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Made this tonight for dinner and In fell in love with the avocado sauce. I’m going to put it on everything!!
Bhadra Lokuge
We are living in the deep of winter.
Deep, dark, frozen winter. We’re talking multiples of ten below zero where your hands get frostbite within like two seconds of being exposed to the air. Why/how/why? This is exactly why I am channeling the warm vibes by bringing avocado, zucchini, and tomatoes into my life in the ultimate cozy form of PASTA. If there was ever a category of food to bring me back to life, it would most definitely be my old friend, my first love, the sustainer of my winter days – p-a-s-t-a.
This recipe is two things: we’re embracing that healthy trend of spiralized vegetables that makes it *FEEL LIKE* we’re eating pasta when we’re actually eating zucchini, while also, like, ACTUALLY eating real pasta. As in spaghetti. As in get in my belly now because it’s thirty degrees below zero.
Are you down?
How To Make Our Zucchini Spaghetti:
I mean, if you’re completely honest with yourself, straight up zucchini noodles can really be just HARD TO DEAL WITH sometimes. They’re delicious for as long as you don’t think about them too much, and then all of a sudden, halfway through what started as a really delicious meal, you remember you’re eating zucchini spaghetti instead of carbs and just, ugh, NO. You’ve betrayed your inner food self in the worst sort of way.
And if you’ve ever tried to re-visit them the next day as leftovers? Not so much, healthy self. Not. So. Much.
So with the open-mineded-to-spiralized-zucchini approach in half of your brain (we are so there, I know we are), and the loyalist-to-carbs in the other half of you brain (equally as powerful a force around here), you will now find yourself staring at a heaping bowl of this zucchini noodle + real spaghetti combo, and all is right in the zucchini noodle world.
We’ve got whole wheat spaghetti establishing the base, spiralized zucchini bulking up the whole thing and adding color + nutrition + just enough tender-crispy crunch, and creamy avocado sauce to bring them both together in sticky, saucy pasta harmony. And don’t even think for one second about skipping the sweet wrinkled roasty tomatoes on top of the whole thing because they’re adorable little bursts of vegetable candy, and who doesn’t need that sort of positivity in their life?
Also – I realize that this is yet another green food processor sauce and I’m not sorry one bit. You’re gonna love this one. SIMPLE CREAMY DELICIOUS.
THE SPIRALIZER SITUATION
There are a few things you’ll need to know.
- This is the magical thing they call a spiralizer.
- I’m currently using the Inspiralizer and loving it.
- Sad story: the cooked zucchini noodles are not delicious as leftovers. They’re just not. You could try to convince me otherwise in the comments but I probably wouldn’t believe you. So make this and eat it right away, or else store everything separately and prepare each serving just before you eat it.
- You could spiralize other vegetables and use them in place of zucchini. Sweet potatoes? With the avocado sauce? I am definitely feeling that.
Pasta Love in three, two…
Print
Burst Tomato and Zucchini Spaghetti with Avocado Sauce
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Burst Tomato and Zucchini Spaghetti tossed with a simple, creamy, vegan avocado sauce. This healthy recipe is ready in 30 minutes!
Ingredients
- 3 cups yellow and red cherry tomatoes
- 2 zucchini, spiralized
- 4 ounces whole wheat spaghetti (optional – see notes)
- Parmesan for topping (but skip this if you’re vegan, obvs)
Avocado Sauce:
- 1 avocado
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley
- 3–4 green onions (green parts)
- 1 garlic clove
- juice of 1 lemon
- freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pulse all sauce ingredients together until smooth. Set aside.
- Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- Heat the cherry tomatoes in a large skillet over medium high heat with a very quick drizzle of olive oil. Gently shake the pan to get them moving (you might want to grab a lid for this – they really start to spatter when the juices hit the hot oil). Continue cooking until tomatoes are roasty-looking and the skins are split or loosened. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Add the zucchini to the same pan and toss for 1-2 minutes, until tender-crisp. Add the spaghetti and the avocado sauce. Toss until combined. Season with salt and pepper, top with reserved tomatoes and Parmesan if you like that sort of thing. Serve immediately.
Notes
Okay, so if you’re going SUPER HEALTHY on us, you could skip the pasta. We made this without pasta as a side for grilled chicken during an especially ambitious post-new-year’s-resolution meal, and even with JUST THE ZUCCHINI, it was still super delicious.
However, if you were making this without the chicken, I wouldn’t go for the zucchini-noodles-only approach. The pasta makes it more of a meal in and of itself.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Lunch
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: zucchini noodles, zoodle recipe, pasta recipe, healthy pasta
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our favorite avocado recipes page. Check it out!
this recipe was a miss for us. used all fresh ingredients – didn’t use the regular pasta – and even made homemade meatballs to go with it. the sauce was too bright – maybe my lemon was too big? loved the way the tomatoes “popped” and the flash cooking of the zoodles. super pretty tho.
I absolutely love any pasta sauce recipe that doesn’t involve red or white sauce, as they both don’t agree with me so much.
This was really delicious! I ended up having to add some pasta water to the blender to get the sauce mixed properly, my avocado was on the large side and may have created an ‘off’ ratio to the liquid ingredients. I’m also extremely surprised at how filling this was. I was expecting to not be totally satisfied without some kind of protein but a small/medium bowl of this filled me right up without feeling too heavy! I’m definitely adding this one to my rotation.
Thank you for another great recipe. Going to make this tonight as a side dish with avocados that I split and froze.
I have a bunch of rotini pasta I need to use up. Do you think I could just sauté chopped up zucchini and add it to rotini pasta instead of spaghetti noodles?
Yes, that should work!
Can you make the sauce ahead of time? How would you store it? On counter for same day or refrigerate?
If we were to make it ahead of time, we’d suggest making only about 1 day prior because of the avocado. We’d store it in an air tight container in the refrigerator.
This looks so delicious! Wondering what kind of food processor you’re using? There are sooo many out there… Thank you!
We use this one! https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-DLC-10SY-Classic-7-Cup-Processor/dp/B01AXM4SB6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1482954652&sr=1-5&keywords=cuisinart+food+processor&linkCode=sl1&tag=12magicalfoodprocessor-20&linkId=8e341061b27a368953853b9a1629fb1b
Aren’t I lucky! I love left over zucchini zoodles! Loving leftovers!
Thank you for sharing such a delicious & healthy recipe!! This tasted as good as it looks – and was oh-so-satisfying!! The creamy avocado sauce provides such a beautifully silky coating for the pasta & zucchini. I subbed in fresh basil as I didn’t have parsley, and also added chicken for protein. This is also a great way to use up fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden. Delicious!
So happy to hear you enjoyed this, Melinda!
I use a julienne peeler to make my zucchini noods, they come out perfectly. I also dislike buying one-use products, and LOVE the julienne peeler for carrots in asian salads etc. too. I also split my pasta and zucchini noodles! best way to do it. cant wait to try this!
I’m not a whole wheat pasta kind of person (the texture is weird to me) but, I see it has been 4 years on since the first reviews and I just started using veggie based pasta for all my pasta needs (I don’t know if they had veggie based pasta back then or if I just didn’t know about it) and I can’t wait to try this recipe with the veggie based pasta! I just got a spiralizer and I think this will be the first recipe I try.
Enjoy, Janet! 😊
Looks really good. Just one question, I assume the pasta is cooked before adding it to the pan or how would it ever get cooked without turning the zucchini noodles to mush?
That’s right. You can cook the pasta according to the package directions and add the cooked pasta to the skillet with the zucchini.
For the sauce, can I used a ninja blender instead of a food processor?
Hi, Tessa! We think that should work just fine. 🙂
Very good recipe! I skipped out on the pasta and added ground chicken. Thank you.
i find it easy trying your recipe
It will be interesting to try this recipe. Thanks for the detail.
I love this recipe! I made it with all zoodles and no meat, would be good with chicken for those who want it.
Dear Lindsay
Could you tell me the exact type of Cuisinart foodprocessor you’re using please?
Lots of love from a Belgian fan
I learned to do it. Very delicious food. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Such a quick, tasty recipe. The creamy avocado sauce with the burst tomatoes combo is one of my faves.
Your article is really good.it is very helpfull & informative.
I want your review in mine
Wow love the color pop here Perfect meal for summer!
An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker
who had been doing a little homework on this. And
he actually ordered me lunch due to the fact that I discovered it for him…
lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for
the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this
issue here on your web site.
Didn’t have parsley but used all the other ingredients. So tasty!! I’ll be incorporating this into my weekly menu
This was delicious & so easy! I didn’t have parsley, so I used fresh spinach & some cilantro, 2 garlic cloves instead of 1, but everything else was the same…so good, I about licked my plate! Thank you so much!
To be honest, it taste like grass