Sesame Almond Butter Zucchini Noodles

Sesame almond butter zucchini noodles are a hearty and healthy main dish recipe, making use of a spiralizer. This vegetarian main dish recipe is thick, creamy, and coats the 'zoodles' beautifully. It's a 20-minute meal that's adaptable to what you have on hand!

I’m sorry (okay, not sorry) for all of the spiralizing I foresee gracing the blog in the coming months. Truth is, I got a spiralizer! Pretty sure the fruits and veggies hanging out in my fridge are shaking in their proverbial boots right now. And when it came to this sesame almond butter zucchini noodles, the zucchini hogging up my produce drawer took the fall.

Each time I spiralize something I’m kind of amazed at how good it is. Generally I’m not picky when it comes to vegetables buuuuut I will say I don’t exactly lose sleep over missing out on the traditional zucchini side dishes when presented with them out at dinner. This spiralizing business though…never have I ever downed multiple zucchini in a day and wished I had more. Until now! That. Blows. My. Mind.

One of the first meals I broke out my spiralizer for were these sesame almond butter zucchini noodles. An easy-to-make sesame almond butter sauce is poured over stir-fried zucchini noodles and mixed until the “zoodles” are evenly coated. This healthy meal takes about 20 minutes from start to finish, which totally makes it weeknight-friendly. Yessss!

This sauce (in loose form) is one of my favorite things to whip up when I’m feeling like an Asian-inspired dinner, or to be honest if I have NO idea what to make. Most of the time I have all of the ingredients on hand, but I’ve done plenty of substitutions. I’ve used peanut butter in place of almond butter, chili garlic sauce for the sriracha, subbed in some rice vinegar if I didn't have enough soy sauce, etc. You can really adapt this sauce recipe and make it yours.

Besides the magic of getting me to down a bushel of zucchini, these sesame almond butter zucchini noodles have a knack for filling me up for hours afterwards. That may sound silly because this meal is comprised of zucchini, a food that’s super low in calories and not exactly thought of as 'filling'. This sesame almond butter sauce adds a heartiness and a good deal of heft by coating these zucchini noodles to make it more substantial. Plus serve these zucchini noodles hot or serve them cold straight from the fridge - they’re great either way!

I have a small apartment kitchen so I resisted getting a spiralizer for a while because cabinet space is at a premium around here. I have a KitchenAid stand mixer, so this (affiliate link -->) KitchenAid spiralizer attachment is ♥. I expected there to be a learning curve when it came to getting uniform, long spaghetti-like noodles, but for real, once I snapped the blades into place and flipped the switch on, a zucchini was 'zoodled' in less than 20 seconds. If there’s anything to point out (besides it not taking up much room!), vegetables longer than about 7” may need to be cut in half in order to fit in the attachment, but I don't think that's anything particular about my model. But even so, an extra few seconds is no biggie, especially when it comes to quick meals like this one, right?

Come geek out with me over spiralizer recipes and follow along with my Spiralizer Recipes board over on Pinterest.

Sesame Almond Butter Zucchini Noodles

Sesame almond butter zucchini noodles are a hearty and healthy main dish recipe, making use of a spiralizer. This vegetarian main dish recipe is thick, creamy, and coats the ‘zoodles’ beautifully. It’s a 20-minute meal that’s adaptable to what you have on hand!

3.94 from 15 votes

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Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: Fusion

Prep Time: 12 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 3 servings

Calories: 335kcal

Author: Alyssa

Ingredients

• ▢ 5-6 zucchini
• ▢ 2 tablespoon olive oil, more as needed

For the Sauce:

• ▢ ¼ cup creamy almond butter
• ▢ ¼ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
• ▢ 2 ½ tablespoon hoisin sauce
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoon sriracha, to taste
• ▢ 2 teaspoon sesame oil
• ▢ ½ teaspoon minced garlic
• ▢ ⅛ - ¼ teaspoon five-spice powder, to taste
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢ Sesame seeds for serving
• ▢ Sliced scallions for serving

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Instructions

• Spiralize zucchini and set aside. I peeled them first, but you don't have to.
• In a bowl, whisk together all all sauce ingredients and set aside.
• Add olive oil to a large non-stick skillet set over medium heat. Add zucchini noodles and let cook for about 4-6 minutes, stirring frequently to allow all of the zucchini noodles to become tender. Add additional olive oil as needed.
• Once noodles have softened and are tender (like cooked spaghetti), remove skillet from heat and pour in sauce. You may wish to pour out any excess water released from the zucchini as it cooked from the skillet before continuing so the sauce doesn't thin too much. Stir to evenly coat the noodles with the sauce. Serve with a garnish of sesame seeds and/or sliced scallions.

Video

Notes

The zucchini noodles will reduce in size as they cook. You'll want to use a large skillet to accommodate all of the zucchini, however if there's too much zucchini for your pan, you can stir fry them in two batches, adding a proportionate amount of sauce to the size of each batch.

Because zucchini tend to vary in size, pour in enough sauce to generously coat the quantity of zucchini noodles you have.

The five-spice powder adds a unique flavor to this sauce, but can be omitted if you don't have it. If using, I'd suggest starting with ⅛ teaspoon and seeing if the flavor is right for you before adding up to an additional ⅛ tsp.

Nutrition

Calories: 335kcal | Carbohydrates: 23.5g | Protein: 10.2g | Fat: 25.4g | Saturated Fat: 2.9g | Sodium: 1067mg | Potassium: 1077mg | Fiber: 6.3g | Sugar: 10.6g | Calcium: 50mg | Iron: 5.8mg

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Nutritional information is provided as an estimate. As it can vary due to many factors (brands used, quantities, etc.), we cannot guarantee its accuracy.

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