Exploring With A Spiralizer

Spiralizing Squash I got a couple of new kitchen gadgets for Christmas last year and they have me very excited to start experimenting in the kitchen.

One of my new gadgets is a spiralizer!  A new fangled thing (to me) that will take veggies and spiral them into long “noodles”.

You can do this with any veggie and I believe even with some fruit.

I have wanted one for a very long time.  I’m not a huge carb fan.  I’ll eat them on occasion but I would rather have more veggies or meat instead of carby stuff.  Just a personal preference.

With the spiralizer, I wanted to see if I could replace some of the noodles from our favorite dishes with some veggies instead.

The first thing I made was ramen using yellow squash and carrots for the noodles.

Ramen with spiral veggiesThis turned our fantastic and now I don’t even want noodles, I only want veggies.  The exception being authentic ramen, of course I would want noodles in that! Let’s not be ridiculous now.

But ramen at home? Veggies all the way!

I simmered the “noodles” in with the broth for the soup for several minutes.  The noodles were great but could have been cooked a little longer. I didn’t want the soup to evaporate too much while cooking the veggies.

The next dish I made was spiraled squash with a beef spaghetti sauce.

Spiraled squash with spaghetti sauceThe dish looks a little watery from the squash but once everything was mixed together it turned out perfect.  This time I boiled the squash noodles in water for about 3 minutes and then dished that into bowls and spooned some sauce on top.

This worked out much better!

I know a lot of folks use spaghetti squash in this fashion but between you and me, I hate spaghetti squash.  It’s not noodle-like, it’s stringy and gritty.  E-W-W. Plus the prep work for spaghetti squash can be a little annoying so I avoid it at all costs.

The next time I make ramen, I will be sure to boil the veggie noodles first and then add them to the soup verses cooking them in the soup.

Using the veggies in these dishes turned out so much better than I had expected. My main concern was that the veggies would get mushy but they did not.   I’m sure if they cooked too long they would turn to mush but just a couple of minutes in some boiling water works well.

Carrots take a little longer to cook than squash, so add them to the water first for a minute or two before adding in the squash.

I’m looking forward to playing around with this a little more and seeing what other dishes I can work some spiraled veggies into!

 

 

7 thoughts on “Exploring With A Spiralizer

  1. I just bought a julienne peeler (space saving, since we don’t have much room in our apartment!) and have been making zucchini noodles like crazy! Delicious, light, and filling. I squeeze the heck out of them in paper towels or a clean kitchen towel so they don’t get watery. My favorite way to cook them is in a little bit of olive oil and garlic for about 5-7 minutes or until al dente, then mixed with spices. Add in other veggies or some meat for a complete meal.

    Can’t wait to see what else you do with the spiralizer! What other gadgets did you get?

    • Jess, That’s a great idea about squeezing out some of the liquid! I’m going to give that a try and then use your method of sauteeing them a little, maybe for lunch today. :)

      I also got a mandoline that I can’t wait to play around with!

  2. Oh, this is so cool! I had no idea there were cool gadgets for doing this. I thought people just had some really good skills. Ha, ha! What a great way to eat more veggies.

  3. A spiralizer is on my “frivolous” kitchen gadgets I want list. Perhaps when I have a kitchen with space I’ll splurge on some of those items. I love the idea of using the veggie noodles in ramen.

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