Zoodles, anyone? Time to eat green
Taste? Definitely. But, nutrition? Nah! That’s what you get each time you devour an appetising plate of noodles. Many hope to add a dose of health to it by throwing in lots of veggies in the preparation, but we all know that’s hardly doing anyone any good.
How else can one marry noodles with health? By embracing veggie noodles — they look like noodles but are actually spiralised vegetables; zucchini noodles or zoodles being the most common.
Veggie noodles are a rage in the West and the trend is catching up closer home, too, with city chefs experimenting with healthy noodles. They are hopeful that Indians would soon develop the taste for the healthy alternative for noodles/pasta and eventually switch to it.
“Noodles are considered as junk while the taste and consumption for noodles in India is incredible. Sencha or green tea noodles have attained a huge popularity in eateries because of the natural colour. At the same time, beetroot and activated charcoal are making the noodles gourmet trendy,” says chef Nishant Choubey.
A lot of veggie pastas including zucchini, beetroot, sweet potato can be made using a spiralizer.
“Zoodles are definitely a healthy option as compared to the regular pasta, but the problem is that for every order that we get, we have to make veggie noodles from scratch by spiralizing the zucchini because it can’t be stored for long,”says chef Sabyasachi Gorai. He adds that there is a rise in the number of pasta lovers asking for spiralized zucchini noodles, but admits that the trend is yet to grow exponentially here.
Since zucchini has 95% water (as opposed to flour or maida in noodles/pasta), zoodles get soggy if not cooked almost instantly.
Want to try making the healthy noodles at home? You can turn zucchini into noodles with a spiralizer, but remember to not peel its skin. This will prevent the zucchini from getting slimy or soggy, and keep the texture similar to that of noodles.