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I’m about to show you something weird with a vegetable you guys. Zoodles. Have you heard of them? Better yet, have you TRIED them? Because holy heck, my kids beg me to make them zoodles for dinner and it’s the weirdest thing to ever happen in mah life.
I’ve been on a low carb, ketogenic diet for a bit now and this low carb spaghetti was exactly what I needed a few weeks ago in the midst of a serious pasta craving.
You can buy low carb pasta with zero net carbs, but I’ve been scared. I mean, what are those noodles made out of? I don’t even want to know. But, I do know that a lot of people swear by them. You can find ’em here or you can just make low carb pasta out of the zucchini you grabbed at the grocery store (or picked from your own garden, you show off).
As for a good low carb marinara to accompany this pasta, I totally cheated and used a jar of sauce. I’ve been wanting a good spaghetti sauce, but tomatoes are just naturally high in carbs and when you start adding onions and garlic, things get a little too carby for my keto diet. So, I found Rao’s Homemade Marinara sauce at my local store. It’s only 3 net carbs per half-cup and it’s seriously some amazing jarred sauce. I’m addicted. It’s a bit pricey and I’ve started ordering it on Amazon to save a little money.
If you’re not interested in a jarred sauce and want to get all homemade on me, give I Breathe, I’m Hungry’s recipe a try. I haven’t tried it myself, but it looks amazing!
So, now you’re wondering just how exactly you go about making a zucchini into noodles, right? Well, probably not. By this time, most people have seen spiralized veggies, but just in case, I thought I’d better explain. I use a Paderno Spiralizer and I’m super happy with it. It’s fairly cheap, super easy to clean, and simple to work. It gets 4.5 stars on Amazon from nearly 7,000 people. It’s a good choice. 😉 If you’re on a budget, this handheld spiralizer might be a better option. I haven’t tried it myself, but it also has good ratings on Amazon and is less than $15.
Anyway, these Zoodles are super simple recipe that works perfectly for a keto diet. They’re a riff on my creamy baked spaghetti that the whole family begs for every other week. I was super nervous to serve this recipe with zoodles instead of spaghetti, but everyone got seconds and asked for it again a few nights later. That’s a total win, right?
Notes: Nutrition facts displayed below the recipe. The label shown is based off a marinara sauce with 3 net carbs per half cup. Adjust accordingly if you use something different.
Low Carb Cream Cheese Spaghetti Zoodles
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 15 ounces marinara sauce (see notes above)
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 4 ounces sour cream
- 8 zucchini
Instructions
- Brown the beef over medium heat, breaking it up as it cooks. Once cooked, drain the fat.
- Add the marinara sauce to the skillet with the beef and warm over medium heat.
- Stir in the cream cheese and sour cream until melted and creamy. Turn heat to low and cover pan.
- Wash the zucchini and cut the ends off. Using a spiralizer, cut the zucchini into noodles.
- Place a large skillet over high heat. Spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- Add the zoodles to the skillet (you may need to do this in batches) and cook, tossing often, until the zoodles reach the texture you prefer. The longer you cook them, the softer they get - but they also release more water as they cook. I find that 3 minutes is just enough to take off a bit of the crunch, but keep them from releasing too much water.
- Serve sauce over the zoodles and enjoy!
Kelly Harms says
Delicious! I cut my zucchini into 1/2 inch chunks instead of spiralizing and it came out great. I make this dish a lot now.
Karly Campbell says
Sounds delicious!
GREG D LEONARD says
Awesome recipe. I purchased the zucchini already spiral from my local Publix supermarket. I added a cup of ground
Italian sausage along with the ground beef. Followed the rest of the recipe to the tee. The cream cheese along with sauce gave it a super flavor. This recipe for sure a winner !
Karly says
Sounds delicious with the Italian sausage! 🙂
Lydia Barber says
YUMMY! Just made this WITH the homemade marinara sauce from the site you recommended. It is REALLY good and couldn’t be easier and worked well with recipe. I followed it to the letter. I bought a zucchini noodle appliance off of Amazon and I use it all the time!! Thanks for the recipe.
Samantha I. says
Yum. Will definitely be trying this recipe soon.
As for zoodles, I’ve recently discovered the amazingness of adding some grated parmesan to the zoodles right after cooking them up – you’re right, just 3-4 minutes only. The parm kinda soaks up a little more of that moisture and allows for sauces to “stick” a little bit more on the zoodles.
Karly says
Oh, great tip! I’ll have to try that.
Marcus Ford says
SO yummy
Olivia says
Can you make this without the sour cream?
Karly says
Yep, I think that would work fine. It just won’t be as creamy.
Vickie Miller says
What makes this so high in carbs? It seems everything in the ingredients are no carb, except the marinara sauce. Thanks!
Karly says
Oh, yikes, that was actually off a bit. My recipe plugin calculates nutrition automatically and sometimes it goes a little nuts. I’ve updated it based on 6 servings and it’s 9g net carbs per serving. The carbs are coming from the marinara and the zucchini. 🙂
William Smith says
My mouth is watering right now watching the pictures!
Tonya says
Ok…never mind!! I didn’t read everything! ?
Tonya says
How do you cut your zucchini into a noodle shape? Do you have a certain tool?
Lydia Barber says
Yes, I bought a zoodle making appliance off of Amazon. Inexpensive and also makes “ribbons”.
Tracey McCourt says
How would this work with gluten free noodles? And is there any nutritional information?
Karly says
Cook the noodles according to package directions and the sauce would be great over them. There is a nutrition label below the recipe card.
Erinn says
A simple, but delicious “spaghetti” recipe. I like the addition of the cream cheese and sour cream. I added some oregano, basil, and rosemary to my sauce. I also added sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. Very tasty!
ps. I like to salt my zoodles beforehand and let them sit for awhile like that (covered) – then pat dry. That way, when you cook them, they don’t get so watery and soft. Just a tip 🙂
Karly says
Ooh, I’m going to try that! Great tip on the zoodles!
Stella says
Great recipe, Karly! Thank you! I was on low carb diet for a year and on paleo diet for the last 6 months and zoodles are one of my favorite dishes! My daughters don’t even want to try them so you are really lucky that your kids ask for more!