This slow cooker meal combines zoodles with marinara sauce and your choice of meat. With only 3 main ingredients, it’s a low-carb alternative to spaghetti.
Zoodles cooked in the crock-pot
This is very similar to my Slow Cooker Slawghetti recipe. Actually, it’s pretty much the same recipe except I swapped out the broccoli slaw for zoodles. Do you have a zoodle maker? I got my SpiraLife Vegetable Spiralizer off Amazon. It’s really easy to use and clean. As you can see, I prefer to leave the skin on the zucchini after I give it a good washing. You can chalk it up to personal preference or laziness. The zoodles will release some liquid while they cook but it’s not so much that you need to strain it. The ratio I use is 18 ounces of pasta sauce for every 4 medium-size zucchini.
In general the 3 base ingredients stay the same:
- 4 zucchini
- 1 lb meat, browned (I used lean ground turkey by Jennie-O)
- 18 ounces marinara sauce
Outside of that, this is one of those recipes that you can get creative with. You can use many different types of vegetables: onion, bell pepper, mushroom, etc. I had some leftover baby portobello mushrooms so I used those this time. For the meat I used ground turkey but other substitutions are ground pork, beef; it doesn’t necessarily have to be ground meat either. If you happen to have 1 lb of chicken breast, chop it up and throw it in there (browned first).
If you don’t have a favorite Italian seasoning to use, here is one for you:
- 4 zucchini, spiralized
- 1 lb meat, browned
- 18 ounces marinara sauce
- 4 ounces mushrooms
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- Add all the ingredients to the slow cooker.
- Stir to mix well.
- Cook HIGH 2-3 hours or LOW 4-6.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive money if you make a purchase using this link. For more about my disclosure policy see here: https://fitslowcookerqueen.com/about/disclosure-policy/, https://fitslowcookerqueen.com/about/disclosure-policy/affiliates/
So I’ve made this twice. The recipe, I thought, has too much garlic. Go with one clove unless you are crazy for it. I also didn’t us all the Italian seasoning, but mixed in season salt, onion powder and basil. The boyfriend and his daughter adore it! I recommend making it with marinara sauce with a unique flavor like caramelized onion. Very good also with homemade garlic bread!
It would be more helpful to give approximate pounds of zucchini in the recipe, rather than “4 medium.” Plan to try it this weekend!
Saw this on Instagram and can’t wait to try it out this week.
Let me know how it turns out. I hope you enjoy it!