Middle Eastern Ground Beef Zoodles with Peanut-Tahini Sauce

Directions

Grind together the garlic powder, salt, pepper, ground cumin, Greek oregano, dried parsley, and dried mint in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder to make the spice mix. Heat the 2 tsp. olive oil in a non-stick frying pan, add the ground beef, season with the spice mixture, and cook over medium-high heat until the beef is starting to brown, breaking it apart with a turner as it cooks. When the beef is nearly done, push it over to the side of the pan, add a little more olive oil if needed, add the finely chopped onions, and cook until they’re softened and starting to brown. Stir the beef and onions together, add the lemon juice and water, simmer 5 minutes over medium heat, and then turn the heat to low and keep the beef mixture warm. Put the peanut butter and tahini into a glass measuring cup and microwave about 20-30 seconds, just long enough to soften it. Then whisk in the warm water, lemon juice, sweetener of your choice, ground garlic, soy sauce, and Sriracha Sauce to make the peanut-tahini sauce. Use a Spiralizer or other gadget to make the zucchini noodles. Heat the tablespoon of olive oil in a large non-stick pan, add the garlic cloves, and cook over medium-high heat just until you smell garlic . Discard the garlic and add the zucchini noodles to the hot pan. Cook about 2-3 minutes or until the noodles are just starting to soften, stirring a few times. Season noodles with salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste. Stir the chopped mint and parsley into the beef mixture. Divide the zucchini noodles into four bowls, then top each one with one-fourth of the beef mixture and a generous amount of sauce. Garnish with thinly-sliced green onions if desired and serve right away. If you’re not going to be eating four servings of this at once, I would cook all the meat, but only cook the amount of zucchini noodles you’re going to eat at that time. Store the raw zucchini noodles, meat mixture, and sauce separately in the fridge, then cook the rest of the noodles and reheat the other ingredients when you’re ready to combine them.