How to Use a Spiralizer
The best vegetable spiralizer depends on your needs—and your kitchen real estate situation. If you often cook for a crowd, a hand-crank countertop vegetable spiralizer is your best bet. Most options include different blades for a variety of noodle styles, from thin spaghettilike strands to flat, wide ribbons. If you simply don’t have enough kitchen space for a hand-crank countertop vegetable spiralizer, or if you don’t plan on making buckets of vegetable noodles at a time, a handheld veggie noodle maker could be your best option. These little guys work best as a yellow summer squash or zucchini noodle maker; other vegetables may need to be trimmed to fit through the gadget, and hard veggies will require more muscle power to maneuver. Choose the one that works best for you, then follow the directions below based on the type.
How to Use a Spiralizer with a Hand Crank
Make sure your vegetable spiralizer is anchored to your countertop. Most models have suction cups that help secure the unit to your work space. From there, follow these directions:
How to Use a Handheld Vegetable Spiralizer
Choose vegetables that are at least 1½ inches in diameter, then proceed with these directions:
Making Spiralized Vegetables without a Spiralizer
Zoodles (and other veggie noodles) are easiest to crank out with a spiralizer, but if you don’t have one, you can use a mandoline to thinly slice the vegetables or a box grater to coarsely shred them.
Best Vegetables for Making Vegetable Noodles
Wondering what to make with a spiralizer? Let us be the first to tell you, your vegetable spiralizer is more than just a zucchini noodle maker! While we wouldn’t recommend trying to spiralize tomatoes, many firm vegetables are good candidates for making vegetable noodles. In addition to making yellow summer squash and zucchini noodles, you can also use your vegetable spiralizer to make vegetable noodles from carrots, beets, butternut squash, plantains, cucumbers, radishes, turnips, parsnips, regular and sweet potatoes, cucumbers, and broccoli stalks. See what we mean with this Summer Spaghetti Salad—it’s a favorite of our spiralizer salad recipes. Also note that even though the tool is usually called a vegetable spiralizer, it can be used on firm fruits like apples and pears as well. Need some spiralized recipe inspiration? Try our Scallop and Noodle Salad, Bahn Mi Noodle Bowl, Triple-Veggie Pasta, or Garlicky Zucchini Noodles.
