Cajun Style Zucchini Pasta

I love Cajun food. It is perfectly spicy and full of bold, vibrant flavors. 

With Mardi Gras going on, I wanted to fix a Cajun-inspired meal for dinner tonight. But, then again, any reason is a good reason to fix Cajun food. Yum.

First, I chopped my veggies: 1 yellow bell pepper, 1 onion, 2 stalks of celery, and 4 cloves of garlic.

Then I chopped up 2/3 of a Hillshire Farms Beef Kielbasa sausage. It would have been fine to put all of it in the pasta, but I wanted to save the rest to cook with breakfast tomorrow morning.

Next I poured about two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large saucepan and turned the heat onto the medium-high setting. Once the pan was hot and the oil was shimmering I added the veggies, sausage, and 1 teaspoon of dried thyme.

I gave it a stir, and put the lid on it to cook until the onions were translucent.

Yay, it's time to add more ingredients!

Next I mixed in one 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes and one 8 oz can of tomato sauce.

I gave it another good stir and mixed in 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 1 teaspoon Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, a dash of salt, and a couple twists of my black pepper grinder.

After another good stir, I added 1/2 cup of heavy cream. If you prefer to use half and half instead of the cream, it should be fine.

One more good stir and it is ready to simmer for a little bit. This is a great time to make your zucchini into noodles. I used my spirelli from Gefu. My sister gave me this fun gadget on my birthday last year, and I think it is pretty cool. It makes feeding vegetables to my family much easier. This pile of zucchini noodles is from three medium zucchinis.

After the zucchini were "spiralized" I added them to the sauce in the pan.

I stirred the zucchini into the sauce and then put the lid on to let it cook. I have found it is easiest to stir in the noodles using a pair of tongs. That keeps the sauce from slopping over the side of the pan.

When the zucchini looks cooked, but still has a slight crunch to it, it is done. It should look like this (below).

Now it is ready to be scooped onto the plate. A couple slices of toasted and buttered crusty bread complements this meal perfectly. Delicious vegetable goodness!

Let me know if you make this, too! I hope you enjoy the recipe.

-Bridget :)