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spiral slicers

What are these ‘spiral slicers’ or spiroli (sp?) I notice mentioned in so many recipes? Is it a little tool, or machine? Where do I find one, and how much do they cost? I’d love to try one of the raw pasta recipes, but I could never figure out what that spiral slicer is!

Comments

  • Spiral slicers turn zucchini, etc into thin long pasta noodles. I bought the Benriner Cook Help from the site below that I listed and it works well, plus fast delivery. You’ll be amazed how light it is. (With the Benriner cook Help, you need a separate mandoline slicer if you want to slice chips). The saladacco has mixed reviews. Some love it while others say it’s a piece of crap. The spirooli 3-in-1 might be nice but read customer reviews first before purchasing it online.

    The benriner cook help is here- http://www.quickspice.com

    The spirooli is here- http://www.rawguru.com/store/raw-food/spirooli-...

    The saladacco is here- http://www.rawgourmet.com/saladacco.html

  • germin8germin8 Raw Master

    Spiral Slicer. I got mine from Loving Life Cafe who ordered it from Natural Zing

    I got mine for about $35 a few months back. It’s very nice for making zucchini/squash noodles… angel hair “pasta”... thin sliced apples. I like mine, but it could be more… “industrial?”

  • i ordered a saldacco from amazon for around 20$ and i love it! it takes a little practice to get the ‘noodles’ nice and long, and to keep them from breaking. The key is to maintain steady pressure the entire time. I wish it was a little more ‘heavy duty’ – but i have used it a lot and it certainly seems to handle whatever i through at it. (carrots, eggplant, zucchini, etc…)

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    I recommend the spiroli over the saladacoo. It easier to use and you don’t have to cut the fruit in half. You can stick the whole thing in there and it is practically zero effort. Honestly. I have used both.

  • Hi MiniB- You can get a device for about $5.00 that will do it by hand. The one I got to start looked like a leg shaver! I think I got it at Target. I just got a spiral slicer but haven’t used it much yet. I would get the least expensive one to start because I think you’d need a stronger one if you really got into it and that would be around 100.00 and the really professional ones are about $400.00!

    I just made the best rawvioli out of thinly sliced jicama, filled with blended spinach, mushrooms, garlic, and basil. Add in some pine nuts if you have them and red pepper. It’s an easy way to do a little pasta-type thing. You could use zuccini instead of jicama for the ravioli noodles. Top with chopped tomatoes and spices. I sliced a jicama a few days ago and then put a little olive oil and garlic in with it. It has kept really well so you could make it ahead of time for the weekend. You could put sprouted chick peas and onions in some like piroges, and put chive and macadamia nut filling in others for diversity. I actually like noodles made out of cucumber better than ones made out of zuccini but you have to eat them within a day. I also tried parsnips cut into the spaghetti type noodles. They are really great amazingly! They are really starchy so you need to soak them and then put some rice vinegar and or olive oil on them and then let them soften up for a couple hours. Getting everything ready and putting the tomato sauce on and letting it soak in for a couple of hours is the best for texture and flavor.

    Have fun and congratulations on your baby! =)

  • rawmamarawmama Raw Newbie

    Hi, I agree with queenfluff. We have both, and the saladacco makes great angel hair pasta, BUT you have to have a small chunck of vegetable instead of an entire zucchini (for example) with the spirooli. And you have to empty the saladacco container often, but with the spirooli, you can just keep on going and have it empty the noodles into a bowl or plate of your choice. Also, we’ve found that the saladacco gets rusty if you do not have it 100% dry after washing, but no problems at all with the spriooli. When we do spirooli noodles, we sea salt them, and squeeze lemon on them, and leave them in a colander for about 2 hours or more depending on how soft and noodle-like you’d like them to become. HOWEVER, you can always do long, deep slices in your vegetable (but not the entire way through) with a knife, then use a potato peeler and make long swoops with it to create long noodles.

    writeeternity, that rawvioli sounds terrific!

  • i had both the spirooli and saladacco and i must say that in terms of durability they are somewhat junk. they both rely on the screwing mechanism to lock the turning handle – really bad engineering (or good marketing.. as you will get a new one every few years) – eventually the screwing mechanism goes out of shape and it’s practically unrepairable. i don’t like purchasing non-durable stuff – especially if it’s plastic – i mean why buy something that will go into landfills in a matter of a few years? so i’m looking at the higher end turning slicers – like this one does anybody have the better ones and for how long? is it better engineering?

  • FeeFee Raw Master

    I have what I think must be a newer or european version of the spiroli. Its great as it can be used as a mandoline for slices or for grating or for thick/thin julienne as well as making spiral ‘pastas’ depending upon how you put the blade it. It also comes with a bit to stick on top so you can juice citrus fruit with it. All in all great value for money and thoroughly recommended. Have fun which ever you end up with though.

  • Hi. Fee- what is the model of the one you have- that sounds really cool? I bought a $90.00 mandolin last week but it was so flimsy I took it back. The blade would bend when trying to do hard vegetables so you couldn’t get super thin ones. I am more comfortable with the 5.00 hand noodle maker than the one with the crank on the top so if I did get something better I’d like to get something that does everything and is durable.

    Thanks for the tip Rawmama! I will remember the one about the collander.

    That’s a really good point about the landfill Ofek- that made me think.

  • FeeFee Raw Master

    This is the link to my spiroli. http://www.ethicaljuicers.co.uk/rawkitchen_spir… I love it and its so easy to clean. Thats really poor that something you paid good money for wasnt up to the job. At least you managed to get your money back.

  • I used a spiralizer to great effect for a picnic lunch with Mom for Mother’s Day: http://www.zenpawn.com/vegblog/2007/05/14/mothe…

    She got a kick out of the long noodles, lifting them up in the air as though performing the magic trick where the colored scarves just keep coming from the magician’s sleeve. :)

  • Hi Fee, thanks for your response. That device looks really cool and the price is right!

    Thanks for the link for the recipes Zenpawn- that looked really nice too.

  • The benriner sprializer rocks my socks. =) So easy to use and clean. I would definitely recommend it, although it is a little pricey (I got mine for $50). I can’t compare it to other spiralizers, since I haven’t tried any other brands, but I am in love with mine for sure.

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    I have one that makes spaghetti-type noodles that is a hand-held model, like those described above, by Pampered Chef. As rarely as I use it, it’s great because it doesn’t take up any space and it’s easy to wash. Pampered Chef products are usually more expensive than their counterparts, but I got mine for very little on eBay! I use a veggie peeler to make fettucine-type of noodles. I’m usually only un-cooking for one.

  • I just received a Benriner Cook Help for Christmas. I’ve only used it on carrots with the smallest blade so far but it worked great. It is made of nylon and abs so hopefully it will hold up for a long time. I searched the web a bit to find the best price. It’s $32.99 at Buy4asianlife.com.

  • greeniegreenie Raw Newbie

    I have the spirooli, the smaller Benriner, and also the Saladacco. I always use the spirooli because it’s so much easier.

    What I like about the spirooli is that the blades come in attached assemblies that slide into the cutting area. This makes it a snap to replace the blades for different cutting tasks. The Benriner has bare blades tht you need to screw in and out!! They are sharp and I always fear I’ll cut myself when I use it. The Spirooli is also much easier to clean. And it accomodates much larger vegetables. The Benriner makes a large model that can take larger veggies, but that model also has the screw-in blades.

    The Saladacco makes finer angel-hair type strands but I find it irksome to use. The blade gizmo is a little tricky to get in. And then you have to place a small amount of vegetable in a covered cutting area: it gets spiralized into a small container. So you need to open the container, empty it, and re-assemble everything again and again to cut up as much as you want. I used it only once or twice, it’s totally not worth the bother IMHO. I’m about to sell my Benriner and Saladacco on eBay.

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