Spiralizer - Lesley's Recipes

The spiralizer that we use is the Lakeland Easy-Store Spiralizer

The Blades

A noodle for every occasion.

Thanks to the unique blade system, the Inspiralizer enables you to create four different types of noodles. The blades are clearly labeled on the green knob of the Noodle Twister on the Inspiralizer, for clear use. All Inspiralized recipes on the blog and the Inspiralized cookbook are referenced to as A, B, C, and D as well.

The Lakeland blades are slightly different!

BLADE "A" Make thick, wide ribbons
use Ribbon blade

BLADE "B" Make fettuccine noodles
use Coarse blade

BLADE "C" Make linguine noodles
use Medium blade

BLADE "D" Make spaghetti noodles
use Fine blade

Carolyn Humphries shares the top twelve tricks that she learned while developing and refining recipes for The Spiralizer Cookbook

1. Spiralize firm fruit and vegetables	An aubergine that is even slightly soft will not spiralize. If a banana or papaya has even a hint of yellow, it will be too soft for spiralizing. You won’t be able to spiralize a pumpkin.
2. Scrub before you spiralize	Scrub, wash or peel as necessary before spiralizing.
3. Trim or cut to size before you spiralize	Always trim vegetables so they have a flat surface to press the handle of the spiralizer into, otherwise the vegetable will not be held securely. For large, fat, round, solid vegetables, like swede or celeriac, it is sometimes easier to cut them in half or quarters before spiralizing them.
4. Keep an even pressure while spiralizing	If your pressure when turning the handle of your spiralizer is too light, it may stop cutting after a few turns; too firm and you can squash or break what you’re spiralizing or stop it turning on the blade.
5. Turn the spiralizer handle slowly and consistently	If you turn the handle of the spiralizer too quickly, you will end up with short little curls rather than long strands.
6. Put the calyx or stump closest to the handle of your spiralizer	Put this end towards the handle as this is the last bit that will be discarded.
7. Don’t waste the last pieces	You will always be left with a small piece of fruit or vegetable when you’ve finished spiralizing. Don’t throw these away if you could add these to the dish or set them aside to use in stock.
8. Can I spiralize a leek?	Use the wide-curls blade of your spiralizer for vegetables with layers like leeks, onions or cabbage. You’ll also find that loose outer leaves simply peel off as you turn. Save these for stock, or shred and add to the dish you’re making, if appropriate. Pick out thin slices of stump if necessary.
9. Can I spiralize a pepper?	You'll have to pick out seeds and the core before spiralizing, then rinse to get rid of the last of the seeds from your spirals. You could chop the last ring of unspiralized pepper and add to your dish.
10. When vegetables break free!	Sometimes your vegetable or fruit will dislodge half way through spiralizing. Just stop, remove the already spiralized noodles, take off the vegetable or fruit, turn it over and start again, slicing off a thin layer from the base if necessary.
11. When vegetables get stuck while spiralizing	If the vegetable gets stuck half way through and won’t turn, as sometimes happens with firm vegetables like parsnip or celeriac, try turning the handle backwards for a couple of turns, then turn it normally again.
12. Safe spiralizing	Take great care with sharp blades. If your vegetable stops turning, don’t pull on the handle of your spiralizer and turn the vegetable manually as you may cut yourself really badly.

Ingredients to try

Ingredient	cal/100g	Notes - wikipedia
Apple	52	Remove the stem.
Beetroot	43	The beetroot is the taproot portion of the beet plant, usually known in North America as the beet, also table beet, garden beet, red beet, or golden beet. Wear rubber gloves! Square the ends, peel the beetroot, immediately clean the spiralizer to avoid stains
Broccoli	34	Broccoli is an edible green plant in the cabbage family whose large flower-head is eaten as a vegetable.
Butternut Squash	45	Butternut squash, also known in Australia and New Zealand as butternut pumpkin, and "Batana" in Sri Lanka is a type of winter squash. It has a sweet, nutty taste similar to that of a pumpkin. It has yellow skin and orange fleshy pulp.
Cabbage	25
Carrot	41
Celeriac	42	Celeriac, also called turnip-rooted celery or knob celery, is a variety of celery cultivated for its edible roots, hypocotyl, and shoots. It is sometimes called celery root.
Chayote	19	Chayote is an edible plant belonging to the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, along with melons, cucumbers and squash.
Courgette	18	We eat this nearly every day, even if we're not on the 5:2 diet
Cucumber	16	Cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. It is a creeping vine that bears cylindrical fruits that are used as culinary vegetables. There are three main varieties of cucumber: slicing, pickling, and burpless.
Daikon	18	Fodder radish! A long white crunchy vegetable from the radish family, daikon is similar in appearance to fresh horseradish but packs a lighter peppery punch similar to watercress. Unlike other radishes, it is as good cooked as it is raw. It is also known as mooli.
Fennel	31	Fennel is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. Fennel’s a bit tricky. After you slice off the stalks and leave just the bulb, the outer leaves usually need to be removed before securing the bulb on the spiralizer. Use medium blade
Jicama	38	Pachyrhizus erosus, commonly known as jicama, Mexican yam bean, or Mexican turnip, is the name of a native Mexican vine, although the name most commonly refers to the plant's edible tuberous root.
Kohlrabi	27	Kohlrabi is an annual vegetable, and is a low, stout cultivar of cabbage. Kohlrabi can be eaten raw as well as cooked.
Onion	40
Parsnip	75	The parsnip is a root vegetable closely related to the carrot and parsley. It is a biennial plant usually grown as an annual. This tastes really good, but you probably don't need a lot of it!
Pear	57
Plantain	122	A plantain, or cooking plantain, is one of the less sweet cultivated varieties of the genus Musa whose fruit is also known as the banana.
Potato	77
Radish, black	16
Swede	24	The rutabaga, swede, turnip, or neep is a root vegetable that may have originated as a cross between the cabbage and the turnip. The roots are prepared for human food in a variety of ways, and the leaves can be eaten as a leaf vegetable. Cook for 10 minutes even if using the fine blade!
Sweet Potato	86	The sweet potato or kumara is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are a root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens.
Taro Root	11	Taro is a common name for several plants in the Araceae family which are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and leaf-stems. Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and the way it is used is discussed here.
Turnip	28	The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as feed for livestock.
Zucchini + Summer Squash	17	Zucchini or courgette is a summer squash which can reach nearly a meter in length, but which is usually harvested at half that size or less. In England, a fully grown zucchini is referred to as a marrow.

Other calorific values

	Ingredient	cal/100g	Notes
	Bass	100
	Sainsburys wholemeal bread	263
	Bread	112
	Bream	93
	Butter	739
	Chicken breast	105
	Chicken thigh	163
	Milk (semi-skimmed)	47	75ml 35
	Salmon fillet	180
	Tassimo	66	Costa Latte
Dorset Cereals Muesli
	Simply Delicious	178	/50g
	Simply Fruity	167	/50g
	Berry & Cherry	166	/50g
	Fantastically Fruity	212	/50g
	Breakfast	207	75ml milk + 50g Dorset cereal

Ouch

Ingredient	cal/100g	Notes
Essential Waitrose English Extra Mature Grated Cheddar	414
Pinot Grigio	~75	188 per 250ml glass, 274 per 2 glasses, 564 per 3 glasses
McVitie's Digestives Milk or Dark Chocolate	495
Walkers Roast Chicken Flavour Crisps	516
Oven chips, cooked	189
Kettle Chips Lightly Salted Crisps	514
Waitrose Rich & Chocolatey mini brownie bites	469
Sainsbury's SO Organic Multiseed Wholemeal Thick Sliced Batch Loaf	263

Wish list

Chiba Professional Japanese Spiralizer

Reviewed 04 February 2016 by Chris from Derby

In a nutshell this is a high quality and very user friendly machine and opens up brand new possibilities for producing and cooking healthy food that looks just great! This is our first experience with a spiralizer and opted for this top line model as we are a fan of Japanese kitchen knives and their renown high quality and sharpness. Likewise the blades on this machine are extremely sharp and cut through even the toughest of root vegetables with no effort at all. This is made all the more effortless when using the auto-feed system which is the main reason we bought this model. This produces a very even cut and doesn't require any lateral force to push the vegetable through as you are only required to put a downward pressure on the top button which engages the drive gear to push through the vegetable being cut. This downward pressure is sufficient to keep the machine securely in place and you don't need sucker feet like cheaper models without the auto feed to stop it slipping on the work surface.

Setting up is straightforward and the blade can be changed very easily by slightly squeezing the blade support frame and it just pops out. If you prefer slices then the comb blade can be removed simply by turning the two plastic topped retaining screws securing it with your fingers This machine is constructed from high quality plastic that seems to be robust and very well finished as are the metal components. The whole thing just shouts 'quality' and we'd recommend this to anyone. We've only been using this for a few days but we are now hooked on spiralizing due to the simplicity and ease of use of this machine which is totally fuss free and can produce cut vegetable quickly and in volume if required, thanks to the autofeed system.

Cleaning is a doddle as the whole blade unit that includes both the comb blade and slicer blade together can be removed and rinsed off. Likewise the rest of the machine can be rinsed off and dried very easily. We like to dry off the blade unit on top of the kitchen central heating radiator for a few minutes before storing away in a plastic storage box for safe keeping as it is definitely not something you want to leave loose in a draw! (The machine does not have an integrated blade storage system).

From a safety aspect, when the machine is not being used and has a blade installed, there is a removable plastic guard that clips into place, a useful feature if there are inquisitive little fingers around the kitchen! The guard is removed before use. However, you still need to be aware of the three sharp blades at the rotary end that are used to retain the vegetable in place in the horizontal position for cutting. These are probably a lot more efficient than plastic spikes, particularly when using harder root vegetables. All in all we are very pleased with our purchase and have also bought the optional 4mm comb blade that can be used with either of the combination blade units supplied with the machine.

Reviewed 04 February 2016 by Chris, Derby

Lesley's Recipes — Spiralizing