Spiralize Your Fruits and Vegetables

A new trend the last few years is spiralizing.  Pinterest is full of recipes using spiralized vegetables.  All that means is that the vegetables are cut into long ribbons or strips.  People use them in place of pasta or to make salads.  Both my daughters have done this for quite a while, so I thought it was time for me.  The first one I bought was a hand held device where you twist the vegetables through a blade.  This worked but it was hard work, and it didn't give me the results I liked.  Recently I ordered a spiralizer from Ebay.  It was made to fit my Kitchen Aid mixer.

It looks like a complicated tool kit, but it's pretty easy to use.

The first thing to do is attach the attachment to the front of the mixer.  Then choose the blade.  There are four to choose from.  Each blade has a different function depending on what you are making.  Some of these photos are from my daughters house.  She showed me how to make them before I actually purchased my own.

The recipe I'm making uses sweet potato and zucchini.

Just push the vegetable onto the attachment.  You can choose to peel the vegetable or not.  Zucchini cooks just fine without peeling.  Squash would need to be peeled.  The ends need to be flat and the piece can't be more than 3 or 4 inches long.  Turn on the mixer and the blade cuts the ribbons of veggies.

After you get to the end of the vegetable, all that is left is a small core.  They are small and about the size of a pencil.  It is a little wasteful, but I just eat the little piece that's left.

There is also a peeler and corer blade that comes with the kit.  It works the same way except it peels, cores and slices at the same time.  It works great for apples and pears.  The slices are nice and thin for apple recipes.

Tonight I made a recommended recipe which my daughter and son in law like.  Our grandson Ewan isn't as crazy about it, but he is polite and eats a small portion.  It has peanut butter in it, and I'm not sure if he likes peanut butter.  My dad used to like peanuts, but not peanut butter.  Maybe he inherited that trait.  The recipe is for Pad Thai made with zoodles (name for spiralized vegetables), and it came from this blog.   http://chelsealeblancrdn.com/sweet-potato-zoodle-pad-thai/

Pinterest has several Pad Thai recipes but this looked very easy.  I added chicken to the recipe, and it made it a little dry.   As you can see from the recipe, there isn't much liquid.  I think I would add a little more water to make it more saucy especially if chicken or other ingredients are added.

Sweet Potato Zoodle Pad Thai

Author: Chelsea LeBlanc

 

Ingredients

• 2 heaping Tbsp peanut butter
• ¼ tsp rice wine vinegar
• ½ tsp soy sauce
• ½ tsp honey
• 1 tsp sriracha sauce
• ⅛ tsp salt
• ⅛ tsp pepper
• 1 tsp water
• 1 heaping Tbsp olive oil
• 1 sweet potato
• 1 zucchini
• chopped basil leaves
• 1 Tbsp chopped peanuts

Instructions

1. In a medium sized bowl, combine peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, honey, sriracha sauce, salt, pepper and water.
2. Spiralize 1 sweet potato and zucchini.
3. On medium high heat, heat olive oil in a large saute pan and add your spiralized veggies. (You may need to cook the sweet potato in two saute pans)
4. Cook for 7 to 9 minutes or until noodles are cooked and golden brown.
5. Toss in the sauce and serve with basil and peanuts.

I know that the last thing all of us need (especially me) is another gadget, but this one is worth it to me.  Using spiralized vegetables is much lower in carbs and calories plus it makes an interesting texture for a change of pace.