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Nerdy Science in the Kitchen

What’s the Best Spiralizer for Carrots

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Impress your dinner guests!
Impress your dinner guests!

A spiralizer is a brilliant tool for the kitchen. It lets you experiment a lot, which is what any enthusiastic chef would love. They’re a great way to get more vegetables into your diet or to make vegetables more fun for picky kids.

Are you curious about what recipes you can make with your spiralizer? Check out this book at Amazon all about creative ways to use your spiralizer.

But perhaps the best thing we’ve seen them used for in more recent years is a new breed of spaghetti. Over the years we’ve seen rice spaghetti and quinoa spaghetti become popular for diet-conscious consumers. The spiralizer offers something even better: spaghetti made from spiralized vegetables.

Why use a spiralizer?

Spiralized vegetables let you substitute gluten for raw nutrition. It doesn’t even need to be spaghetti. You can make beautiful salads using spiralized vegetables. You can create dishes that replace boring, traditional vegetables with something new! What’s best is the spiralizer is used on raw vegetables, meaning none of the nutrients are cooked out of the source.

Spiralizer fans argue that this technique is one of the easiest ways to add more vegetables to your diet. It’s true! You can get a mountain of fresh vegetables into your diet with minimal effort using a spiralizer. One of the most frustrating things about eating more vegetables is the prep work. Cleaning, peeling, chopping, and cooking takes more effort than simply boiling some pasta or rice.

With a spiralizer, you’ll make heaps of beautiful ribbons in seconds!

Is your child a picky eater? See this article for tips and tricks to encourage your kids to eat healthier!

So easy to do!
So easy to do!

Diet? What diet?

Spiralized vegetables really don’t feel like “diet food”. First, because they’re vegetables, they contain high levels of roughage and fiber, which is good for the digestive system and helps you maintain a “full” feeling.

You can use them instead of spaghetti or another gluten-filled food so that you can still enjoy your favorite dishes. Top them with pesto or other pasta sauces for a delicious dish that’s even better than the real thing! Someone entering a diet doesn’t need to limit themselves to a salad. You can still eat a lot of your favorite dishes, only you’re removing a huge portion of the unhealthy stuff.

Check out Spiralize It!: Creative Spiralizer Recipes for Every Type of Eater by Kenzie Swanhart at Amazon

If you think about it, the taste of these dishes comes from the sauce, not the pasta. A bowl of plain pasta doesn’t taste like much. But with tomato sauce or Bolognese, it takes on a delicious flavor. A bowl of spiralized vegetables actually tastes a lot better than a bowl of plain spaghetti, so you’re adding more flavors to the dish without even thinking about it. Texturally, grains and vegetables are very different. It’s sort of like eating your pasta al dente.

Head on over to this article for an award-winning pesto recipe!

What vegetables should I use?

One of the best vegetables for a spiralizer is the humble carrot. Because it’s a firm and sturdy vegetable, it sits well on the clamp over the grinder. The spiralizer is essentially a large pencil sharpener, so firm vegetables clearly work best. When the carrot is firmly secured to the clamp, the chef turns the crank, pushing it through the blade to produce long ribbons of spiralized carrot.

Carrots also work well because of the sweet flavor they add to a dish. They compliment a tomato-based pasta sauce for this reason, and also make for a delicious salad base as well.

Check out Prego Italian Sauce, Traditional at Amazon

As a spaghetti substitute, carrots will produce an al dente sort of texture, but because of their sweet flavor, this goes very nicely with a good tomato sauce. Shredded carrot is also very popular for salads. Try using spiralized carrots as a base for the salad, along with some lettuce, tomatoes, seeds and a nice vinaigrette dressing. Delicious!

Salads are excellent picnic food. Get some ideas about other dishes that will go over well on a picnic date!

The best spiralizer for carrots

Paderno World Cuisine 6-Blade Vegetable Slicer / Spiralizer, Counter-Mounted and includes 6 Different Stainless Steel Blades

As an inexpensive piece of equipment for the kitchen, a spiralizer is a great tool to have if you’re looking for a way to add more vegetables to your diet. The Williams Sonoma Paderno Spiralizer, 3-Blade is simple to use. It produces beautiful and elegant ribbons, shoe strings, and noodles for altering the texture of pasta dishes, stir-fry, or salad. This model also works well for cutting carrots into a slaw. You can send through a variety of vegetables, from firm ones like carrots to softer ones, like cucumbers.

View on Amazon

This model features 3 stainless steel blades that are durable and dishwasher safe, a chipper blade, a straight blade, and a shredder blade. It has a strong, BPA-free plastic body that will last, and a storage compartment for the blades. The suction-cupped feet ensure it’s stable on your kitchen countertop. Weighing only a pound, it’s light but sturdy. It’s hand operated, which means you won’t need to spend extra money on batteries or electricity. It also comes with a 1-year warranty.


Amazon Basics 3-Blade Spiralizer

The cheapest item in this list, the Amazon Basics Spiralizer is comparable to the Paderno. It has the same 3 stainless steel blades, and the body is made of BPA-free plastic and it has suction feet for stability. Though this one is also dishwasher safe, hand washing is recommended. A limited 1-year warranty is included.

There have been some complaints about the mess it makes and that you have to use vegetables with large diameters, making it difficult to spiralize thin carrots, so make sure you get some thicker ones if you pick this machine.


Spiralizer OXO Good Grips 3-Blade Tabletop Spiralizer with StrongHold Suction

Another triple blade spiralizer, this one also comes with suction cup feet, which use Stronghold technology. It is dishwasher safe and, unlike the others, folds up for compact storage and includes a box for your stainless steel blades to keep them clean and sharp between uses.

The OXO is hand operated so you don’t have to worry about cords or batteries. It also has sharp teeth which grip the produce as you spiralize it, so you don’t have to worry about slippage.

OXO is so sure you’ll love it, it comes with a satisfaction guarantee.


BELLA Hands-Free 4-in-1 Electric Spiralizer

Unlike the other spiralizers listed, the Bella doesn’t require you to change any blades yourself. It comes with 4 rotating, stainless steel blades and a snap-on bowl to hold your spiralized produce. The body and the bowl are made of BPA-free plastic and are dishwasher safe. It does not have suction feet, but it does have rubber on the feet to keep it still. It is electric but has an auto-stop feature.

Frequently Asked Questions

How difficult is it to clean a spiralizer?

Not very, at least not these ones, they are all dishwasher safe.

Some users have found it is best to clean the blades with a toothbrush to make sure they come clean and nothing gets left behind. Dishwashers tend to miss some of the nooks and crannies that you can get to when you hand wash your dishes. Handwashing will always be a better way to clean your dishes and appliances than the dishwasher.

As with anything with a blade, be careful when handling, whether loading, unloading or hand washing your blades.

How large is a spiralizer? How much storage space will my spiralizer take up? How heavy is it?

If you’re worried about space, the OXO Good Grips 3-Blade Spiralizer would be the best option for you. It is compact and folds up for storage and it includes a box for storing the blades. This is good for small kitchens with limited cupboard space.

The other spiralizers aren’t too large, they take up about the same amount of space as a good size toaster. They can be stored on the countertop or in a cupboard easily, as long as you have space.

None of these spiralizers are very heavy. The Bella is the heaviest at about 2.5 lbs, while the OXO only weighs about 1.5 lbs.

How do I get the suction cups to stick to my countertop?

A lot of spiralizers come with suction cups on the feet to keep them from slipping as you work. It can sometimes be a pain to get them to stick to the counter.

You have to make sure the counter is clean. Cleaning with a little bit of degreaser will help get any slick oils preventing your suction cups from sticking. Then, moisten the suction cups and press them to the counter to engage them. Don’t use too much water, or it will defeat the purpose. Just slightly wet them.

Is it difficult to turn the handle when slicing hard vegetables?

For the most part, the handle will turn easily, but you might notice more resistance with a few of the denser vegetables, for example, it can be a little difficult to crank the handle with potatoes of any kind.

An easy way to deal with this is to simply get an electric spiralizer. It will do all the work for you! You could also cook the vegetables slightly to soften them. This is a good trick for people with joint issues such as arthritis.

Is there room to place a bowl under where the food exits?

With some there is room for a small bowl, with others there is not. With all the spiralizers, as the produce moves forward so does a piece of plastic near the bottom.

The Bella comes with a bowl which is designed to fit under that piece of plastic. The Amazon Basic is slightly elevated to allow a small bowl or plate to fit underneath it. With the OXO and the Paderno, there really isn’t any room for a dish. The best option is to place the cutting board where you would put a bowl.

A healthy diet for a healthy you!

If you want to add some fresh carrots to your diet to replace those starchy, gluten-filled grains, check out a spiralizer like the Williams Sonoma Paderno Spiralizer. You’ll enjoy all the benefits it brings to your cooking and your health.

Have you tried using a spiralizer? Tell me about your favorite spiralized veggie dishes in the comments.

What about a thick, hearty carrot and coriander soup? Here are my tips for thickening soup with cornstarch.

For more great ways to incorporate more veggies into your diet, head on over to this article about the best mason jars for juicing and smoothies. BBQ fans might enjoy this post on the best grill basket for vegetables.

Make your own almond (or other nuts) milk at home easily with the best nut milk bags!