Spicy Asian Zucchini Noodles with Sesame Shrimp

Do you zoodle? Or swoodle? If you’re not quite sure what we’re talking about, it’s time to get up to speed on the world of spiralizing!

When the whole low-carb/paleo/carbs-are-going-to-kill-you trend began some years ago, we noticed that some recipe developers and bloggers were getting very creative, turning veggies and fruits into noodles. How brilliant! Sure, pasta is fine and probably not going to kill you (at least if you choose something like quinoa, garbanzo bean, or brown rice pasta), but it’s pretty much empty calories and not a whole lot of nutritional value. And now, making vegetables into pasta is pretty popular.

We’ve spent some time working out our own recipes. We love using our spiralizer and are hooked!

If you don’t know, a spiralizer is a machine that turns ordinary veggies, like sweet potatoes and zucchini, into long noodles. Back then, there weren’t many brands to choose from. We bought, and still use, a Paderno spiralizer. But now, you’ve got plenty of choices in stores and on Amazon.

First up was making zucchini noodles, a.k.a, zoodles. Super easy to spiralize and a great replacement for pasta coated in a homemade pesto, bolognese sauce (check out our kick-ass bolognese in our cookbook), or in our version of Pad Thai. One of our most popular recipes on the blog is our Pecan Bolognese over Zoodles. We get people every single week who message us about this being one of their all-time favorite recipes  . Thanks for the love!

Next we tried out sweet potato noodles. Equally easy to spiralize and equally delicious when paired with a whole host of different sauces. You can also spiralize cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, onions, parsnips, beets, turnips, rutabagas, eggplant, jicama, apples, pears, melon. The options are endlesss.

We probably make zoodles every week. It’s become the default base to many of our recipes. But today’s recipe brings together two different spiraled veggies – zucchini and sweet potato – because, why not? 

These noodles play so nicely with Asian flavors – sesame oil, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, cilantro, green onions – and just a little heat from some red chili flakes. If you can’t handle the heat, you can always leave them out. We’ve decided to top this gorgeous pile of zoodles and swoodles (sweet potato noodles) with some jumbo shrimp, but you can swap the shrimp out for any protein YOU like. Chicken, salmon, halibut, and extra firm, sprouted, organic tofu would be equally delicious in this recipe.

Ready to get cooking? First, you’ve got to get spiralizing!