Garden Zoodles with Creamy Kale Sauce
When kale is quickly blanched in boiling water and whizzed in a blender with cashews, it transforms into the most creamy, luscious sauce. Keep this sauce in mind when cooking chicken and fish, but it’s also perfect for tossing with spiralized veggie noodles. Here we use a combination of sweet potatoes and zucchini, also called “zoodles.” Spiralize whatever vegetables you like — butternut squash, parsnip and carrot “noodles” would be great choices.
Q: Why so many spiralized vegetables in Brain Health Kitchen?
A: By turning vegetables into “noodles” and serving them like we would pasta, we increase the amount of vegetables in our diet. The MIND diet recommends one serving of vegetables each day in addition to one serving of leafy greens. The Mediterranean diet also emphasizes eating several servings of veggies each day.
Vegetable noodles are more filling than pasta, so we are brains are satisfied with even a small plate. Veggie noodles are often called “zoodles” because they are often made from zucchini. Zoodles of all kinds taste great, add texture and flavor, and can fool our brains into thinking we are digging into a big comforting bowl of pasta.
Brain Health Kitchen tip: When introducing zoodles to your family, start by replacing half the pasta in a recipe with zucchini noodles. Eventually you’ll be replacing all the pasta with some type of zoodle. Your waistline will thank you. Your pancreas will thank you (because it doesn’t have to crank out as much insulin.) And your brain will thank you!
Happy zoodling everyone!
PS: I have tried every spiralizer on the market and am partial to the Oxo brand. It’s durable and lightweight; I’ve packed it in my suitcase and taken it to dozens of cooking classes. The blades are designed to be removed without touching the extremely sharp areas. And — this is key — it has a good suction mechanism to keep it from moving around on the counter as you spiralize. This is especially important with sturdy vegetables like butternut squash.
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- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil plus more to finish
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and flattened with a knife
- 1 pound lacinato kale ribs removed (about 2 bunches)
- 1/4 cup raw or roasted cashews briefly soaked in water
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon
- kosher or sea salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Pinch of crushed red pepper to taste (optional)
- 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium zucchini spiralized
- 2 sweet potatoes spiralized
- 1/2 cup coarsely grated Parmigiano-Reggian
Ingredients
For the Sauce
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- Bring a large pot of generously salted water to boil. Add the kale and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Lift the kale out of the water using tongs, allowing most of the water to drip off. Transfer the hot kale to a blender.
- Place the olive oil and garlic in a small saucepan and warm over low heat until the garlic starts to sizzle. Cook until the garlic is soft and turns light gold, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
- Add the olive oil and garlic and a ladleful of the kale cooking water to the blender. Blend into a thick puree, adding more water if needed to get the blender going.
- Drain cashews and discard soaking water. Add cashews to the blender.
- Add lemon juice and zest, salt (start with ½ teaspoon) and a few turns of the pepper grinder. Blend until very smooth.
- Taste; add more salt, pepper or lemon juice to your liking. Add crushed red pepper if desired. Set aside.
- Depending on how many servings you are making, you may want to cook the zucchini and sweet potato noodles in 2 batches. Place a large skillet over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add the olive oil and reduce the heat to medium. Just when wisps of smoke escape from the olive oil, add the veggie noodles. Sauté in the olive oil until some of are brown and crisp; some will still be soft and others will be lightly browned.
- Once all the noodles have been cooked, return them to the pan. Add enough kale sauce to coat, along with a splash of cooking water and almost all of the grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and cook until all are coated and bright green.
- Serve drizzled with more olive oil and sprinkled with the rest of the cheese.
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