Why Dietitians Love Zoodles with Meat and Grain Sauce

This nutrient-packed dinner idea comes from Jenna Volpe, RDN, an Austin-based registered dietitian. She recommends swapping out traditional pasta noodles for noodles made from zucchini as a way to sneak in more veggies.

And no pasta dish is complete without a hearty sauce, so Volpe recommends whipping up a tomato-based sauce packed with protein-rich ground turkey and complex carbohydrate-rich quinoa.

How to Make This Meal

This meal comes together in three simple steps, and there are plenty of shortcuts (like using store-bought sauce and zoodles) that’ll help speed up your prep time.

1. Use a vegetable spiralizer to make your own zoodles or buy them pre-cut. You can either enjoy them raw or warm them up.
2. Combine tomatoes, cooked ground turkey and cooked quinoa for the sauce. You can make a batch of homemade sauce or purchase a store-bought spaghetti sauce, such as Rao’s.
3. Combine zoodles and sauce together and serve.

1. It’s High in Protein

2. It’s a Good Source of Vegetables

3. It’s Lower in Saturated Fat

4. It’s Rich in Dietary Fiber

This meal puts vegetables at the center of the plate in an appetizing way, that this recipe is also customizable. If you enjoy regular spaghetti noodles, you can use those instead of zoodles — just up the veggies in other ways. Alternatively, you can swap out noodles for whole-grain pasta, which is typically high in fiber and other nutrients.

You likely already have a jar of spaghetti sauce on hand, so pick up some zucchini, ground turkey and quinoa on your next grocery run to make this wholesome dinner.

Source: livestrong.com©

Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto