When I saw this recipe that The Clothes Make the Girl posted back in 2011, I was intrigued.
Here’s in part what she had to say about this dish.
Trust me: this does not taste like a big bowl of zucchini. The garlic and olive oil trump transform this dish so it tastes like neither vegetables nor eggs, but some miraculous, noodle-y merging of the two. It’s warm and tender and scrumptious. A hug in a bowl.
I made it for lunch today, found out that I need to make a few alterations to make this work for me, but it was one of the yummiest low-carb dishes I’ve had in a long time.
So, hats off to you, Melissa, this indeed a keeper recipe that I will make again and again.
First I’ll give you her recipe, with a link to her site, and then tell you what I did and will do differently the next time.
Ingredients:
2 small zucchini, julienned (about 2 cups) [Julienne peeler or Spiralizer is essential.]
generous 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon almond flour or almond meal
1/2 teaspoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 eggs, scrambled
a handful of fresh parsley, minced for garnish (optional)
salt & pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. Place the julienned zucchini in a colander or wire strainer and toss with the salt until coated. Allow to sit for 20 minutes to drain excess water, then rinse and pat dry with paper towels. (You may be tempted to skip this step; I strongly advise against it. This step insures tender, rather than watery, noodles.)
2. While the zucchini is sweating in the colander, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Mix the almond flour with the coconut oil, sprinkle it with a smidgen of salt, then sauté in the pan, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until it’s toasty brown, about 1 minute. Remove from pan and save for garnish.
3. Return the pan to the heat and add the zucchini noodles. Sauté until just tender, about 1-2 minutes. Push the noodles to the side of the pan, and reduce heat to medium-low. Wait a minute; it’s essential that the pan cools down before adding the eggs. Add the olive oil and garlic. When the garlic is fragrant, about 20 seconds, pour in the eggs and allow them to cook until just beginning to set a tiny bit. Mix the zucchini noodles into the egg and continue to stir gently and continuously until the egg is set and clinging to the noodles. Taste, then add salt and pepper to your liking.
4. Serve noodles in a deep bowl and sprinkle with the almond flour crumbs and minced parsley. Slurping and ridiculously big bites heartily encouraged.
And here are my changes.
First of all, 1/4 a teaspoon of salt was not enough salt for me to sweat my zucchini after I spiraled it with the Paderno. Perhaps I used larger zucchini than she did, or perhaps it was because I added a couple of summer squash because I didn’t have enough zucchini. I could see it not sweating, I added probably a total of 2 teaspoons of salt to sweat it. I need to research this a bit more.
But anyway, I also don’t think I let it sweat long enough, because even though I rinsed and patted dry, it did still weep a bit when I cooked it.
I doubled the almond flour, coconut oil mixture because hubs was eating this too, and it took a lot longer than a minute for it to brown in my large skillet. But that’s okay, I had patience and the nutty flavor was absolute heaven. I’ll use this topping instead of breadcrumbs on casseroles, such as escalloped cabbage, that I make in the future
Okay, so then I julienned my zucchini and summer squash with my much loved Paderno Veggie Spiralizer and went ahead and added a tablespoon of olive oil to sauté. The recipe didn’t say to do this, but I needed the oil to make this step work.
Then I pushed them to one side, added a clove of crushed garlic, let it get fragrant, then I stirred in the eggs and tossed continuously. The next time I’ll add another clove of garlic, you could taste the garlic, but the flavor was a bit too subtle I thought.
ThenI served it up in Fiesta Ware bowls, put the toasted almond flour on top, and oh my, it was wonderful. Absolutely amazingly delicious. And Melissa is right, you don’t taste the egg, you just taste comfort. Love, love love this dish, Can’t say enough good things about it.
Here’s her original recipe.
Photograph is from The Clothes Make The Girl
(I was too busy eating to take my own pictures, bad Jan)
