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The Spiralized Trend: Making Your Own Veggie Noodles

Looking to add more veggies to your plate? Love noodles? Spiralized veggies may be for you.

In the last few years, zoodles, swoodles, boodles, and poodles—all forms of veggie noodles have been popping up on social media posts and restaurant menus throughout the world.

It’s easy to see why as these spiralized veggies bring extra color, nutrients and antioxidants to any plate, along with satisfying many diets including low-carb and gluten-free.

A quick reference guide:
Zoodles = zucchini noodles
Swoodles = sweet potato noodles
Coodles = carrot noodles
Boodles = beet noodles or butternut squash noodles
Poodles = parsnip noodles

Any firm vegetable will work from cucumbers to summer squash, and you can even try it with apples and pears.

Spiralized veggies are a great substitute for pasta but can also be made to create beautiful salads, stir-fries and more. If you want to give them a try without putting in time in the kitchen, you can buy them pre-made at the grocery store from companies like Veggie Noodle Co. For a small to medium investment, you can make your own at home. Spiralizers can cost anywhere from $15 to $100.

Buying your own spiralizer will save you money in the long run and these kitchen gadgets don’t take up too much space in the kitchen—so you can have your juicer and spiralizer on the same counter. Many come with multiple removable blades to make various sizes such as fettucine (wide noodles), spaghetti (thinner noodles) or ribbons out of your veggies.

Spiralizers typically come in two varieties—handheld or standing. A handheld is recommended for both ease of use and storage. It’s easy to clean and could easily fit in a kitchen drawer. The standing variety uses a hand crank to push the veggies through a blade, which requires just a little bit more space and has a little more gadget to clean. You can also find spiralizers that attach to other appliances like a mixer.

Here’s three to check out:

OXO Good Grips Handheld Spiralizer ($14.99)

This model is small and sturdy and creates curly noodles (great for making your own curly fries) with two blade options. Recommended by Cooks Illustrated, it’s easy to hold and BPA-free. It’s also dishwasher safe—perfect for those that are looking for easy clean-up.

Paderno World Cuisine Spiral Vegetable Slicer ($24.99)

This spiralizer comes with three blades (one straight one for ribbons and two julienne blades for wider and thin noodles).  Recommended by Oprah Magazine, it’s also BPA-free, has a suction base to mount to the counter while you cut the veggies, and its components are dishwasher safe.

KitchenAid Spiralizer Attachment ($79)

This model is for those who already have a KitchenAid mixer and want to take advantage of this attachment. It has four removable blades and an optional peeling blade, and comes with its own storage case. All blades are dishwasher safe on the top rack. And it uses the power from the motor to make the noodles.

If you don’t want to invest in a spiralizer, you can still try this trend with some other tools in your kitchen that might require just a little extra elbow grease. For example, you can use a julienne peeler to peel long strands from your vegetables and make noodles.

Now that you’ve got the tools and techniques down, it’s time to get cooking. Here are a few of our favorite recipes: