Vegan Puttanesca Zoodles

 Vegan puttanesca zoodles are an easy and healthy low carb and gluten free alternative to puttanesca pasta.  The sauce is full of bold flavours like olives, chillies, garlic and capers with the addition of cannellini beans to round out the meal with some protein.

I REALLY love a good plate of pasta with sauce, but it’s not something we want to eat regularly as the pasta has little nutritional value. Lately, we have been loving trading off the pasta portion of noodle meals for healthier zucchini noodles made with our vegetable spiralizer. We really loved the results in our Vegetable Pad Thai, so we thought we’d try our hands at lightening up pasta puttanesca with zucchini noodles.

If you already love zucchini noodle recipes, this dish is an easy vegan zoodle recipe to add to your collection, and it is quick enough for a weeknight meal.

What is puttanesca?

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca is a traditional Italian dish that typically includes tomatoes, olives, capers, garlic, and anchovies. Depending on the region, it can also be a bit spicy or include various other ingredients. It’s a really tasty, salty and garlicky kind of sauce and it is 100% full of flavour.

We wanted to make our version a vegan dish since it was *almost* there naturally, and we just had to figure out how to substitute the anchovies without losing some of the distinct flavour that they bring to the dish. With a little research, we decided that we would give the addition of dried seaweed a try!

If you think this sounds strange in a pasta dish, you are definitely not alone - I had my reservations about it too, but I was definitely willing to give it a try. It turns out that the dried seaweed was an excellent choice! It brings a bit of that salty sea flavour that the sauce would be missing without the anchovies!

The seaweed is COMPLETELY optional, but if you have it lying around at home, its worth an add. Since we like to eat a healthy amount of protein at every meal, we also wanted to add some to this vegan puttanesca, and white beans were a natural fit since we already love their mild flavour in other Italian dishes.

Ingredients for Vegan Puttanesca Zoodles:

• Olive Oil
• Garlic
• Red onion
• Capers
• Fresh oregano
• Chopped tomatoes
• Black olives
• White beans
• Zucchini
• Chilli flakes
• Artichoke hearts

Optional (but suggested) Ingredients or Toppings:

• Parsley
• Dried seaweed
• Hemp hearts

Equipment:

• spiralizer

How to Make Vegan Puttanesca Zoodles:

Chop your red onion, garlic, olives, and oregano. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the seaweed into a fine powder (you can also skip this altogether).

Add the oil to a large pot and heat to medium high heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes, or until the onions have softened and start to turn translucent. Add the capers, black olives, chilli flakes, and oregano. Saute for another minute or two.

Add the tomatoes, beans, artichokes and ground seaweed (if using) to the pot and bring to a boil. Return the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

While the sauce is simmering, heat a large frying pan over medium high heat. Add the zoodles to the pan as toss frequently to heat the zucchini.

Divide the zoodles between 4 plates and top with sauce.

Garnish with parsley, hemp hearts, nutritional yeast, or whatever other toppings you enjoy!

Dietary Considerations and Accommodations

This recipe for easy bean salad is suitable for the following diets:

• vegan and vegetarian
• clean eating and whole thirty
• gluten free, dairy free, and allergy friendly

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More recipes you’ll love!

If you like this recipe for vegan puttanesca zoodles  you might want to check out some of our other awesome vegan recipes:

• Thai red curry tofu
• Vegan Nicoise Salad
• Vegan Singapore noodles

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