How to make zucchini pasta with indian spiced tomato sauce

Put the black cardamom pods and the green cardamom pods in a mortar and crush them gently. You just want to crack the pods slightly.

Put the cardamoms and bay leaves and cloves into a small bowl and set aside for later. Chop two serrano chilies finely and put them in the bowl with the cardamoms and cloves.

Finely chop 2 shallots set them aside.

Peel and thinly slice some fresh ginger. You want 6 thin slices.

Place them in the bowl with the other stuff and toss in a a cinnamon stick.

Mix together the paprika and nutmeg and set them aside.

In a skillet or kadhai heat the butter or ghee.

When it's nice a foamy toss in the cinnamon, bay leaves, shallot, cloves, cardamoms, serrano chilies, and ginger slices.

Stir them around for about 1 minute then add in the shallots.

saute everything together for a few minutes until the shallots start to turn a light brown.

Add in the tomatoes, paprika and nutmeg.

pour in 1 cup of water.Bring everything to a boil, then put a lid on the pot and turn it down to a simmer. Stir it occasionally.

The idea is to get the tomatoes soft and pulpy and the sauce should decrease in volume by half. This takes about 20 to 25 minutes.

When the sauce has reduced turn off the heat and let it cool a bit.

Take the cooled sauce and either run it through a food mill, (I don't have one) or a fine mesh strainer placed over a bowl.

Press the tomato sauce through the mesh leaving the pulp and the whole spices behind.

Pour the reduced sauce back into the skillet or kadhai.

Add in the salt...

..the dried fenugreek leaves (methi)...

..and the cream. I used 1/2 a cup but you can use up to 1 cup if you find you need it.

Rewarm the sauce, blending in the new ingredients. Watch the temp as you don't want this stuff to curdle! Simmer it gently and then set it aside. Time to make the zucchini pasta.

Take a couple of large zucchini and wash them well. Cut off each end, then cut the zucchini in half.

Place it on the spiralizer using the noodle blade and turn.

Bingo! Pasta!

Now you can take this pasta and heat it in a bit of butter to soften it...(we tried it that way.) It only takes a minute or two....or...

You can also use the thinly sliced zucchini noodles raw, which we also did. Actually we preferred the vegetable pasta raw as it gave the perfect al dente feel to the dish.

Set a serving of pasta up in a pasta bowl, and drizzle the warm spicy tomato sauce over it.

Sprinkle the finished serving with a crumble of peanut powder and you're good to go.

This is a great substitute for a grain pasta, as it's gluten free and not at all heavy. My pasta loving husband wolfed this down, he couldn't believe he was actually loving this unpasta pasta.

Either way, this is a lovely quick dish, guaranteed to please. You can make the tomato sauce ahead of time and warm it up when you're ready to serve.

Try it on your pasta lovers and see what happens. That dang spiralizer is the best thing I've bought in ages... and kids love to watch the veggies go round and round, an absolute win win recipe.