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This Zucchini Spaghetti with Homemade Meat Sauce is a delicious and hearty meal your family will LOVE! It’s low carb, grain-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free if you omit the cheese. The meat sauce is cooked up quickly and is served over lightened up zucchini noodles making for a healthy weeknight dinner!
Zucchini Spaghetti Recipe
This Zucchini Spaghetti is ultimate comfort food, but lightened up of course! Zucchini noodles are especially delicious during those summer months when they are abundant and you are looking for clever ways to use them up. Serving them with this quick meat sauce is perfect for an easy weeknight dinner when you are looking for something comforting, flavorful and simple!
What I love about this dish is that these days it is easily to find zucchini noodles pre-made in the store, so you can skip the step of spiralizing your zucchinis if you buy them. Additionally this meat sauce is super quick. While yes, traditional meat sauce is simmered for hours, this meat sauce is made specifically for an easy weeknight dinner thanks to the addition of tomato sauce. Look for a good quality brand with no strange ingredients or added sugar.
Tips for Using and Cooking Zucchini Noodles
Tips for Using and Cooking Zucchini NoodlesZucchini noodles are a great healthy and nutrient-dense substitute for regular pasta. Do they taste exactly the same? No, they’re zucchini. But most people who make this swap are happily satisfied to eat the zoodles, as they are known, topped with whatever sauce you are using. Below are some tips on how to best enjoy zucchini noodles!
- You can eat them raw! Eating the zucchini noodles while raw will make for the firmest (and not soggy) zucchini noodles. Just toss with a touch of olive oil and salt and pepper before serving with your sauce.
- If you are cooking them, don’t overcook them! The longer you cook zucchini noodles the softer and soggy they become! Cook for just a few minutes and stop cooking them before they actually looked cook. The zucchini will continue to cook a bit once they are off heat.
- You can drain the noodles a bit before you serve them. Once cooked, set over a colander for a few minutes.
- Sauce the noodles after they are cooked!
If you like this classic comfort food lightened up, check out these recipes:
- Classic Macaroni Salad
- Gluten Free Apple Pie
- Healthy Rice Pudding (Vegan)
- Healthy Creamed Spinach (Made Without Cream!)
If you like this zucchini recipe, check out these others:
- Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Oven-Baked Zucchini Fries
- Stuffed Zucchini Boats
Zucchini Spaghetti with Homemade Meat Sauce
Ingredients
Meat Sauce:
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 large carrots diced fine
- 1 lb. ground beef or ground turkey
- 1-15 oz. can diced tomatoes
- 1-15 oz. can tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon sea salt more to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper more to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil
- For serving: with fresh parmesan and basil
Zucchini Spaghetti:
- 4 large organic zucchini spiralized
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a medium sized saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add onion and carrots to saucepan. Let cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until onions are translucent and the carrots begin to soften.
- Add meat to saucepan and let cook until no pink remains.
- Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, spices, and 1 tablespoon fresh basil to the pan and mix well.
- Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning and remove from heat.
- In a large skillet, heat remaining tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add in zucchini noodles and big pinch of salt and pepper and let cook for 2-3 minutes. The zucchini noodles will continue to cook once you take them off the heat.
- Transfer zucchini noodles to a plate, and top with meat sauce, fresh basil, and parmesan if using and serve immediately.
In this recipe’s instructions, it says “add onion, carrots and peppers to saucepan.” However, peppers are not indicated in the meat sauce list of ingredients. Was the peppers a mistake?
Sorry about the error it’s fixed!
Zucchini Linguine with Meat Sauce or Turkey Bolognese. How many servings does this make. I’m assuming about 4. But that seems like a lot of sauce for only 4 servings.