Today’s recipe is a light pasta lunch, perfect for Spring with fresh, lemon zest, and (of course) plenty of parmesan and olive oil. It has plenty of veggies too; spiralised courgette, baby spinach, black olives and baby plum tomatoes. It’s vegetarian, and makes the perfect amount for a single serving! It’s quick and easy too, all coming together in around 20 minutes.
I Thought it was about time I work on more Spring recipes to make use of all the fresh fruits and veggies that are almost in season. Hence this pasta with plenty of freshness. It also makes a lovely light lunch without even turning the oven on, which is perfect for the Summer. After all, who wants to turn the oven on when its already a million degrees outside?
This is also the first recipe on my blog to make use of a spiralizer! I chose to use a mixture of spiralised courgette and pasta as sadly our spiraliser is missing the smallest blade. Therefore, I actually ended up with something resembling courgette pappardelle. This actually seemed to make it a little easier to twirl around the fork though, so it all worked out!
One thing that does bug me about spiralised courgette is how Americans call it ‘zoodles’ with zucchini being the courgette. However, I firmly believe that courgetti spaghetti is a much better name and refuse to refer to it as zoodles now. I encourage everyone else to do the same (and hey, if the funny name makes your kids more willing to try it then bonus points!).
I did choose to stick to whole wheat spaghetti to keep this as healthy as possible (while still using about a gallon of olive oil and a whole block of parmesan…). However, you could just as easily use regular spaghetti or stick solely to courgetti spaghetti! Using the courgette won’t only make it healthier too, it’ll also speed up the cooking time dramatically as you don’t need to boil a pan of water etc – just cook them through in a pan with olive oil and you’re good to go!
Finally, a quick thank you to everyone who entered the recipe request competition! I have ideas for the 3 winners, but it may be a couple of weeks until any are published. After all, I have to make sure the recipes fit your guidelines, taste perfect, and look great in photos! If you’d like email notifications for whenever I next run a contest (as well as getting notified of new posts), you can sign up here.
Light Olive Oil Spaghetti with Tomatoes & Courgette (zucchini)
A light spaghetti dish that's perfect for lunch, with olive oil, lemon zest, basil, courgette, parmesan and tomatoes. It's healthy, vegetarian, and super quick & easy.
Ingredients
- 60 grams (2 oz) spaghetti, regular or whole wheat
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 small red onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2/3 courgette/zucchini, spiralised
- 25 grams (1 cup) baby spinach
- 1 pinch chilli flakes, adjust to taste
- 8 black olives, pitted
- 8 baby plum tomatoes, halved
- 2 tbsp grated parmesan
- 1 sprig basil, chopped
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp pine nuts
- salt and pepper, to season
Instructions
- Place spaghetti in a pot of boiling salted water. In a separate pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium low heat.
- Once hot, add the red onion and garlic, and sauté gently for 3-5 minutes until softened. Add the baby spinach and courgette.
- Once the spinach is wilted, the spaghetti should be cooked. Drain and add to the pan. Add the tomatoes, olives and chilli flakes, as well as the other 2 tbsp olive oil and the grated parmesan.
- Once all ingredients are cooked through and combined, remove from heat and stir in the basil, lemon zest and pine nuts. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, garnishing with any leftover basil, parmesan, lemon zest and pine nuts.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 1 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1323Total Fat: 55gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 42gCholesterol: 9mgSodium: 760mgCarbohydrates: 183gFiber: 35gSugar: 19gProtein: 45g
All nutrition values are an estimate and may vary.
If you’re looking for more light veggie lunch recipes, try this orzo pasta salad. It has similar flavours, but is also suitable for taking to work or school! Or, for a slightly more filling vegetarian lunch, try these chargrilled veggie & halloumi wraps.
If you try making any of my recipes, let me know on facebook, twitter, or instagram! I’d love to see how they turned out for you! Plus, I regularly post sneak peeks of upcoming recipes!
Oo as a vegetarian myself I’m always on the look out for new, tasty recipes to try out and this certainly looks delicious 🙂
Thanks Helen! It’s my mum’s new favourite recipe on here (after my chilli cheese on toast) – she said she wasn’t particularly hungry and then devoured all of it, so it must be good!
This looks so yummy! I’m definitely going to give it a try.
Thank you! It tastes as good as it looks, I promise!
This looks great! Going to give it a go I think later on in the week!
I’d love to see how it turns out – I’m sure it’ll be delicious! Tag me in a photo if you do!
We often make courgetti spaghetti … amazingly we tried it on the kids and they loved it (it surprised us), so it’s a regular now
That’s great! We don’t make it too much (you never end up with quite the amount you expect! It’s either half a ton or about 3 noodles!) but it’s absolutely delicious in garlic butter with some herbs and parmesan rather than with a heavier tomato sauce!
This looks delicious, I’m always looking for new recipes to try and fancy a change!
I’m glad you like the look of it Laura! I’m the same – I get so bored of eating the same things all the time!
This looks and sounds amazing. I so need a spiraliser in my life. Anything to get more veg into us. I am such a big fan of pasta dishes
Absolutely – plus with spiralisers you can make the prettiest salads! They’re good for so many different things (including curly fries!)
This looks delicious and perfect for a healthy spring lunch. I think the spaghetti bulls it up which stops us from snacking. Love the colours in here too and courgettes are just so delicious in pasta.
Absolutely! It’s perfectly filling for either lunch or for a small dinner – plus it tastes delicious! I’d never tried putting courgette in pasta before this, but I’ll definitely use it more often now!
We’re looking for more light dishes for family meals – so this would be perfect for us as a lite bite in Spring and Summer 🙂
Absolutely – and it’s so easy! Plus you can feed the exact number of people you have by multiplying the ingredients by the number of people – single-serving recipes are so easy to convert!
Courgette is my favourite vegetable and one we eat a lot of. I am so going to make this!
I’m sure it’ll turn out great for you! Let me know what you think!
I could just eat this for lunch right now, it looks delicious
Thanks! It’s so quick and easy that it makes a perfect lunch too – it doesn’t take any longer than a more fiddly salad!
oh that looks amazing, such a fresh spring dish too!
It really is perfect for Spring! The flavours all go so well together that it’s just delicious!
I really like the sound of this recipe. Great for the season.
It really is perfect for Spring! I’m glad you like the look of it!
Ohh this looks absolutely delicious and healthy too – packed with veggies and this is exactly the kind of comforting but still light dish that I would eat for lunch
Laura x
I’m glad you like the look of it Laura! It’s great that it makes a single-serving too because you can either make it just to try for yourself or for everyone in your household without trying to multiply all the ingredients by the same amount etc. – that’s just way too complicated for a quick and easy lunch!
I’m a huge courgette fan so will be trying this one! Looks fresh and colourful- yum!
I’m so glad you like the look of it! It’s absolutely so fresh and colourful – perfect for this time of year!
I will try to do that, thank you very much
I hope it turns out well for you and you enjoy your meal!