What IS a Spirooli???

Have you heard of the Spirooli? What about a Spiralizer? No? What about a machine that makes noodles out of zucchini? Did you ever hear of a machine that does such a thing?

Well that’s what the Spirooli (or Spiralizer) is - a machine that makes noodles out of not only zucchini, but other veggies as well.

It can also be used to make spirals out of some vegetables and when those vegetables are potatoes, well, they can easily become curly fries with just a little cooking. Clever huh?

Now I don’t know why it’s called a Spirooli (Spiralizer makes a bit more sense…).

I’ve no idea who named it that, or why, and it doesn’t really matter, but I do know that this little gadget turns zucchini and cucumber into noodles that you can use to make awesome dishes that even people who hate raw veggies will eat (if you’re thinking kids at this point then you’re on the right track! )

In fact, I’ve had a whole barbecue full of junk food fanatics (that I was convinced wouldn’t even touch this raw zucchini ‘thing’) fighting over my zucchini noodle salad, and not realising that the noodles were raw zucchini until after they’d licked the bowl clean and I told them what it was!

Seriously… I’m not exaggerating. It was a funny….

I love my Spirooli!

I’ve had my Spirooli for quite some time now. In fact it’s traveled half way around Australia, and was a major item in the tiny kitchen in our camper van. As testimony to its hard, traveling life, being very well loved and used, it’s now stained a kind of yellow colour, instead of being white, from sitting on a shelf in the back window of our van in the hot Australian sun during our travels, but that doesn’t affect the way it works!

So what can you do with a Spirooli?

If you take a look at the video above you’ll see that there are three blades that come with the spirooli which allow you to easily create all sorts of noodles and spirals from lots of different vegetables, which you can then either cook or use to create salads and raw dishes.

You can use your veggie noodles, in particular zucchini noodles, anywhere that you’d use pasta or other grain based noodles, and they do the job really well without the grains or the extra carbs.

And that makes them perfect for low carb and Paleo type diets!

Me personally, well the main thing that I use mine for are those zucchini noodles and also cucumber noodles.

For some reason the creation of that noodle shape just changes the whole taste and texture, and makes the zucchini and cucumber just so much more appealing!

The cucumber noodles I always use raw, but the zucchini I sometimes cook and use as I would a pasta, otherwise I create raw dishes with them using some kind of dressing and other ingredients depending on what I have in the pantry, garden and the fridge.

Zucchini noodle salad ideas

Here’s just a few ideas to dress up your zucchini noodles:

• Add some finely chopped red onion or spring onion
• How about some crumbled feta cheese or some grated cheddar?
• A little chopped bacon perhaps?
• Some really yummy sliced olives
• Julienne some carrot and add it
• Throw in a few halved cherry or grape tomatos
• and what else have you got in your fridge or in the garden?
• Some chopped fresh mint? or basil? Yummo!

Now put it all together with a yummy dressing.

Need an idea?

How about a little coconut oil or olive oil mixed with some apple cider vinegar or coconut vinegar or freshly squeezed lime juice? Mix your oil and vinegar mixture together with some Nutritional Yeast (also known as Savoury Yeast) and a pinch of cayenne pepper and voila!

Make sure you season your noodle mixture with a good quality salt (not the processed white junk that you buy in the supermarket!), some freshly ground pepper and then add your dressing and toss well.

Woohoo!

Don’t over think it…

Seriously. Don’t over think it or make it too hard. Simple works brilliantly with zucchini noodles or cucumber noodles.

For an example of a cooked dish you can even use the zucchini noodles with a tomato based pasta sauce and sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese, or alternatively, Savoury Yeast (aka Nutritional yeast) if you don’t eat dairy. You can lightly cook the noodles in some salted water for a few minutes if you like but don’t over cook or they’ll go slushy!

What if I don’t have a Spirooli. Are there other ways to make zucchini noodles?

There are! They’re not quite the same…. but still do a great job.

Before I bought my Spirooli, I used to use a Julienne Peeler kind of like this one:

It did a really good job and I still use it for carrot because I find that a lot of carrots are too small for the Spirooli, so I still have, and use, both.

So whether you’re looking to add more raw food to to your diet, less carbs, or less grains or just wanting to get more veggies into yourself or you kids, you’ll find the Spirooli really handy (especially for tricking the kids… ).

Show me the Spirooli! Where can I buy one?

They have them over at Amazon for all sorts of prices if you’re in the USA or are able to order from there, and the Spirooli is also available from Natural Earth here in Australia (they ship to NZ and other countries also).

To sum it all up the Spirooli’s pretty cool and so are zucchini and cucumber noodles.

Eat well

P.S. If you do buy a Spirooli or already own one let me know what you think and also feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments below or on my Facebook page. I’ll be adding more recipes for these yummy, healthy noodles soon so watch out for those (join my mailing list at the top of the page so that you don’t miss out!).