This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Racking up a whole slew of recipes prior to having a baby has its advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, I have plenty of work built up to take the time off I need to spend day after day being lazy with little Teddy, but on the other hand?? When I go to post, I remember just how much I love each recipe, and instantly have a bout of sadness that I don’t have leftovers of said recipe in the fridge.
Take today’s zucchini and whole-wheat spaghetti for instance…Just one of the many recipes I’ve got in the queue that I wish was going to be on my dinner table tonight…but isn’t. It could, however, be on YOUR dinner table tonight. All it takes is a few ingredients, 30 minutes of your time and you’ve got a healthy, easy and seriously delicious meal that looks just as good as it tastes.
Like most of the world, I’m sort of gaga over the spiralizer, it’s not something I break out daily by any means, but it’s definitely a tool I try to use on a somewhat regular basis, especially when I’m trying to watch the calories. Typically, I’ll completely replace my pasta dishes with whatever veggie I’m working with, but when I just want to lighten things up a bit and not omit the pasta altogether I’ll do an equal ratio of spiralized noodles to pasta.
Here, I upped the fiber with whole-wheat spaghetti, and kept things super simple with an easy brown butter sauce, toasted hazelnuts (my absolute favorite of all the nuts) and hearty kale. Plenty of salt and parmesan cheese are the finishing touches.
Now, again, you’ll have to forgive me for my short and sweet post, but I’ve got to tend to a hungry baby fidgeting in his crib….
- 2 zucchinis (1 pound)
- 4 ounces spaghetti
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup hazelnuts, chopped
- 2 cups roughly chopped kale
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup parmesan cheese
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Season to taste with salt, it should taste as salty as the sea. Cook spaghetti until just under aldente. Reserve ½ cup or so of cooking liquid.
- Using a spiralizer fit with the spaghetti blade, form zucchini into spaghetti.
- In a large skillet, melt butter over a medium-high heat. When butter begins to brown, swirl the pan until the butter is a deep brown and smells very nutty. Add chopped hazelnuts, cook 1 minute until toasted. Add zucchini, kale and salt. Cook until zucchini and kale has softened, but zucchini still has a slight bite to it, about 5 minutes. Add spaghetti and parmesan cheese. Toss until combined. If necessary, add a little bit of starchy cooking liquid to the pan to loosen the sauce up.
- Season with salt and pepper and garnish with more parmesan cheese.
Lauren Gaskill | Making Life Sweet says
I LOVE the idea of mixing zucchini noodles in with regular noodles! Talk about the perfect balance of nutrition and taste! Pinning and definitely sharing on social! 🙂
Aimee Scovell says
This is healthy, easy, delicious and will be a regular for the family. Everyone loved it.