Baked Zucchini Noodles Casserole with Smoked Sausage

In need of a delicious and healthy low carb meal? These baked zucchini noodles are cheesy, packed with veggies and the best organic Kiolbassa Smoked Meats turmeric and bell pepper beef sausage. This gluten free zoodles recipe is easy to make with minimal prep time. Cooking zucchini as a low carb pasta substitute is simple and very satisfying, add in flavorful smoked sausage, and you're in for a delicious and healthy dinner.

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Cooking zucchini noodles is the new hot thing with people cutting out gluten and carbs from their diet. Noodles made from veggies? Sign us up! You've probably seen zucchini noodles using tomato sauce, meatballs and all sorts of things.

How about adding in some super high quality organic beef sausage, cheese, bell peppers and tomatoes? YUM! We use some of our favorite summer ingredients to make a highly delicious keto friendly meal that is sure to satisfy.

Disclosure: This recipe is a paid partnership with our friends at Kiolbassa Smoked Meats! As you may know, Kiolbassa is a long term partner for us, and we are so proud to work with them! They're a family owned company, committed to high quality ingredients. In fact, they're so confident in their products, they guarantee all of them - or your money back! How cool is that?

Kiolbassa is also committed to giving back. They donate over 10,000 pounds of sausage through their Links of Love program every month to help support food insecure communities, and step up in the face of natural disasters. Partnering with brands that do good is really important to us. Not to mention, their products are all gluten free, and made with high quality ingredients.

Feel free to skip to the recipe card if you’re ready to get right into it. We do cover common questions, tips, and tricks in the body of this post to keep reading if you’re wondering something. We do also include tons of step by step pictures in the body of the post. This recipe is also available as a Google Web Story!

Ingredients:​

• Zucchinis - We use a spiralizer for making zucchini noodle spaghetti type shapes. You could use a julienne peeler to make ribbon shapes as well. We'll discuss some methods for making sure the zoodles are mushy later on in this post.
• Extra virgin olive oil - To sear the sausages at a higher heat.
• Kiolbassa Smoked Meats turmeric and bell pepper smoked sausage - This is one of Kiolbassa's newer products - and it's fantastic! Organic, grass fed and grass finished beef with turmeric and bell pepper? It kind of screams summer, right? But of course, it's good for whenever you're craving it. It's only 2 grams of carbs per sausage, totally gluten free, and made with high quality ingredients. Read more about it here!
• Unsalted butter - We love using some butter in so many of our skillets for that rich and creamy taste. Feel free to substitute with more olive oil, if you prefer.
• Garlic & onion - Staples and classics in most of our recipes for delicious flavor! You could substitute fresh garlic and onion for garlic and onion powder if you prefer.
• Herbs & seasonings - We use a mixture of fresh parsley alongside smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, and salt and pepper in this recipe. Super simple and flavorful. This dish isn't super spicy, but if you're spice-averse, you can use less of the suggested seasonings. Other good add-ins would be Italian seasoning.
• Bell peppers - You can use your favorite variety. We used one whole bell pepper (so half of a red bell pepper, and half of a yellow bell pepper). We did this mainly just for color! Any variety you want will work great.
• Cherry or grape tomatoes - We halve them, and they're super delicious. They add a pop of acidity and sweetness to the dish. You can use canned tomatoes if you prefer.
• Cheese - We like to shred the cheese ourselves, so that it melts well. We opted for Colby jack for a mild flavor. Some good options for other cheeses to use instead of Colby jack would be: cheddar, Havarti, low-moisture, part skim mozzarella and provolone. Hard cheeses like parmesan won't melt quite as well. Neither will fresh mozzarella. 

How to Make the Zucchini Noodle Casserole:

Start by salting the zucchini noodles heavily. Don't worry, much of the excess liquid will drain out, along with the salt as the zoodles sit. Allow the zoodles to sit while you work on the other parts of the dish for 30 minutes.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Cut sausages into rounds. Add olive oil, followed by the sausage rounds. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side until browned, working in batches if necessary. Once cooked, remove from the skillet and set aside.

Add butter to the pan, followed by garlic, dry seasonings and parsley. Cook until garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add tomatoes, bell peppers, and onion to the pan with a good pinch of salt. Cook until vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Squeeze remaining liquid out of the zucchini noodles using a paper towel. Add the zoodles to the skillet, stirring to combine.

Stir in about half of the shredded cheese to combine with the other ingredients, followed by your Kiolbassa sausage.

Top with remaining cheese for 10-15 minutes until melted. You can broil for a few minutes to get the cheese crispy at the end if you like (this is optional).

Garnish with parsley, and dig in!

Tips For Making Zucchini Noodles:

• Quick tip: Use kitchen shears to cut the zucchini noodles so they don't get too long!
• Draining method: We use a lot of kosher salt (about 1 tablespoon for 3 large zucchinis) to draw moisture out of the zucchini. Set them in a colander, let them sit for 30 minutes or so to get rid of the water. Don't worry, a lot of the salt added to the noodles will drain off in the moisture that will be extracted. After 30 minutes, take some paper towels or a clean dish towel and squeeze out the remaining moisture.
• Oven method: If you prefer, you could always cook zucchini noodles in the oven instead of salting them. To do this, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the zoodles on a parchment lined baking sheet. You will still want to toss the zoodles in some salt, probably about 1-2 teaspoons of kosher salt for this method. Spread them in an even, thin layer, spreading them out as much as possible. The cook time will vary depending on your oven and your preference, so keep this in mind. It should only take about 10-15 minutes to prepare the zoodles in the oven. After your "noodles" are cooked to your liking, make sure to dry them off with a paper towel.

More Recipes With Kiolbassa Smoked Meats:

• Keto French Toast Pigs in a Blanket with Candied Bacon
• Loaded Keto 'Potato' Soup
• Chorizo Stuffed Poblano Peppers
• Keto 7 Layer Dip with Chorizo
• Brown Butter Keto Cornbread with Bacon

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Until Next Time,
Briana & Chamere