The Freezer Meal Frenzy staffers aren’t averse to carbohydrates. In fact, our love for mac & cheese is legendary. Unfortunately, carbs aren’t diet-friendly, which is why it’s nice to have some carb alternatives in the freezer. Trader Joe’s Zucchini Spirals are tailor-made for people who are trying to cut back on pasta.
We were a little bit worried when we heated these spirals on the stovetop. Because the zucchini is frozen, you’ll see a lot of water in your pan as this cooks. While we thought we might have to drain the noodles at first, most of the water wound up evaporating by the time we were ready to eat. The process took about 10 minutes, and we did have to keep an eye on the spirals the entire time.
Zucchini spirals are designed to be a pasta substitute, which means you can pair them with all kinds of ingredients. You can combine them with Mexican spices and make a healthy taco pot, or you can grab your favorite tomato sauce and enjoy a bowl of low-carb spaghetti. We decided to keep things simple and ate our noodles with nothing but butter, salt, and pepper.
The consistency of these spirals isn’t perfect — you’d probably get better results from fresh zucchini — but it still tastes really good. The noodles have some of the same natural sweetness that zucchini does, but it’s very mild, and that flavor could easily be masked with the right toppings. The consistency of these spirals is really close to actual pasta, especially if you prefer softer spaghetti to al dente noodles.
If you’re trying to cut carbs from your diet, and you expect to be eating a lot of spiralized zucchini, you’re probably better off with a spiralizer. You’ll get better and faster results from an actual zucchini. If this is something you’re only going to be eating every once in a while, however, Trader Joe’s Zucchini Spirals are a pretty smart buy. They’re tasty plain, but we can see ourselves enjoying them in all sorts of ways.
To learn more about the cooking instructions, ingredients, or nutritional content for these Trader Joe’s frozen zucchini spirals, check out our package scans below.