Yesterday on Facebook, some Canadian friends of mine posted a meme from the Toronto Public Library that said, “Pick up the nearest book to you, turn to page 45. The first sentence explains your love life.” When I picked up the book nearest at hand, here’s what I saw:

Yep, I had a cookbook sitting next to me, since I’ve been meaning to meal plan and pull some new recipes for a while now. Well, ever since reading that, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And since I had everything at home I needed to make my version of the original recipe, I decided to make it for a tasty, vegetarian lunch today.

Zucchini Noodles with Artichoke and Tomato Marinade

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts
• 1/4 cup marinade from artichokes
• 10 grape tomatoes
• 1 green onion, finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/8 teaspoon liquid from minced garlic
• 1 teaspoons lemon juice (more or less to taste)
• 1 teaspoon basil paste
• 1 medium zucchini (mine was 5 oz.)

Tools and Utensils:

• Spoon or fork to remove artichokes from jar 😉
• Measuring cup/spoons
• Cutting board/mat
• Sharp chopping knife
• Grater, mandoline, or spiral vegetable cutter
• Plastic container or bowl with lid

Directions:
Measure out approximately 1/2 cup of marinated artichoke hearts and chop roughly. Be sure to get the leaves chopped a little more finely—and if you notice any that seem particularly tough, go ahead and pick them out. Add chopped artichokes and 1/4 cup of marinade from jar into bowl. Quarter the tomatoes and finely slice the green onion, and add to bowl. Stir in garlic, liquid from garlic jar, lemon juice, and basil paste.

With your cutting tool of choice—or with a sharp knife—julienne or “noodle” your zucchini. It’s your choice whether you leave the skin on or take it off. Since this is a raw preparation, skinning it might be preferable since some zucchini can have tough or woody skin. If using a spiral vegetable cutter, make several 1/4″ inch slices about half-way into the zucchini every couple of inches—that will make a natural breaking point for your zucchini noodles so that you don’t end up with one massively long strip. Or you can cut them to size later.

Add zucchini to bowl. Cover and shake gently but well enough to ensure marinade coats everything. Refrigerate 2 to 4 hours before eating.

So yummy—tangy and crunchy, with just a touch of sweetness from the tomatoes. Artichokes have a component that makes everything taste sweeter, too, so while the first couple of bites may seem super tart, give it a moment, and soon the sweetness will shine through as a great counterbalance to it.

This would make a great salad/side-dish for a cookout or picnic during the summer, since nothing in it will spoil by sitting out for a while. And the longer it sits, the tastier it will get!

Nutritional Information:
This makes two lunch-size portions, or four good-sized side dish portions.

For the full recipe: 17.1 grams total carbs minus 8.8 grams fiber = 8.3 net grams carbs
For half the recipe (lunch-size salad portion): 4.2 net grams carbs
For quarter the recipe (side-dish portion): 2.1 net grams carbs

UPDATE:
Because this turned out to be so tasty, I made it again on Wednesday night for lunch on Thursday. This time, instead of using the spiral cutter for the zucchini, I used the fine julienne cutting blade on my mandoline—and I have to say I like the size much better. The spiral cutter gives more of an angel-hair style of cut while the thin julienne blade cut it just slightly thicker than standard spaghetti. I also used a slightly larger zucchini this time, which isn’t a problem since I ended up with so much “juice” left in the bottom of the container when I finished the first dish of it.