Spiralizers are all the rage these days, and for good reason. These magic devices take most vegetables and convert them into strings that look like pasta. Sure, you could just use a knife or a mandoline but you wouldn’t get the same effect. First, the spiralizer twists the vegetable resulting in really long strips. Second, it starts on the outside and works its way in. See most of the spiralizable veggies like Zucchinis have soft, seed filled cores that you don’t want. The spiralizer works on the outer part of the veggie and then discards the soft, seedy interior. Today I’m going to test several of the most common veggies and let you know how they turn out!On the right is the spiralizer and on the left are the contenders! At the top we have red radishes, followed by Zucchini and then a cucumber.The Zucchini inserts into the spiralizer and you grip the unit with your left hand and turn the veggie with your right.The result is surprisingly noodle like strands of incredibly long length. I actually had to cut them up to make it not completely absurd.As I mentioned in the beginning, the device also functions as a corer. You can see here the seedy middle that the spiralizer rejected. If there is one negative to the unit its that you are always left with a bit of veggie that you cannot spiralize. This will become more obvious with the radishes but its something to take into account. Next up are the radishes. You wouldn’t imagine these spiralize well but I wanted to try it since they are such a good keto veggie. They were a little awkward to get into the device but it ended up working.As you can see in the bowl, the radishes didn’t turn out half bad!Here is the major negative though with the radishes. Unless I am using this thing wrong, I always end up with a bit of the top of the veggie left over. Of course this isn’t a big deal with the Zucchinis but with the radishes it ends up being almost half the vegetable.I didn’t show it but the cucumbers are in there as well now. In this step I added some store bought pesto and made a nice, fresh veggie noodle salad!Here’s the finished pesto spirals on a plate.And as I’m sure you know, everything looks more fancy if its set as a bed with meat on it! So, here’s the pesto spirals with a huge slab of steak ontop! Overall the spiralizer was cool and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it again. The zoodles are the most useful, followed by the radishes and then the cucumber. The cucumbers were too soft and kind of fell apart.
- Serves: 2
- Serving size: ½
- Calories: 166
- Fat: 13g
- Carbohydrates: 9g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 3g
- 146 grams Zucchini (1 medium)
- 166 grams Cucumber (1/2 large)
- 145 grams Radishes (5)
- 4 Tablespoons Pesto
- Wash all the vegetables and cut off the ends of the Cucumber, Zucchini and Radishes
- Feed into the spiralizer on the small setting
- Turn the vegetable to create spirals
- Cut the spirals when they reach the desired length
- Add pesto, mix and serve!
Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Slicer Much like a mandoline, this device makes spaghetti out of any vegetable such as zucchini or squash. I haven’t personally tried it yet but they’re all the rage on reddit! Way less chance of slicing your fingers off than with a mandoline as well 🙂 |
Tovolo 7.5 Quart Mixing Bowl Most of my large 5day recipes and casseroles are all mixed together before being baked. You really need a giant bowl to hold all the ingredients and this one fits the bill! |
Non-slip Cutting Board Let’s face it, keto involves a lot of prep. You’ve got to slice all those vegetables, cut up all that meat and not just any old board will do. Make sure to grab yourself a nice non-slip one for the kitchen! |
Do you boil the spiral cut vegetables Or just eat them raw? I’ve done the spaghetti squash and that was good, but I’m always looking for a good pasta alternative
For this recipe I ate them raw and it was pretty good!
Boil/steam the radish leftovers to use like any other cooked vegetable or as a potato replacement
Roasted radishes are really good, too.
try the diakon radish instead of the red radish. it is long and white, used mostly in asian cooking but im sure it would spiralize real well. its about the width of a cucumber