My love for pasta—and, to be honest, all carb-heavy foods, is bittersweet. Because while one recent study found that eating pasta won’t make you gain dramatic amounts of weight, my own personal experience suggests otherwise. As a compromise, I’ll often switch out the starchy base for zucchini noodles–one cup comes to about 20 calories, compared with about 220 calories in one cup of pasta.
MORE: 25 Easy, Filling Dinner Recipes Under 500 Calories
The easiest way to make zucchini pasta is using a spiralizer (you’ll see some options to shop above), but you can also make ’em using a vegetable peeler. Just cut lengthwise down the zucchini using the peeler, stopping when you reach the seeds, then slice the zucchini into thinner strips until it resembles spaghetti. From here, you can either follow one of the 18 amazing recipes in the slideshow ahead, or keep it simple and cook in a skillet with olive oil over medium heat for one minute. Then, add some water and cook for another five minutes, or until your #zoodles are soft. Enjoy!
