Lauren B. Lentini

This is not a food blog. That does seem to be all I post about, though, doesn’t it? But I finally got my spiralizer, and I decided to document my first attempts to noodlefy.

I researched a lot of options before I purchased this one. I wanted a handheld one, because I don’t expect to use it enough to justify the cabinet space required for the tabletop variety. I’m a realist. There are plenty of blogs reviewing spiralizers, and this one came up more often than most. It’s Oxo brand, and I generally enjoy their designs. And, with my $10 Target gift card from buying diapers, the three-blade variety was the same price as the one-blade variety on Amazon. Spiralizer unlocked!

Now it’s playtime. Of course, zucchini is the king of spiralizer vegetables, but I didn’t have any. Research (OK, Pinterest) tells me there are plenty of other things you can spiralize, however, so I raided the kitchen.

Cucumber

The cucumber was the easiest to wrap my head around, so I started with the lowest difficulty setting. And the smallest blade.

For the sake of science, it’s only proper to try all three blades.

Verdict: This is awesome! I will never not spiralize another cucumber.

Carrot

I was skeptical about carrots, but willing to give it the old college try. There were all these amazing carrot noodles on Pinterest! It ended up working better if I placed the carrot off-center, but that meant it couldn’t get a true spiral going.

Verdict: Pinterest was wrong about something?? Gasp! Maybe this would work with a bigger carrot, or a tabletop spiralizer.

Sweet potato

After the disappointment that carrots turned out to be, I wanted something easy again. Sweet potato noodles (swoodles?) are second only to zoodles in the alternative-pasta-making world.

The small blade was nice, but I knew this tuber was really going to shine with the middle blade. So I cut a few ribbons first, just to get it out of the way.

I had some difficulty turning the sweet potato, and the turny thing with the spikes was no match for it. It just ripped up the top, as you can see in the photo below. Pinterest suggested nuking harder vegetables to soften them up, and this time it was right! I should have done it sooner.

Verdict: A rousing success! I look forward to cooking these.

Red pepper

Buoyed by my success with the sweet potato, I decided I was ready to tackle the pepper, another Pinterest suggestion I had my doubts about. I’m starting to feel like the “Will it blend?” guy, though.

Verdict: Part of the problem was that the pepper was too large for the gadget. Still, I fail to understand how the mechanics of this would work even with a tabletop spiralizer.

Apple

Well, I’ve had two successes and two failures. Let’s end this on a high note, shall we? I was pretty sure apple would be a win. I don’t own a corer, though, so I just kind of went with it.

The apple was surprisingly hard to turn, so I ended up cutting down the sides.

Verdict: Just all right. If I figure out how to core the apple, and go with a sturdier one, I can see it working much better.

Conclusion

More fun than a kitchen knife, that’s for sure! I can definitely see myself finding excuses to use it. Jerald makes pasta sauce every Sunday, so we may be mixing it up on the -oodles front for a while. Next step is figuring out how they cook.