Meal Prep with Spiralized Vegetables

Meal Prep with Spiralized Vegetables

Find everything you need to know about spiralized meal prep on this page! On this...

Meal Prep with Spiralized Vegetables

Find everything you need to know about spiralized meal prep on this page! On this page, you’ll find information on:

  • Spiralizing for Meal Prep
  • Spiralized Meals That Work Best for Meal Prep
  • Meal Prepping with Zucchini Noodles
  • Some Meal Prep-Friendly Recipes to Get You Started

Spiralizing for Meal Prep

Meal prepping with spiralized veggies is a great way to commit to a healthy week and get your veggies in!

Here are the general guidelines for the most common spiralizable veggies, followed by more information on meal prepping with spiralized zucchini (it’s a bit trickier!):

Apple

Raw Storage: Apples instantly brown in the refrigerator, so seal tightly in a Ziploc or airtight container (try to avoid letting much air in), but only expect a couple days in the refrigerator.

Beet

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 5 days in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

Bell pepper

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 5 days in the refrigerator.

Broccoli

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 5 days in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

Butternut Squash

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 5 days in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

Cabbage

Raw Storage: Lasts up to 1 week, can be frozen.

Carrot

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 1.5 weeks in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

Celeriac

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 5 days in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

Chayote

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container over paper towels or napkins, lasts up to 5 days in the refrigerator, shouldn’t be frozen.

Cucumber

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container over paper towels or napkins, lasts up to 2 days in the refrigerator, shouldn’t be frozen.

Daikon

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 10 days in the refrigerator, shouldn’t be frozen.

Jicama

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 7 days in the refrigerator, shouldn’t be frozen.

Kohlrabi

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 5 days in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

Onion

Raw Storage: Use as you would normally with a sliced onion.

Parsnip

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 10 days in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

Pear

Raw Storage: Pears instantly brown in the refrigerator, so seal tightly in a Ziploc or airtight container (try to avoid letting much air in), but only expect a couple days in the refrigerator.

PLantain

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 4 days in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

Rutabaga

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 7 days in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

Sweet potato

Raw Storage: Seal in a bowl covered with ice water, up to 2 days, can be frozen.

Turnip

Raw Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 7 days in the refrigerator, can be frozen.

White Potato

Raw Storage: Seal in a bowl covered with water, up to 2 days (to avoid browning), can be frozen.

Zucchini & Summer Squash

Storage: Seal in an airtight container, lasts up to 5 days in the refrigerator, shouldn’t be frozen.

Meal Prep with Spiralized Vegetables

Spiralized Meals that Work Best for Meal Prep

If you’d like to make the complete meal in advance, these types of meals save the best:

  • “Raw”/cold dishes: If the dish requires no cooking or is better served chilled, it’s a win-win!
  • Spiralized rice: since rice dishes tend to not be made with vegetables that release excess moisture, they’re perfect for prepping completely in advance and reheating. They work well in the freezer, especially!
  • Non-zucchini noodle dishes with ragu-type sauces: If you’re making a bolognese over sweet potato noodles, this can easily be reheated and enjoyed. However, if you’re making a zucchini noodle dish with a bolognese, the water content in the zucchini noodles will thin out the bolognese and take away from its originally delicious flavor.
  • Non-zucchini noodle dishes with sauces: Similar to the ragu-type sauces tip above, any type of sauce can be used with spiralized vegetables and can be reheated for lunch.
  • Dishes with no sauce: If your recipe doesn’t call for a heavy sauce, that’s perfect – it will reheat well. Bonus points for recipes with cheese – the heated cheese will melt nicely into the noodles. This works with zucchini noodles!
  • Pesto pastas: Pesto sauces work well with all vegetables and reheat well. Actually, the olive oil in the pesto works to our advantage with zucchini noodles. Throw in some kale, spinach or another vegetable that will absorb excess moisture, and you’ve got a pesto pasta, fit for lunch!
  • Noodle dishes or soups that don’t call for zucchini noodles: If you make a big batch of a spiralized noodle bowl or soup, you can definitely reheat it for lunch – unless it uses zucchini noodles. I don’t recommend this, since zucchini noodles will again thin out the soup and make it less flavorful altogether. However, it’s total personal preference, at the end of the day.
  • Wraps and sandwiches: any noodle, any ingredient – collard green wraps (or any type of sandwich wraps) work brilliantly! Just wrap tightly in tinfoil or paper and secure with tape when packing for lunch.
  • Spiralized salads: As long as there aren’t any fruit noodles in there, spiralized salads generally work well if they’re pre-made, as long as they don’t include zucchini or cucumber noodles (which can cause a soggy salad!)
  • Casseroles: If you eat hearty lunches, then you’re in luck: non-zucchini noodle casseroles work fabulously when reheated.

Meal Prepping with Spiralized Zucchini

Please note, spiralized zucchini should not be frozen. When you go to defrost it, it will wilt and become a mushy mess.

It can be tricky to prepare a zucchini noodle dish in advance, due to the vegetable’s high water content (the longer the zucchini sits in a sauce, the more moisture releases and the more watery/mushy the dish will get). This applies for cucumbers as well.

If you’re saving leftovers from a spiralized dish that includes zucchini noodles, here are a few go-to tips:

1. Reserve Some Extra Sauce While Cooking

The best way to make a recipe and save leftovers for the next day is by portioning out some of the sauce, placing it in a container and putting it in the fridge to save. Then, if you’d like to make this for lunch or dinner the next day, just heat up the reserved sauce, cook the zucchini noodles, and pour the sauce over the zucchini noodles.

For example, you could make a big batch of my Gluten-Free Turkey Meatballs with Zucchini Noodles, while reserving a serving of the tomato sauce and meatballs, and then reheat the sauce & meatballs. While the sauce and meatballs heat up, cook the zucchini noodles in a skillet and then pour the sauce and meatballs over the zucchini, once ready.

2. Make it Raw

I have many recipes for yummy meals that don’t require cooking of zucchini noodles. These can be saved in the refrigerator for later and don’t require reheating and therefore, the noodles won’t release too much water. For example, my Avocado and Tomato Zucchini Noodle Salad with Basil Vinaigrette.

3. Bring seasonings if you’re having a soup

If you just made a delicious zucchini noodle soup, like the Minestrone from Inspiralize Everything or this Bacon and White Bean Zoodle Soup,  here’s a tip: pack extra seasonings. As the zucchini sits in the soup, its moisture will dilute the broth, making it less flavorful. For example, if you’re making my Vegan Zucchini Noodle Ramen, add an extra dash of soy sauce before serving. Other seasonings that can be appropriate are salt, pepper, spices, hot sauce, etc.

Some meal-prep friendly spiralized recipes to get you started…

Meal Planning

If you’d like us to do the work for you, we’ve got you covered! Check out our Spiralized Meal Plans, here.

Happy, healthy planning!

Inspiralizer

with love, Ali

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comments

  • Can you talk a little bit about how to use frozen noodles? Should you defrost or can you just throw them on the heat. Specifically, I'm interested in how to use the rice out of the freezer. Thanks!
  • This is awesome, Ali! Thanks for responding to my comment on your last post. Thanks for all the tips and all that you do. Going to try to start meal prepping with my spiralizer for next week and use these tips for lunches and dinners. Thanks!
  • Hi I fancy I've met you before? My contact information on my bio [img]http://picrure.downloadt.top/img_1/im-yours_25.jpg[/img] https://goo.gl/379tjJ
  • Love your Blog! I have spiralized sweet potato and stored it in an air tight container for 5+ days, without any complaint. I then cook the noodles with a little oil over the stove and find them perfect! You write that they should only keep for a couple days, stored with water & ice. Is there any reason the way I am doing it is unhealthy or wrong? Thanks!
  • Which appliance would you use to make sweet potato noddles? I love your sweet corn/ sweet potato Mexican dish but don't know how to make the S/P noddles. I only have a food processor.
  • I am curious why you don't recommend freezing zucchini noodles. I freeze mine raw and then add to stir fries or tomato sauces. They have always held up well.
    • Zucchini noodles tend to release water in the fridge. It can change the texture of the noodles, especially if you originally had them raw. Salting them to get water out beforehand may help, as could drying them out between paper towels as you would in making zucchini bread. That said, if you don't mind a little extra water in the dish or drying out raw noodles prepped to cook, it shouldn't make a difference. I use them all the time, too. Some people are pickier than others.
  • For storage of apple or pear noodles, try dipping them in a dilute vinegar solution immediately after shoving. It prevents oxidation, thus preventing them from turning brown and mushy. This is the trick to having sliced apples on a fruit tray
    • Not shoving. That's supposed to say spiralizing. Darn autocorrect