Cheesy Zucchini Noodles +Tips to Avoid Watery Noodles!
If you want to make zucchini noodles at home, follow this step-by-step process! I’m sharing all my tips for how to avoid watery zucchini noodles so you get perfectly cooked zoodles every time!
It’s no secret I love my spiralizer. While I’d never give up pasta forever, zucchini noodles are a nice way to get in some extra veggies. While I love eating this spaghetti swap, I wanted a zucchini noodle recipe that wouldn’t be so soggy. So I’m sharing a delicious zucchini noodle recipe and my tips for avoiding watering zucchini noodles.
If you love adding more veggies to your plate, but you want to figure out how to avoid watery noodles, you’ve come to the right place!
Here are my tips to avoid soggy zucchini noodles:
- Don’t overcook the noodles, otherwise, they’ll get soggy. I like mine to have a slight crunch, sort of like al dente pasta.
- After spiralizing your zucchini noodles, sprinkle with a bit of salt and let them sit in a colander for 10 minutes. It’ll help get rid of some of the excess moisture. If I’m short on time, I’ll skip this step but it does seem to help! After resting, pat them down with paper towels.
- Get rid of the “seedy” noodles. These strands come from the very center of the zucchini and they have a high water content, which can make the rest of your strands soggy.
- Use smaller zucchini which are firmer and have fewer seeds. Larger zucchini have a higher water content so they’re more likely to be watery.
- Roast your tomatoes long enough to remove the moisture. Again, if you’re short on time you could skip this step and use jarred sun-dried tomatoes. Just make sure you’re getting rid of the moisture from the tomatoes so they don’t make your final dish too wet.
How to Make Cheesy Zucchini Noodles
One cause of soggy zucchini noodles is the tomato sauce. All that liquid combined with the moisture in the zucchini noodles means you end up with a bit of a soup on your plate. Of course, I couldn’t give up tomatoes entirely. So I decided to roast them in the oven for maximum flavor without extra moisture being added to the dish.
Side note: how cool is this colander? It hooks in the corner of the sink! Alex got it for me for Valentine’s Day! The man knows how much I adore kitchen accessories. It’s perfect for draining my zucchini noodles so I can still use the sink.
Once the zucchini noodles have drained for a few minutes, saute them for just a minute or two. Be sure not to overcook them!
When the zucchini noodles have just started to soften, I drain any moisture in the pan, then toss them with the cheese.
Once the noodles are coated in cheese, I add the tomatoes and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Dinner is served! This recipe turned out so well- it might be my new favorite way to eat zucchini noodles!
I like to shred my cheese with a microplane so it’s super fine and it coats the noodles evenly. Try one like this!
How to Make Zucchini Noodles Without a Spiralizer
No spiralizer? No problem! Use a vegetable peeler to create thin ribbons of zucchini noodles. They might end up a little more like fettuccini than spaghetti, but they’ll still be delicious! The key is to keep them uniform in size so that they all cook at the same rate.
Cheesy Zucchini Noodles
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 2 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Avoid soggy zucchini noodles by following my tips and enjoy these deliciously cheesy noodles, instead!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1 large zucchini or two medium zucchini
- 1 teaspoon olive oil plus more for drizzling
- 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 oz parmesan cheese, grated
- Pinch of red pepper, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Slice the cherry tomatoes lengthwise and spread them out on a baking sheet.
- Drizzle with olive oil and pop them in the oven for 25 minutes or until they’ve shriveled up a bit.
- If using a spiralizer, slice the ends of the zucchini off so you have a flat surface on each end.
- Spiralize into strands, cutting them every 6 inches so they don’t get too long. If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can achieve the same effect with a mandoline slicer or even a vegetable peeler. You’ll want to shave the zucchini into thin ribbons.
- Discard the “seedy” strands. These strands come from the very center of the zucchini and they have a high water content, which can make the rest of your strands soggy.
- After you’ve spiralized or turned your zucchini into ribbons, sprinkle them with a bit of salt and let them sit in a colander for at least 10 minutes. This will help get rid of some of the excess moisture.
- To cook them, saute them in 1 teaspoon of olive oil for a 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Be careful not to overcook them or they’ll become soggy.
- Drain any excess moisture that may be in the bottom of the pan.
- Once the zucchini noodles are cooked, stir in the ricotta cheese and toss until coated.
- Once the tomatoes are roasted, combine them with the parmesan cheese, and red pepper.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 200
If you love Parmesan, you have to give this a shot. Make sure you use a high-quality cheese. I used fresh Parmesan and it makes all the difference! The cheese really shines here and you don’t have to worry about soggy noodles!
Looking for more healthy noodle ideas? Think beyond zucchini and try one of these healthy pasta swaps!
What’s your favorite way to eat zoodles?
These are my kind of zoodles! So fresh and delicious!!
The salt works but instead of sautéing them just bake the zucchini for a few minutes with nothing maybe sprinkle of garlic but that works the best of the texture for the noodles so that don’t get soggy 😄
I’ll have to try baking them! Thanks for stopping by!
I am really loving zoodles! It’s the only thing I have used my spiralizer to do so far, but it’s more than worth the space in my cabinet.
I have been trying to adjust recipes to account for the extra water in the zucchini, but I intend to add the salting, resting and straining to this as well! I haven’t had much luck cooking them in the oven, as they son’t Seem to get much drier. I notice that creamy sauces work better with zoodles, but it’s a real dietary trade-off.
Do you think that making a tomato sauce super thick would balance out the watery nature of the noodles?
I struggled forever with zoodles making sauces too watery. Honestly, now I don’t cook my zoodles at all then just place the sauce on top of them to warm them up and it works great!
I’ve heard that’s good! I don’t like them quite as crunchy but I bet it’s nice that you don’t have to worry about them being soggy!
This looks SOOOO good! 🙂
That colander looks awesome! I love how little space it takes up in your sink! Your zucchini noodles look delicious!
Thank you for sharing that! I love zucchini and grow so much of it every summer but that is the one trick I haven’t learned. I love zucchini noodles so I can’t wait to try this out and enjoy them when they’re not so watery.
These look Yummy! I love all the tips for the zoodles too 🙂 Thank you for joining the Sunday Fitness & Food Link-Up. Pinned & Yummed!!
Love the colander! I actually hate zucchini (ha) so I never eat it.
I’ve been trying to find a good vegetable noodle recipe, thank you for sharing. I hate soggy noodles.