Zucchini for pasta and beef skirt for burgers: the low-carb, gluten-free way of cooking

Zucchini for pasta and beef skirt for burgers: the cooking style that dodges gluten and sugar

Swapping wheat noodles for zucchini strips is not a fad diet: it is a way of eating pasta without gluten, without phytates and with a low glycemic index. The recipe, which has been circulating for years among those who have turned low-carb cooking into a lifestyle, relies on a simple trick: julienne the zucchini, cook it for three or four minutes in the microwave in a silicone mold and then mix it with the sauce. No salt during cooking, because salt dehydrates it and robs it of its pasta-like texture.

According to those who practice it, the result is that the sauce clings better than with traditional pasta and the diner does not notice a change for the worse. One participant says his family, who tried it for the first time, no longer buys wheat pasta. The substitute has jumped from zucchini to cauliflower, grated as rice or as the base of a Russian salad without potato, and from there to eggplant in lasagnas and to a béchamel made with cream and cream cheese instead of flour.

The real cost of eating without flour

The economics of the change are twofold. On the one hand, zucchini and cauliflower are cheap vegetables compared with industrial pasta. On the other, one participant points out that the fattier cuts are usually the cheapest at the counter: by his calculation, beef skirt rarely exceeds 6 euros per kilo, and with it you can make burgers that rival a steak tartare. The same participant attributes that price to the fat phobia of the average consumer.

Savings are not the only argument. The shopping list these cooks work from includes lactose-free milk, eggs, bacon, fresh cheese, tuna, mussels, asparagus and pork rinds. No bread, no sugar. Bread, they admit, is a hard drug: one of them eats stale bread, almost from the day before, so that it is hard to chew and the craving does not spiral.

From gin and tonic to fried egg: tricks to avoid slipping

The repertoire extends to small pleasures. To replace the tonic in a gin and tonic, which according to one participant contains about 23 grams of sugar per 25-centiliter can, they suggest sparkling water with a few drops of lemon, plus a drop of quinine to recover the authentic bitterness. For salad croutons, ham rinds cut into bits. And for a fried egg without bread, the technique one forum member describes is to separate the white, eat the white first and then load the whole yolk onto the fork to burst it with the tongue: all the flavor of dipping bread concentrated in one bite.

The gadget for making zucchini spaghetti, a spiral slicer, sells from 4 euros on Amazon to 15 in physical stores, according to the links participants share. Some have gone back to the old-fashioned grater because zucchini sizes do not always fit the spiralizer. The recipe has crossed borders: one participant says his Chinese vvife was surprised that in Spain broccoli is boiled, when in her cooking it is stir-fried raw with bacon, garlic and chilies.

The ham industry and the gap for home cooking

Wariness about ultra-processed foods has led some to make their own cooked ham: half a kilo of minced chicken thighs, two hard-boiled eggs, strips of piquillo pepper and spices, with soy sauce or Worcestershire to make up for the blandness. The breast turns out dry; the thigh is the key. The result replaces mortadella and industrial cooked ham, whose additives breed distrust.

The movement has its own price logic: one participant argues that a quality cooked ham costs as much as a Joselito, so the homemade alternative wins. It is not a nutritional revolution, but it is a form of responsible consumption in response to inflation and distrust of labeling.

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The question left hanging is whether this repertoire will survive the next fad. For now, zucchini keeps beating pasta in some kitchens, and beef skirt sells like a bargain. If the price of fatty meat rises, the math will change.