Last year, I got a little spiralizer from Amazon, used it a couple of times, cooked the “zoodles” (zucchini noodles) for too long and they disintegrated into squashy mush instead of nice noodles. Put it away and forgot where I put it. I know I have seen it; but can’t remember where. Anyway, I got a spiralizer cookbook and now I want to try it again, because it is a very healthy way to eat veggies. So, I just ordered another little manual spiralizer from Amazon, and am going to try it again. (You know , as soon as the new one arrives, the old one will come back out of hiding....) Does anyone else use one of these to make spiralizer veggies or fruits, and if so, do you have a manual one or a power/electric one ? This is what the new one looks like.
@Yvonne Smith My wife has a device like that, used it a few times in the past, I forget exactly what she was spiralling with it, but I think the idea was to make long vegatable strands which could be substituted for pastas. Frank
I just have an inexpensive manual one and love it. Have made lots of zoodles and getting ready to try carrots & sweet potatoes. Fun way to add extra veggies!
Nope, I've never used one Yvonne...I've seen them many times, but I just think of it as another thing that would need washing up lol
One of my goals this year is to add more raw food to my diet, or foods that are only lightly cooked, and also more veggies and greens. I want to cut down on most meats, and have more of fish or poultry , plus dairy and eggs for animal protein. So, when I came across a free spiralizer cookbook on Bookbub (or maybe it was Book Gorilla ?) I grabbed it while it was on sale. I have been starting to watch tutorial and recipe videos for spiralizers on Youtube, so when mine arrives this weekend, I should be ready to start making spiralized veggies and salads. When I was at Aldi’s this morning, they had an electric one for $25, and I was seriously thinking about having that; but I think that it is better if I use the manual one first and see how we do with that one. Welcome to the forum, @Lynda R. ! ! I am happy that you found the forum, and also looking forward to hearing what all you make with your spiralizer.
I eat very little red meat these days @Yvonne Smith , just went off it really., it seemed to cause a lot of stomach cramps.. ..apart from the odd Sunday roast which we go out to eat occasionally.. and the odd bacon sandwich , which I had today for brunch I eat skinned chicken once a week, and tend to have more fish in my diet than meat.. I drink a lot of skimmed milk..probably a litre every 2 days and eggs every second day. I have a hiatus hernia, as well as IBS so I can't eat anything acidic or spicy... and some veggies can irritate it a lot but I'm trying to incorporate as much into my diet as I can
I'm going to look into one of these and thanks for the tip on Youtube videos @Yvonne Smith I'm thinking of an Instapot for next summer as they throw out much less heat than even a pot on the stove. I'm pretty lousy at cooking vegetables. Seems I'm an expert at overcooking them.
I was looking at the Insta-pot, too, @Kitty Carmel ; but then I have been reading that there are a lot of accidents with them , and I think that they can overheat. Any pressure cooker can be dangerous, and I decided that we do not need to hurry our meals enough to have to pressure cook them. If you are signed up for Bookbub and Book Gorilla, you can choose cookbooks as one of the topic choices, and I have been downloading lots of free recipe books for vegetarian, raw foods, and even spiralizer foods. You can also just go to the Kindle store and choose “cookbooks, free” and there are pages and pages of free recipe books, and new ones all of the time. You just have to look through the list and download the ones that interest you. Once I have them downloaded onto the Kindle, I put them in collections, so I can easily find the kind of book that I am looking for in my library, and do not have to go through the whole library looking for one specific book.
@Yvonne Smith I know the pressure cooker aspect of those things is kind of scary. May rethink. I have a nice blender with a food processor attachment but I hate to clean it and it scares the cats. I should look into a small food processor also. I have cookbooks, too many probably and I love Pinterest for free recipes.
Just give the kitties a little treat whenever you run the food processor, Kitty, and pretty soon they will love the sound of it, just like some cats come running when they hear an electric can opener.
The Spiralizer arrived today, and I have tried my first bit of ”spiralizing”. I found a recipe for making a cucumber salad with Greek yogurt dressing. I made the dressing last night and let it absorb the garlic and mint flavors overnight, and then today, I spiralized the cucumber and red onion. I think that it will also work great on those Greek style sandwiches made with flatbread. Here is my first trial effort, picture taken before I added in the yogurt dressing. I will add the recipe in the recipe section of the forum. this salad could be made just as easily with a food processor, or even chopped up by hand.
Our potatoes were starting to get ready to sprout in the bag because we do not eat a lot of potatoes. I was making cauliflower-potato salad today, and noticed that we needed to do something with those potatoes, and I didn’t want to cook all of them; so I decided that I would spiralizer them and then keep them in the fridge. I have not tried doing this with a potato before, but they turned out fine, and I think that they should be fast and easy to cook now that they are in the thin spirals. All we have to do is chop the stands a bit, and they would be fine for hash browns, too. While I was doing this, I also cut some spiralized onions and a zucchini, and a little carrot. They will be fine for veggie stir fry, and the onions can also go on sandwiches or hamburgers. I I think that I like the spiralizer, although after trying it out the first time, I just kind of set it aside and forgot it. After I see how well the veggies work to lightly cook them, I think that I might just process some spirals more often and keep them in the refrigerator.