Kitchen test: spiralizers

loveFOOD tests out spiralizers, the hottest item this summer. Are they a fad or here to stay?

Spiralizers are all the rage right now, so loveFOOD decided to try a few out to see what the hype is all about.

I ran four models through their paces spiralizing courgettes, apples, potatoes and carrots to find out which was best, and whether or not I could see uses for the resulting vegetable ribbons.

Turning Slicer from Juiceland

It’s best to look beyond the instruction booklet as it's risible (“You are a GOOD WIFE… YOU NEED IT”) and written in poor English, which is of little help and makes using the spiralizer seem more complicated than it really is. Just whack your chosen vegetable on the sharp metal ring, push the handle into it, and start turning. Spirals emerge, and are quite pretty too.

The Turning Slicer moved through all four vegetables without a problem, and despite only having two suckered feet, the base is very sturdy – but the handle rattles and doesn’t feel like you could rely on it forever.

If you’d rather make ‘spaghetti’ shapes than spirals, you can – but you need to unscrew the blade and remount a shredding blade the same way, so it’s straightforward but a little irritating. Be extremely careful if you want to do this, as the blades are razor sharp.

Costs £49.95 at Juiceland (currently discounted to £39.95)

Spirallicious Veggie Slicer from Magicuisine

This one is tiny. Shaped like an eggtimer, you place your veg into the top using a cap with spikes to stop it moving as you turn. Compared with the ‘full-sized’ models, it’s quite fiddly to get right, and you need to find the straightest of the straight amongst the veg aisle for it to work well. It also leaves a lot of vegetable uncut – see the below picture.

Despite this, it’s probably the most practical of all the models here as it’s small and easy to clean, and comes with a pipe-cleaner style brush to make cleaning easier.

It cannot however be easily used for potatoes or apples; you’d need to slice them into cylindrical shapes to pass them through, which seems like too much effort really. You might as well cut them with a knife.

This spiralizer is currently unavailable but very similar models are available from Amazon

Lurch Attila Hildmann Edition from UK Juicers

Though it comes with four suckered feet, the Lurch model (endorsed by vegan chef Attila Hildmann) was actually less stable and more prone to slipping around than the very secure Turning Slicer. However, the handle feels sturdier and it looks much more professional.

Three types of blades are supplied, meaning you can make spirals and wide or thin spaghetti shapes. The good news is that you don’t have to unscrew them, you just have to slide them out and in of the slot, while the spare blades are housed in slots in the body. You can remove the handle for easier cleaning.

It made short work of all four vegetables, with its deadly sharp blade. Keep your fingers well clear.

Available for £39.95 from UK Juicers

(Lurch) Vegetable Spiralizer from Lakeland

This one was up on Lakeland’s website simply as ‘Vegetable Spiralizer’, but when it arrived I realised that it’s also a Lurch model, and seems pretty much indistinguishable, in terms of use, from the Attila Hildmann edition except it doesn’t have his name on it, and it’s a different colour.

The instruction booklet doesn’t contain all the recipes the Attila model does, but usage is pretty much identical; there's the same slide-to-replace blades and removable parts for easy cleaning.

Available for £27.59 from Lakeland

The drawbacks of spiralizers

Spiralizers might make your meal look pretty, but they feel like a gimmick. Except for the small handheld model, they’re simply too large to be practical in most kitchens, and the vegetables taste the same as they would if grated or sliced.

All were very easy to stain, showing marks after just one use (carrots being the worst culprit). The Magicuisine model had less of a problem with staining because it is black and therefore the marks don’t show up.

Anyone who says that raw courgette spaghetti is good for you might have a point. Anyone who says they like the flavour – I don’t really believe you. I tried some, and it tastes just like I expected: raw courgettes. Cooked and seasoned with other ingredients, sure, it'll taste fine, but then you might as well just slicely thin them with a knife.

I wouldn't mind trying to make a version of potatoes dauphinoise that was very thin and rather crispy using the spiralled potatoes, but I'd rather have chunky bits of carrots for the crunch, and can't see the benefit in wheeling out courgettes in a spiral.

All the spiralizers waste some of the veg as you cutting; the middle of the veg ends up as a ‘pencil’ sticking through the circular point about which it rotates. Meanwhile, you can’t slice the end of the veg at all because the handle won’t move down that far to prevent damage to the plastic spikes which hold the vegetables.

It’s a good idea to take this excess and freeze it in a collective bag to add to a stock or use for soup ingredients. You’ve also got to spend extra time when out shopping to find vegetables that are wide enough to fit in your spiralizer properly (thin vegetables don’t work too easily) and also straight enough so that less goes to waste.

Do you think we'll be talking about spiralizers a few years down the line? Will courgetti and its ilk move onto restaurant menus or be forgotten? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments below.

You might also like:

Kitchen test: best ice cream machines

Kitchen test: best cheese graters

Kitchen test: best juicers