Boodles: Healthy Alternative to Traditional Pasta

When you have a day off and want something that you have never tried before.

For those who love pasta dishes but feel guilty about carbs in them... these butternut squash noodles is a heathy and fresh alternative to traditional spaghetti.

Bursting with flavours, colourful and fresh for a light weekend meal. Click the title to read more!

Ingredients that you will need:

• 1 butternut quash (if you don't have spiralizer or live very busy life, you can find pre-cut butternut squash in your local shop. Definitely available in all Sainsbury's and Tesco Extra, so you shouldn't struggle to get it)
• 1/3 jar of black olives
• 1/3 jar of egg-free, dairy-free green Pesto (again this one can be found in majority of shops)
• 4 garlic cloves & dry parsley
• some black pepper
• a little bit of light olive oil
• and absolutely NO salt, there is plenty saltness in olives and pesto :)

The recipe & my Saturday off

I will start by telling you a little bit more about myself. There is so many things I love in life that it's pointless for me to list them, but I could definitely tell you the thing that I hate most - it's laziness. 

I love keeping myself busy. I am a full time student, finishing my honours year at University of Strathclyde, I have two jobs, I wake up early every morning so I could do my yoga, and I still somehow find time for my social life and good food. 

So anyway, long story short, my Saturdays are usually very busy, I work in marketing office from 10am to 5pm, and then I have another job in a restaurant that starts at 6pm. So I was quite chuffed last Saturday when I got an unexpected evening off, and finally had some time for shopping (I am quite passionate about Unicorns, so I was more than happy when I found that top!) and new creations in the kitchen.

​I never made vegetable noodles before, but this recipe came to my mind when I was shopping. I haven't had pasta dish in a while so I thought why not to make one. And then I remembered that I always wanted to check what's that all fuss about spiral vegetables about, but never had a chance. Not to brag, but shopping + cooking experiments went very successfully that day. 

Okay, now an actual recipe:

If you are making your own butternut squash strips, process slices of it through spiralizer and steam them for 10 minutes. If you bought already made bnoodles you can either steam them for 10 minutes, or make few cuts in a bag and microwave it for 3.5 minutes. I tried both, and there is not that much difference to be honest, so if you live a busy life, don't worry too much and grab the bag in the local shop. 

Heat up large frying pan with a tiny bit of light olive oil, chop op the olives, mix them with pesto and garlic, then fry for 5 minutes on medium heat. Stir in butternut squash, add in pepper and parsley and cook for 7 more minutes constantly stirring. 

When serving, put some extra pesto and parsley on top. And that's really all you need for a super fresh, light and vegan-friendly diner! 

I hope you enjoyed reading!  Let me know how do you like your vegetable noodles in the comments below!

With love
VK