My Favourite Snapper and Tomato Zoodles

Serves 2

Growing up, I lived on pasta! It was my absolute favourite dish for any occasion. However, over the years, I’ve noticed that eating pasta regularly can make me feel sluggish and tired and it can even mess with my digestive system. Enter: zoodles. For those who aren’t familiar, zoodles are zucchinis that have been peeled or ‘spiralised’ to resemble noodles/pasta.  To me, zoodles have a very similar texture to spaghetti, and they carry any types of sauces beautifully! The trick is to only add them into the sauce at the very last minute so that they become immersed in all of the sauce but still retain a bit of a bite. I treat my zoodles as regular pasta, adding them to Bolognese, tomato-based sauces or even some simple olive oil and garlic combinations. Toss through some cooked snapper or pan-fried prawns and you’re onto an absolute winner! 

Here’s the recipe for my favourite zoodles dish:

Ingredients:

·         1 brown onion, diced

·         1 capsicum, sliced

·         1 tin diced tomatoes

·         1 punnet cherry tomatoes, cut into halves or quarters

·         3-4 zucchinis, ‘spiralized’

·         Olive oil

·         Garlic, minced

·         ¼ cup Olives, cut in half

·         2-3 cups spinach

·         2x 150g-200g snapper fillets

·         Salt, pepper, chilli flakes (optional)

·         Capers (optional)

·         Dash of Worcester sauce

Method:

1.       Sautee onion and garlic in a pan until the onion goes translucent

2.       Add the tinned and fresh tomatoes and capsicum and mix through

3.       Add a dash of Worcester sauce and other desired seasoning and let simmer on low heat until it begins to resemble a tomato-based sauce (you can add a dash or water or couple tablespoons of tomato paste to either dilute or thicken the sauce if required)

4.       Meanwhile, put zucchinis through a spiralizer and set aside

5.       Place some olive oil in a separate pan and once hot enough, pan fry snapper fillets until cooked through

6.       Keep stirring the sauce until it has reached desired consistency

7.       Stir through spinach until it all cooks down

8.       Add capers (optional) and olives

9.       Flake apart the cooked snapper and add it to the sauce

10.   Finally, turn the heat of the sauce back up to high and quickly mix the ‘spiralised’ zucchini through just so that it takes on the heat and the flavour of the sauce

11.   Take off the heat and serve immediately

12.   Top with chilli flakes (optional)