Zucchini noodle “bolognese”

I know my way around the vegetable world. But since I typically tend to make plant-based meals or ones with something simple like chicken or fish, working with meat is something I’m still learning about. Fortunately I have friends and family I can call or text in a pinch to say “is it supposed to look like this!?”

When I do choose to cook meat it’s very important to me that it be naturally- and ethically-raised. So what I like to do is go to my local farmers’ market, or The Healthy Butcher if I can’t make it to the market, and see if something catches my eye or they have something to recommend. If you haven’t tried this I highly recommend it. The butchers/farmers are incredibly knowledgeable and can give you all kinds of tips on what to do.

The last time I was at The Healthy Butcher there was ground elk in the freezer for a pretty affordable price so I thought, “why not?” And I worked it into this zucchini noodle pasta I’ve made a few times over the last couple of months. But by no means do you need elk meat to make this dish! If you have ground pork or beef, or even chicken or turkey, don’t be shy. I’ve made this “pasta” with a few different types of ground meat and they’ve all turned out great!

Zucchini noodle “bolognese” recipe

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 400 grams ground meat of choice (this time I used elk but beef or pork will work great)
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 large cooking onion, finely diced
• 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 cups mushrooms, chopped
• 3 cups shredded kale
• 2 large zucchinis (or 3 smaller), spiralized using a vegetable spiralizer
• 2/3 cup tomato sauce (more or less to desired sauciness)
• Sea salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Heat coconut oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add ground meat. Cook stirring and breaking up regularly until browned. Remove meat to a plate, leaving the juice and oil in the pan. (This is important — there’s a lot of flavour in there — don’t lose it!) Depending on the fattiness of the meat you used you may need to add more coconut oil but you can decide that as you go if the veggies are looking too dry.
2. Add the garlic and onion to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes or until onions start to get tender.
3. Add in the mushrooms and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add in kale and combine everything until well softened.
5. Add in zucchini noodles, ground meat, tomato sauce and sea salt. Stir to combine. You may need to use a fork and spoon to separate the noodles.
6. Getting the noodles to the right tenderness is a little tricky. So keep stirring and tasting the noodles until they are at your desired tenderness — somewhere in the realm of 5 minutes is usually good.
7. Serve and enjoy!

I’ve had quite a few friends wondering about getting a spiralizer and they’ve asked me what I think of mine. My answer is always “I love it and YES you should get one!” I feel it’s a little bit of an investment for years of yummy dishes and increased veggie consumption. So for me it was definitely worth it. I got the World Cuisine Tri-Blade Spiral Vegetable Slicer and I have gotten so much use out of it. You can spiralize zucchinis, sweet potatoes, carrots, and a whole lot more. And believe me, it’s a lot of fun and pretty darn tasty!!

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Tell me:

Do you have a vegetable spiralizer? What do you think of it? Or would you like to get one?