In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m in love with The Noodler. I use the Spiral Slicer with just about any fruit or vegetable that I can. The big surprise to me about this is that I would now rather have spiral sliced zucchini than pasta in many dishes.
This salad is one example of that. In the past, I ate plenty of pasta salad in the Summer. Last week I discovered we had no pasta in the house. Last Summer, panic would have ensued. But not now! I just grabbed a couple zucchini from the crisper drawer, gave them a spin in The Noodler and was ready to make this salad in less time than boiling pasta. So it’s a time-saver, budget-friendly in season AND is a healthy upgrade to regular pasta!
Here’s a quick tip about the Spiral Slicer. Cut a notch in the zucchini as shown in the photo below. Instead of long noodles which can be hard to wrangle on your fork, you’ll get semi-circles instead. If you cut a notch on both sides of the zucchini, you’ll get half moons which closely resemble elbow macaroni.
But there’s more goodness to this salad than just the zucchini noodles. The dressing, which is very simple, is creamy thanks to an avocado. It’s a surprise ingredient, those who don’t know it contains avocado would never guess. I love the simplicity of a 3-ingredient dressing!
I like this salad so much I made it three times in the past week. I’m ready for zucchini to start overtaking my garden. Welcome, Summer. Now do your thing to my garden so I can make more of this salad!
Click Below for the Recipe!
I have a spiral slicer but have never used it. For a short while back in 2004, my husband and I flirted with a local RALF community. (RALF = Raw And Living Foods) The purchase of the slicer was part of our effort to tool up for raw foods prep, but we lost interest in the whole project when gut problems pushed us away from raw foods altogether 🙁
Now that we’re both gluten-free and starting to lean toward a more paleo diet, I’m thinking “Ralf” might not be such a bad guy after all.
So, I just wanted to let you know that though it was this recipe for dressed “pasta” salad that brought me here, it is your love of the “noodler” that’s going to keep me here for a while 🙂
–Mae, 52 and OTP in the ATL
Thanks for dropping by, Mae! While I don’t use my Noodler/Spiralizer exclusively for raw foods, it sure does work well for raw dishes. I like making sweet potato noodles with it and giving them a quick stir fry. I also like roasted beets spiralized. This gizmo gets a steady workout in my kitchen. 🙂
Thanks for this great recipe–I did not know until 5 minutes ago that I *need* this in my life. Does it store well? I’m wondering if the avocado discolors over time and if moisture releases from the zucchini… Because I’m thinking this is more than I can eat in one day, and my kids will most likely try it and then claim to not like it.
I keep it for a day or two, but as you mentioned the zucchini does make it a bit more water-y. The avocado doesn’t discolor much as it’s blended in well. I hope you enjoy it!