Gluten Free Fettuccine with the Spiral Slicer

I love fettuccine, but I am totally gluten and gain free and long for something delicious that will replace it without all the carbs that regular and rice-based, gluten-free fettuccine have.

Yesterday, I was looking through my newest cookbook from Dr. William Davis on staying gluten and grain free and he suggested the spiral slicer for making such great tasting things as zucchini fettuccine. I had a zucchini sitting in the refrigerator just waiting for me to cook it, and his suggestion sounded really good.

I checked on Amazon to see what they had, and ordered this one. There were several other varieties, but I preferred this one because of the fact that it had the handle to turn and a container for the slices to go into. When it came several days later, I couldn't wait to use it.

According to the directions, the zucchini has to be at least 1 inch wide and you cut it down to 3.5 inches in length or shorter. Stand it up on the center peg in the container with the blades, set the striping blade to slice, put the handle part on, centering the zucchini under the handle, and turn the handle clockwise with a little pressure.

When you remove the blade compartment from the base, you discover a mound of thinly-sliced zucchini in a continuous spiral.

I sauteed it in a small amount of olive oil for 2 or 3 minutes, added some of my favorite gluten-free tomato sauce, sprinkled some grated Parmesan and Romano cheese on top, and cooked it for another minute to warm up the sauce and melt the cheese.

I started to take a picture of it for this lens, but I couldn't resist and ate the whole thing instead.

These pictures are from the second time I made it. It is just so quick and easy, that I tend to make it several times a week when I'm hungry ad want something in a hurry.

I was just looking at the box, and it says you can use it on all sorts of veggies from carrots to yams and it even suggests it for making onion rings and coleslaw.

I think it is time for me to look in my refrigerator and see what other tempting thing I can make for dinner.

While experimenting, I decided to try to make the spaghetti strands. When you turned the lever on the side of the slicer part counterclockwise, to the left, it raises the fine wires inside the slicer compartment and produces the fine strands of zucchini.

When it is moved clockwise, to the right, it produces the thin continue spiral. Either way, the results are quick and easy.

Using the spaghetti strands, I didn't have to cook them in advance. I just put them in the saucepan with a little olive oil and topped them with my favorite tomato meat sauce.

I heated this up for about a minute or two depending on how long it takes to heat up the meat.

This was such a treat. It was a very tasty alternative to starchy pasta and it is grain and gluten free. I've used spaghetti squash as another alternative, but I think this tastier and definitely much faster to prepare.

I decided to give carrots a try. The instructions said that the vegetable should be at least one inch wide. I only had carrots that were narrower than that, but I gave it a try anyway.

It still worked fine and I could see where kids would have a lot of fun eating these.

I could also see that they have the advantage of cooking quickly because of being so thin. Sometimes when I add carrots to soups or sauces, they take much longer than the rest of the vegetables. This would help equalize the cooking time.