle + real spaghetti combo, and all is right in the zucchini noodle world.
We’ve got whole wheat spaghetti establishing the base, spiralized zucchini bulking up the whole thing and adding color + nutrition + just enough tender-crispy crunch, and creamy avocado sauce to bring them both together in sticky, saucy pasta harmony. And don’t even think for one second about skipping the sweet wrinkled roasty tomatoes on top of the whole thing because they’re adorable little bursts of vegetable candy, and who doesn’t need that sort of positivity in their life?
Also – I realize that this is yet another green food processor sauce and I’m not sorry one bit. You’re gonna love this one. SIMPLE CREAMY DELICIOUS.
THE SPIRALIZER SITUATION
There are a few things you’ll need to know.
- This is the magical thing they call a spiralizer.
- I’m currently using the Inspiralizer and loving it.
- Sad story: the cooked zucchini noodles are not delicious as leftovers. They’re just not. You could try to convince me otherwise in the comments but I probably wouldn’t believe you. So make this and eat it right away, or else store everything separately and prepare each serving just before you eat it.
- You could spiralize other vegetables and use them in place of zucchini. Sweet potatoes? With the avocado sauce? I am definitely feeling that.
Pasta Love in three, two…
Print
Burst Tomato and Zucchini Spaghetti with Avocado Sauce
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Burst Tomato and Zucchini Spaghetti tossed with a simple, creamy, vegan avocado sauce. This healthy recipe is ready in 30 minutes!
Ingredients
- 3 cups yellow and red cherry tomatoes
- 2 zucchini, spiralized
- 4 ounces whole wheat spaghetti (optional – see notes)
- Parmesan for topping (but skip this if you’re vegan, obvs)
Avocado Sauce:
- 1 avocado
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley
- 3–4 green onions (green parts)
- 1 garlic clove
- juice of 1 lemon
- freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pulse all sauce ingredients together until smooth. Set aside.
- Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- Heat the cherry tomatoes in a large skillet over medium high heat with a very quick drizzle of olive oil. Gently shake the pan to get them moving (you might want to grab a lid for this – they really start to spatter when the juices hit the hot oil). Continue cooking until tomatoes are roasty-looking and the skins are split or loosened. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Add the zucchini to the same pan and toss for 1-2 minutes, until tender-crisp. Add the spaghetti and the avocado sauce. Toss until combined. Season with salt and pepper, top with reserved tomatoes and Parmesan if you like that sort of thing. Serve immediately.
Notes
Okay, so if you’re going SUPER HEALTHY on us, you could skip the pasta. We made this without pasta as a side for grilled chicken during an especially ambitious post-new-year’s-resolution meal, and even with JUST THE ZUCCHINI, it was still super delicious.
However, if you were making this without the chicken, I wouldn’t go for the zucchini-noodles-only approach. The pasta makes it more of a meal in and of itself.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Lunch
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: zucchini noodles, zoodle recipe, pasta recipe, healthy pasta
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our favorite avocado recipes page. Check it out!
I love this recipe. It’s fast, easy and delicious. I really appreciate that you’ve added the nutrition facts. Thanks so much!
Thanks Mary! Glad to hear that!
This is teeming with flavour! I rarely use my spiralizer but need to get it out more! So yummy.
Yes you do – the spiralizer is so fun!
This is seriously the ultimate cozy pasta! The bright colors remind me of summer and summer is exactly what I need in my life right now.
Right?? Thanks Chelsea! 🙂
YES! I just made this today and #1, it was delicious and #2, very, VERY SUMMER-Y! Both the colors and the flavors. Loved it!!
Just made this and LOVED IT! Served with chicken (no traditional noodles) and it was the perfect quick and easy weekend meal. Stored the ingredients separately to heat and serve as leftovers. Thanks for creating such delicious, healthy recipes that I can go back to again aha again! 🙂
We do the sprialized zuccini add roasted red peppers, onion, tomatoes and use Campbells Creamy Parm sauce, top with a little pepper and grated parmesean. Sometimes we add shrimp or chicken, we have even done pork. So freaking good! Can’t wait to try this with your Alvacoda sauce!
So which spiralizer do you prefer now – The Inspiralizer or Paderno? Thanks!
When I wrote the other post recommending the Paderno, I hadn’t tried the Inspiralizer yet. I still love the Paderno but the Inspiralizer has all the blades built in which I really like. No switching blade plates or anything like that. It’s super slick!
Yum! I will have to try the real spaghetti and zucchini noodle combo. Love the avocado sauce and tomatoes on top.
The tomatoes are my favorite!! Thanks Emily!
Shut UP
I’m definitely making the avocado sauce but probably putting it on pasta, Thanks!
YUM! Thanks Mary Beth!
I tried spiralizing a regular potato one time and then cooking them like noodles and it was a really gross disaster. I’m sure you could do a much better job than I did haha.
Try sweet potato! Much more forgiving, I think. 🙂
I think the thing that I love about this spiral veggie thing the most is that when I was in Japan, my Benriner Cook Help (a very old school spiralizer) was originally marketed as a way to bring down food waste and make prettier garnishes, and not even vaguely about health food. (I am doubtless not the first person to mention this).
But I’m into this recipe! I’m not sure I could get my calories if I didn’t eat ANY decent starch, like, I might burst from vegetable overload, but nyummmmmm anyway.
I like that idea! Thanks for sharing Mags!
I love the sound of that avocado sauce! It was frigid here over the last few days too, so I feel you on the carby comfort foods. Gotta warm up from the inside out!
Absolutely! Thanks for the comment Heather!
Hi Lindsay! In the picture of the ingredients in the food processor it looks like there are green onions, but in the recipe they are not mentioned. Is this something you decided the sauce is better without? Or am I just mistaking what is in the photo? Thank you!
You are totally right! We are working on updating the recipe. 🙂
This looks incredible! I’ve had my eye on a few spiralizers and the Inspiralizer is definitely topping the list. Aaaand, of course, the photos are beautiful! I love the green, yellow and red together!
If you get it, you won’t be disappointed! 🙂
This looks and sounds amazing! I do have a question though… when looking at the photo of the food processor with the sauce ingredients, it looks like there are long, hollow, tubular pieces–like the tops of green onions. However they aren’t listed in the sauce ingredients. Are they green onions? If so, how much do you use?
I’m pretty sure those are parsley stems 🙂
They certainly are green onions! We will update the ingredient list ASAP.
Zucchini Pasta seems to be the star pasta of the season, specially in new wave restaurants which focuses on a healthy menu. I don’t know whether I sound ignorant but is there an easy way to make a nutrition file for a recipe – like an app or a software that a non-nutritionist may use?
And the curly zucchini thread looks so gorgeous!
This is a tool similar to the one we use: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076.
Great post. I’m always looking for great sauces for zoodles. Will definitely try this Avocado sauce!
Kisses from http://poshnessary.com ❤
Thank goodness someone else out there is sane enough to realize that spiralized noodles are really depressing unless you combine them with REAL noodles. I can only get behind “zoodles” if they bulk up my portion of the real deal, you know what I’m sayin’? Trying this recipe. Especially because: winter.
This looks awesome! Any suggestions for an avocado substitute? (I recently found out I’m allergic! Ugh!).
I’d suggest something that can give that same creamy texture – maybe plain yogurt or sour cream?
Lindsay! I do the same thing! I love zucchini noodles. Really, I do, but by themselves, they are just not very filling. So, adding just a bit of pasta makes a world of difference. I am LOVING that avocado sauce! This is going to happened for dinner this week!
I heart your blog so much that I’m stalking it relentlessly and reading old posts like it’s my bedside book. (obvs I am OBSESSED with food) I never comment on posts on anything ever but I just wanted to say this place is as good as a favourite, dog-eared book that KEEPS GROWING (!!) and omg let’s go and eat yellow curry sauce RIGHT NOW.
… that is all. 🙂
Haha! That’s awesome. Enjoy, Lizzie. 🙂
A perfect “pasta” meal for these cold winter days! This looks super scrumptious!!!
Mm, this looks wonderful! I love zucchini noodles and avocado! Great way to eat more fiber and healthy fats!
this recipe looks gorgeous and I love that the sauce is going to taste super rich and creamy because of the avocado but just give you lots of healthy fats. I am one of the rare people in the camp of zoodles all the way. and even for leftovers. i know, i’m crazy, but they’re just as delicious the next day. even if you store your zoodles and sauce together you just need to pour out a little bit of the water that inevitably leaches out of the zoodles, reheat and yum, lunch leftovers are served 🙂
Looks great. In your final para, you mention “chicken”. Where did that come in?
Hi, Sky! Lindsay just put that out there as another option for making this into a full-meal deal. Chicken is not included in the recipe, but the recipe made without the spaghetti noodles pairs beautifully with chicken. 🙂
Genius thing to do to combine the spag with the zucchini. I could never figure out how zucchini noodles could be satisfying by themselves!
I’ve tried to love zucchini noodles… I really have! But I can’t! It’s exactly what you said: the meal starts off alright, and then about halfway through I feel like I’ve betrayed myself and I get rather sad. So relieved I’m not alone in this. I like the idea of mixing up some old fashioned CARBS with some veg. Best of both worlds!
Hi Lindsay, I like your take on healthy dishes. I love pasta and with 339 calories I’m very happy 🙂