We’re all looking for ways to add a few extra veggies to our diet. Sure, you can add a side salad to any dinner, but there are more inventive ways to eat your vegetables when you’ve got a spiralizer on hand. These handy gadgets can turn all kinds of veggies into noodles, chips and ribbons—these are our favorite veggies to spiralize.
But in our Test Kitchen, we know that spiralizing isn’t always an easy task if you’re working with an underperforming gadget. That’s why our experts tried the most popular tabletop and handheld spiralizer brands (no electric options here) to find out which would effortlessly turn our veggies into noodles.
How We Found the Best Spiralizer
When our Test Kitchen cooks put six popular brands to work, they were looking for long, beautiful ribbons of produce and an easy-to-use product. They tested each spiralizer on zucchini, cucumber, sweet potatoes, carrots, green peppers and apples and judged according to these criteria:
- Noodle quality: Does the spiralizer produce, long, unbroken, clean noodles, ribbons and chips? Does it produce consistent results?
- Ease of use and cleaning: Is it easy to assemble and operate? Does it stay in place? How do the blades hold up? Is it easy for lefties to use? Are the spiralizer and its parts easy to clean?
- Aesthetic consideration and size: Does the product store compactly? Is it well designed and attractive?
- Features: Does the product come with multiple blades? Are they useful and durable?
- Efficiency: Did you have to trim veggies to use the spiralizer? Did it take a long time or save time?
Our Test Kitchen’s Preferred Spiralizers
We’d be lying if we didn’t say our heads weren’t spinning after this test. But in the end, we found some amazing gadgets suitable for chefs of all skill levels.
For Serious Spiralizers: Paderno 8-Cut Collapsable Spiralizer
One of our Test Kitchen’s favorite spiralizer came from Paderno. This tabletop veggie spiralizer came with more blades than any option, providing you with a lot of versatility with your cuts. Each of these blades performed well, turning apples, cucumber, carrots and more into long ribbons and noodles without much effort. All these blades make the Paderno spiralizer the best option for folks that are really serious about incorporating more veggie noodles into their diet.
This model had lots of other great features, too, like a brush that made cleaning the small crevices and sharp blades safe and simple. Also, all blades could be safely and easily stored within the unit. This was a great bonus for keeping all the parts together and the sharp blades out of reach. This spiralizer was just downright impressive and had our cooks wanting to make zoodles, potato chips and apple pie (you can use the spiralizer as a peeler!) right away.
- Number of cutting options: 8 including ultra-thin noodles, thicker noodles, ribbons, curls and ripple cut
- Price: $40
Easiest to Use: OXO Good Grips 3-Blade Tabletop Spiralizer
Our test cooks also liked the veggie spiralizer from OXO Good Grips. This easy-to-find brand held fast to the countertop—no slipping and sliding—and stored compactly in its box. This brand produced beautiful, long zucchini noodles. Firmer produce like carrots and sweet potatoes produced shorter noodles, but the blades still cut through easily and cranking the handle wasn’t labored at all.
Overall, the OXO Good Grips spiralizer was simple to set up, intuitive to use and a good option if you enjoy zoodles but don’t need to get crazy with lots of blades and accessories.
- Number of cutting options: 3
- Price: $40
Best for Beginners: Spiralizer Vegetable Slicer
Spiralizer, the original brand was also one of our Test Kitchen’s favorites. It performed best on softer produce, creating long, uniform noodles. Spiralizer did have some problems with the ribbon blade and working through tough vegetables. This brand is the most affordable one we tested, so it’s a great option if you’re looking to start using this technique on veggies like cucumbers and zucchini.
- Number of cutting options: 7 options including a ribbon blade
- Price: $28
How to Use a Spiralizer at Home
Spiralizers are one of those fun gadgets that you want to find all sorts of excuses to use. They’re fun to work with and produce great results—plus they help you add more veggies and fruits into your diet (win-win-win!). At home, start by subbing in zoodles or sweet potato noodles for pasta. Here are some great recipes to get you started.
But don’t stop with basic zoodles. You can use a good spiralizer and its attachments to turn apples, melon, beets, carrots, kohlrabi and more into ribbons and noodles for all kinds of dishes. Just think how fun your fruit salad would look with gorgeous ribbons of apple instead of basic cubes. Or think how awesome this beet salad would look with curls of beets. You’ll find lots of uses for this fun gadget—and half the fun is experimenting!
Try These Spiralized Recipes
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Lisa Kaminski