Low carb spaghetti and other carbohydrate reduced pasta are available as a convenience product. I’ve never tried it. There is a delicious alternative: spaghetti from zucchini. By the way the zucchini pasta can be produced in five minutes.

The idea to make pasta from zucchini came by my julienne peeler. The first time when I used it to peel a cucumber, I have discovered to come narrow stripes looking like spaghetti. They are similar in consistency.

Ingredients:

Zucchini, water, salt

Preparation method:

Wash the zucchini with plenty of water, peel the skin of the zucchini (also with the julienne peeler). Make long ways narrow stripes of the skinless zucchini with the julienne peeler. If you have a big zucchini stop the peeling when you reached the core. The low carb spaghetti subsequently blanched in salt water or vegetable stock for about 3 minutes. Dress the low carb spaghetti with a sauce of your choice. What these low carb pasta makes so interesting for me, is just 19 kcal of 100 g, therefore you can use much more sauce without any repentance.

If You use zucchini slices instead of the typical lasagna pasta, then it is not only low carb, but also a light alternative to the Italian classic. However, if You tend to add a lot of cheese like me, then it will no longer be a light alternative.

Ingredients:

Ground beef, zucchini, tomatoes, cheese (mozzarella), garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, sweet marjoram, olive oil and some butter to grease the casserole dish

Preparation method:

To make the sauce: take a pan and add olive oil (how many you need ). Once the oil is heated, add the ground beef and brown it. Add tomatoes and spices. Flavor to your taste. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes.

Cut the zucchini long ways into approximately half centimeter slices. Grease the casserole dish and lay the first set of zucchini slices on the bottom of the dish. Add sauce over the zucchini slices. Now add a second layer of zucchini slices and more sauce on top of that. Then to top it off cover with cheese.

Bake the low carb lasagna in a preheated oven at 220 C (428 F) for 20 minutes. You can bake the lasagna longer (maximum 30 minutes), but you run the risk of making the zucchini mushy.