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15 Minute Garlic Lime Cashew Zoodles

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These 15 minute garlic lime cashew zoodles are a super easy and healthy vegan meal option. This is a snap to make, and the sauce is addictive!

These 15 minute garlic lime cashew zoodles are a super easy and healthy vegan meal option. This is a snap to make, and the sauce is addictive!

This recipe ended up being a bit of a spur of the moment thing, but it all worked out.

I originally envisioned this to be a cold salad, but I realized that making the dressing would be easier if I heated it up, and then it morphed into a warm meal. So glad I went this route.

These 15 minute garlic lime cashew zoodles are a super easy and healthy vegan meal option. This is a snap to make, and the sauce is addictive!

These garlic lime cashew zoodles are surprisingly filling. I only managed to eat half the bowl pictured, and it’s not even a huge bowl.

The cashews as well as the peanut butter in the sauce provide plenty of substance. I had this as an entree, but I also think it would work as a side dish.

These 15 minute garlic lime cashew zoodles are a super easy and healthy vegan meal option. This is a snap to make, and the sauce is addictive!

I spiralized the carrot on the thinnest setting, so it cooks really fast. The zucchini is spiralized on the medium setting and the zoodles are nicely “al dente” when cooking is done.

The easiest way to cook this is by continuously tossing everything in the pan with tongs (or use two spoons) so the zucchini doesn’t overcook and everything gets heated through nice and evenly.ย You only cook the zoodles for about 4-5 minutes, so this recipe is perfect for busy weeknights!

These 15 minute garlic lime cashew zoodles are a super easy and healthy vegan meal option. This is a snap to make, and the sauce is addictive!

The sauce is a combination of garlic, sriracha, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, and peanut butter. As the zucchini noodles release water, it becomes more liquid, coating everything with fantastic flavor.

A sprinkle of cilantro at the end is all that’s needed to complete this super easy meal.

These 15 minute garlic lime cashew zoodles are a super easy and healthy vegan meal option. This is a snap to make, and the sauce is addictive!

Did you know that in the UK they refer to zoodles as “courgetti”? I found that out the other day, and I like it! They refer to zucchini as “courgettes”, and of course it’s a play on “spaghetti”. Clever.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one! ๐Ÿ™‚

This is the spiralizer I used for this recipe.

If you’re into quick spiralizer recipes, you may also like my 15 minute garlic shrimp zoodles recipe.

Here’s a quick video I made to show you how this recipe is done:

Questions? Leave me a comment.

These 15 minute garlic lime cashew zoodles are a super easy and healthy vegan meal option. This is a snap to make, and the sauce is addictive!
5 from 15 votes
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15 Minute Garlic Lime Cashew Zoodles

These 15 minute garlic lime cashew zoodles are a super easy and healthy vegan meal option.

Course Main Course
Cuisine Asian
Keyword garlic lime cashew zoodles, vegan zoodles recipe
Prep Time 8 minutes
Cook Time 7 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 2
Calories 490 kcal
Author Natasha

Ingredients

  • 2 medium zucchini
  • 2 large carrots peeled
  • 3/4 cup cashews
  • 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro chopped

Sauce:

  • 2 heaping tablespoons peanut butter
  • 1/2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
  • 1/2 tablespoon sriracha sauce (or more if you like it spicy!)
  • 1 teaspoon soy sauce
  • Juice of 1/2 lime
  • 2 cloves garlic minced

Instructions

  1. Spiralize the carrots on the thinnest setting, and spiralize the zucchini on the medium setting. Set aside.
  2. Add the peanut butter, hoisin sauce, sriracha sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, and garlic to a skillet on medium-high heat. Stirring constantly, cook it for about 2 minutes or until the garlic has just started to cook.
  3. Add the cashews, zucchini, and carrots. Using tongs or two large spoons, gently toss/lift up the pan contents every 10-20 seconds or so for about 4-5 minutes until everything is lightly cooked and heated through. The zucchini will release some liquid, which will help to make a nice sauce. When it's almost ready, add the cilantro in and toss. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

  • The zucchini I bought from the grocery store were fairly skinny and around 6-8 inches long. Keep in mind that home-grown zucchini is typically a lot larger. Be careful not to overcook this dish, or it'll end up a watery mess.

Calorie information is provided as a courtesy only and should be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee.ย 

Nutrition Facts
15 Minute Garlic Lime Cashew Zoodles
Amount Per Serving
Calories 490
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Try more of my tasty recipes:

Spinach and Quinoa Vegan Meal Prep Bowls
Vegan Rice Noodles
Vegan Spinach and Mushroom Pasta

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. I was scanning for dessert recipes, but this one caught my eye and I had to dig in. I love zucchini noodles and believe it or not, my kids love them too! And with a healthy meal like this, I can feel less guilty about all the sweets I feed them. Thanks!

    Reply

  5. I would think cashew butter would also work well for this dish…going to try since I am allergic to peanuts! This looks amazing! Will be on the menu for this weekend!

    Reply

  6. I just made this tonight and it was AMAZING!!! i threw on some chopped green onions too. so, yummy. fantastic recipe!

    Reply

  7. This was our first attempt at zoodles and it was easy and delicious! Felt like a comfort food but healthier. Loved it!

    Reply

  8. What type of spiralixer did you use? I don’t seem to have any luck spiralizing carrots and I have 3 kinds of spiralizers.

    Reply

    • Hi Connie, they can be a bit tricky. I have the Paderno one. I always cut the carrot into a few pieces first, and I try to buy the largest carrots I can find.

      Reply

  9. Hi Natasha, have you ever tried making this recipe and saving it for the next day? I’m wondering how it holds up and reheats. Thanks!

    Reply

    • Hi Fawn! I have, actually, and it goes a bit limp and watery. It still tastes fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you absolutely have to.

      Reply

  10. I have made this recipe a few times, and it is absolutely fabulous! It has rapidly became one of my favorite recipes. The last time I made it, I increased the amount of sauce and added tofu, it was delicious! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

    • Hi Susan! I buy the unsalted cashews from the bulk bins of the grocery store. Pretty sure they’re roasted.

      Reply

  12. Hoisin sauce is NOT gluten free. Specialty stores will carry GF hoisin sauce but you must be careful to ensure that the label is marked GF.

    Reply

      • I came here from Pinterest, and I think I see the misunderstanding – they’re referred to it as “Vegetarian and gluten-free”. Not your mistake, the mistake of whoever pinned it.

        Reply

        • Ah ok. I was wondering if that could be it! Another reason could be because Pinterest pulls recipe info from websites and sometimes things go wrong when they generate the descriptions for their “rich pins”.

          Reply

  13. Sounds delicious Natasha! Adding the tip about not over cooking is a great idea. The first time I made zoodles I over cooked them and just like you said I ended up with more of a soup. It actually ended up being tasty, just not appealing ๐Ÿ™‚ I love the simple Asian flavors in your meal. My son can’t have peanuts so I often sub in almond butter in dishes like these. I like the idea of adding cashews too! Pinned it ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply

  15. Do you have any nutritional information on this dish, maybe Cal’s, carbs, sugar etc…looks yummy but just wondering how I could fit this into my diet.

    Reply

    • Hi there! Sorry – I don’t calculate nutritional info for most of my recipes. Long story short, I find the online calorie/nutrition calculators to be generally unreliable, and I am not a trained nutritionist myself, so I worry about putting inaccurate info out there. Ingredients also can vary (e.g. the brand of hoisin sauce in this recipe or even the size of the cashews), which can throw calorie counts off by a fair bit. If you have the ingredients on-hand, you could probably work it out based on the exact ingredients you have and the quantities you’re using. I know that’s probably not the answer you’re looking for. I hope you still decide to try the recipe… it is really tasty. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply

  18. Do you think grill shrimp would work well in this dish? If so what spice would you put on the shrimp for grilling? Also, I would like to make this for 10 people. Do you think that is too many as far as cooking the zoodles?

    Reply

    • Hi Catherine! Yes, I think grilled shrimp would definitely work. My tequila lime grilled shrimp would go well, so that’s an idea – here’s the link: https://www.saltandlavender.com/tequila-lime-shrimp/ or else you could just do something like a Cajun or Southwest seasoning. 10 people sounds like a lot. I worry a bit because you’d have to make it in batches, and this dish can get a bit watery if you let it sit for too long.

      Reply

  20. This was so good! I made it with half peanut butter and half almond butter and it turned out really well. I also didnโ€™t have any carrots so I used butternut squash noodles with the zucchini noodles…thanks for the recipe

    Reply

  21. Very good. I was worried at first because it seemed too dry but yes, the juice from the zucchini cooking turned it into a nice sauce. Thank you!

    Reply

    • Thanks, Sandra! Yeah, zucchini release a LOT of water. I find many zoodles recipes to be too watery, so I tried to take advantage of that in this recipe haha.

      Reply

  22. OMG, this recipe is so good. We ate it 3 times in 2 weeks. I was worried my husband wouldn’t like it so didn’t tell him what the zoodles were until he was enjoying it. He loved the spicy flavor filled meal! Yeah. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply

  23. This was phenomenal! Thanks for sharing the recipe โค๏ธ No changes made perfect just how it was!

    Reply

  24. I really love this recipe uncooked. I just toss the dressing on the spiralized veggies, sprinkle the cilantro and cashews over top and eat it as a salad. Yum!

    Reply

  25. Hi Natasha,
    Loved this recipe. Only issue I had was that my peanut butter did not melt like yours did in the video. It kind of just clumped up and wouldn’t separate. I had to add water to it. Any advice on this?

    Reply

  26. Hi Natasha,
    Loved the recipe. I had an issue though. My peanut butter didn’t melt like yours does, rather it clumped together and I had to add water to try turn it to paste. My peanut butter was a Co-op brand product. Any advice on this?

    Reply

    • Hmmm… the first 2 thoughts that came to my mind is that 1) is it a natural peanut butter? I used a creamy peanut butter (Kraft). 2) Did you cook it on high enough of a heat? I’m glad you still liked the recipe and were able to troubleshoot at least!

      Reply

  27. Iโ€™m glad someone else had the same problem as me. My peanut butter just soaked up the sauces and clumped up and burned in chunks even bough I was constantly stirring. I wasnโ€™t able to recover it. Im so confused why it just didnโ€™t work for me?? I used a regular brand of creamy pb…

    Reply

    • Hmm I’m confused too! That is strange. I’ve made this several times the same way as the recipe is written, and that never happened to me. I’m now thinking if you’re willing to try it again, maybe a lower heat would be better? But I’m puzzled since I always cook it on a fairly high heat. Sorry it didn’t work for you!

      Reply

  29. Just made this and ate the whole thing. I felt like I was eating a yummy asian dish. The zoodles really tasted like noodles, the sauce was great and the cashews are what made it awesome! Thanks for the great dinner recipe!

    Reply

    • I’m pretty sure it would become mush. I haven’t frozen it before, but I have re-heated it, and it isn’t as good as when it’s first made since the zucchini continue to release water.

      Reply

  32. I wasn’t in the mood for zoodles when I picked out this recipe, but still didn’t want to go full noodle. I ended up using tofu shirataki noodles, and it was delicious! I drained and rinsed the noodles, and then boiled them for 3 minutes before adding them to the sauce. I tweaked the amount of sauce halfway through (about 1.5 times the amount in the recipe) because not all of the noodles were coated. Even though the noodles don’t give off much water, the sauce was the perfect amount of sticky–I think this was due to the oils in my natural peanut butter. Next time I make this, I think I’ll use half zoodles and half shirataki.

    Reply

  34. This receipe was fantastic! I didn’t have Hoisin, so I subbed Teriyaki sauce. It was excellent, and my husband went back for heaping seconds. I use natural peanut butter, so my “sauce” was a thick clump in the wok to start, but the water released by the zoodles was just enough to make a perfect sauce texture by the time it was cooked (8 minutes in the open wok). Adding to my list of go-to week night dinners! Thank you!

    Reply

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