Got zucchini? Low carb zucchini noodles are a perfect summer meal for anyone following a keto diet and much quicker to make than traditional pasta.
This recipe tosses lightly sautéed zucchini noodles with pesto, fresh corn and tomatoes for a keto friendly, gluten-free dinner that can be served as the main course or a side dish.
Jump to Recipe
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
Want to make this recipe perfectly the first time? I want to help with that. So, check out this Table of Contents to see which sections of this post will help you the most.
Jump to:
- 🤓 What are zucchini noodles?
- ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- 🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
- 🔪 Recommended Equipment
- 🤩 4 Easy Steps to Make Zucchini Noodle Pasta
- 👩🍳 Tips for Success
- 👩🍳 How to Keep Zucchini Noodles From Getting Soggy
- 💡Ideas for Possible Variations
- 🧊 Can I make this dish ahead?
- Low Carb Zucchini Noodles with Pesto, Corn, and Tomatoes
Zucchini noodles are great any time of year, but especially in summer when we crave light food that requires little cooking. This is one of my favorite recipes to make when I'm trying to follow a low-carb diet.
🤓 What are zucchini noodles?
Zucchini noodles are long spaghetti-like strands that can be made using a variety of tools. They offer a perfect way to make a low carb version of your favorite pasta dishes usually made with traditional pasta.
A great tool for making these noodles is a veggie spiralizer, such as the Paderno Spiralizer. If you don't have a spiralizer, however, you can use a vegetable peeler, a hand-held mandolin, or a julienne peeler. This post on making veggie noodles covers all the ways to make them and includes photos for each method.
You can spiralize other vegetables too. Butternut squash, sweet potatoes and even beets are some of my favorite spiralized vegetable noodles. This Spiralized Beet Noodles with Whipped Feta is amazing. Or these Spiralized Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Dates.
It's a great way to enjoy enjoy more veggies on your plate.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- Low Carb. This easy zucchini noodle recipe is perfect for anyone following a keto diet since 1 cup of raw zucchini is only 2.3 grams of net carbs.
- Simple ingredients. No fancy ingredients to hunt down.
- Quick and easy. Make it in about 15 minutes (if using a veggie spiralizer).
- Comfort food. Adding pesto, cheese, corn and tomatoes make this a summer comfort food dinner.
- Flexible. Change out the ingredients if you want. For example, eliminate the Serrano pepper or add gremolata breadcrumbs.
- Side or main dish. Serve this dish as either a main dish for vegetarians or a side dish for the meat lovers at the table.
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
The secret to many dishes often lies in the ingredients. For example, some ingredients make a huge difference to the flavor and/or texture of the finished recipe. And purchasing the right ingredients can save you valuable time in the kitchen.
This list only covers ingredients that require some notes. For all of the ingredients, measurements, and directions for this low carb zucchini noodles recipe, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Fresh Zucchini - or store bought zucchini noodles. Medium zucchini are best for spiralizing, Small zucchini may not fit well onto the spiralizer and large zucchini can be too watery with too many seeds.
- Serrano pepper - for a touch of heat. For less heat either substitute jalapeño pepper or eliminate this ingredient.
- Pesto - either homemade pesto using fresh basil or purchase you favorite kind.
- Cherry tomatoes - or grape tomatoes.
- Fresh Corn - This time of year fresh corn is easy to find. If you live in an area of the world where this isn't possible, frozen corn will work fine. If using frozen corn, first thaw it and remove any moisture from the corn with a paper towel.
🔪 Recommended Equipment
Having the right equipment for recipes makes prepping much easier. If you want more fuss-free prepping and cooking, check out my updated list of favorite kitchen tools and equipment.
Spiralizer - This is the best way to make veggie noodles, but this post outlines alternative methods with photos.
Sharp chef's knife
Large skillet - If you use a smaller skillet, you risk having too many zucchini noodles in the pan at once which contributes to steaming the noodles and making them soggy.
Cheese grater - or box grater.
🤩 4 Easy Steps to Make Zucchini Noodle Pasta
👩🍳 Tips for Success
These are my top tips for making any low carb zucchini noodle recipe.
- Spiralizing your own zucchini gives you the freshest noodles.
- Zucchini gives off a LOT of excess moisture, making the noodles watery and bland. Add them to the skillet last, and cook them only long enough for them to be al dente.
- Don't ever cook zucchini noodles for longer than one minute. See the below tips specifically for keeping zucchini noodles from getting too watery.
- If you have a lot of spiralized zucchini to cook, consider sautéeing it in batches.
👩🍳 How to Keep Zucchini Noodles From Getting Soggy
Soggy zucchini noodles is the most common problem in making zucchini pasta dishes. Here are my 5 DON'Ts:
- Don't salt the zucchini pasta as you cook it. Salt draws out a lot of moisture.
- Don't cover the zucchini while the noodles sauté. This traps the moisture.
- Don't overcrowd the pan. If you have a lot of zucchini noodles to cook, do them in batches.
- Don't cook the noodles for too long. Once they fully relax into the pan and glisten a bit, They're done. They shouldn't need to cook longer than 1 minute.
- Don't use too low of heat. If the heat is too low, the noodles end up spending too much time in the pan. Medium heat is best.
💡Ideas for Possible Variations
- Replace the Serrano pepper with a pinch of red pepper flakes.
- Top the finished pasta with Panko bread crumbs when serving. I like to use these gremolata breadcrumbs that I almost always have on hand.
- Finish the pasta dish with a squeeze of lemon to brighten this dish.
🧊 Can I make this dish ahead?
No. Making this dish ahead and rewarming is a guarantee for soggy noodles. However you can store spiralized zucchini in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
Low Carb Zucchini Noodles with Pesto, Corn, and Tomatoes
Equipment
- box grater
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium shallot minced
- ½ teaspoon Serrano pepper seeded, minced
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 cup fresh corn kernels about 1 ear of corn
- 1 tablespoon pesto
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cups spiralized zucchini 2 - 3 medium zucchini
- 10 cherry tomatoes halved
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- lemon wedges optional
Instructions
- Spiralize the zucchini.
- Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat and sauté the shallot and Serrano pepper until the shallot lightly browns, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
- Add the corn, pesto, and salt and toss to coat everything with the pesto. Sauté for 30 – 45 seconds.
- Add the spiralized zucchini noodles. Sauté for about 1 minute while tossing the noodles in the pan to mix with the shallots, corn, and pesto. Continue to toss until the noodles relax into the pan and just begin to glisten. Don't cook longer than 1 ½ minutes.Immediately turn off the heat and toss the zucchini pasta with the cherry tomatoes and cheese, about 20 -30 seconds. You only want to warm the tomatoes.
- Serve immediately with a flurry of freshly ground black pepper, and some extra Parmesan cheese and lemon wedges on the side.
Notes
Nutrition
Rita Held
Seems I always read your recipes when I'm hungry! I really prefer not to buy another kitchen tool. Can I make zucchettis with a mandolin? The strips may not be curly, but the flavors should be the same. Humm?
Valerie Cathell Clark
I NEED a spiralizer!!! I'm jealous: Lake Tahoe? NICE! Your dish is beautiful and I would eat this any time! YUM!
Suze
Any reason we can't use real basil and real garlic? I don't think the tubed stuff is available by me, and I didn't find any nutritional information on their website. This looks like a winner to me though! Will be trying it soon!!
lizthechef
I thought I had a spiralizer but I don't - I think you recommended a specific one a while back - what was the brand?? Thanks xo
Tara Noland
This looks delish, sure wish I had a spiralizer!! Now it is a must buy!!
mjskitchen
I've seen so many amazing recipes with the spirilizer lately that I must have one! We're trying desperately to cut back on pasta and this is a great way to do it. You recipe looks awesome! Looks at all that garlic, chile pepper and herbs! Love it!
Rob
The perfect food for summer and after a session of stand-up paddle boarding.