I am not immune to kitchen trends. Over the years, I’ve succumbed in turn to the allure of no-knead bread, chia seed pudding, avocado toast (though I swear, I ate that one before it was cool), and even zucchini noodles (made with a julienne peeler).
One fad that I’ve somehow managed to resist up until now has been spiralizing. Though spiral slicers have been around for a while, they’ve recently become incredibly popular, owing to the fact that they allow you turn all manner of vegetable into contiguous strips that mimic the look and feel of noodles.
My primary reason for staying away from spiralizing has been the fact that it typically requires a specialized appliance to make it happen (and with just an 80 square foot kitchen to work with, I have to be careful about how much gear I bring in).
However, thanks to the new Hand-Held Spiralizer from OXO, even the smallest kitchen can be a spiralizing one. This tool is small in size but mighty when it comes to twisting soft vegetables into springy lengths.
For my first spiralizing session, I made a quick pickled cucumber salad to eat with a summery meal of corn on the cob and chicken sausages. I added some finely sliced red onion and let it mellow in the fridge for an hour before we ate.
My thinking is that this will be a useful tool for small batches of pickles, when I want something finely and neatly shredded and don’t want to pull the food processor out in order to make it happen. For those of you who have jumped aboard the spiralizing train, what’s your favorite thing to spiralize?
Disclosure: OXO sent me this spiralizer to try and write about. No additional compensation was provided. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Lightly Pickled Cucumber Salad + OXO Hand-held Spiralizer
Ingredients
- 1 large slicing cucumber
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 small red onion finely sliced
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds optional
Instructions
- Trim the end off the cucumber and fit it into the spiralizer. Twist the cucumber through the spiralizer until it has been transformed into a frenzy of cucumber springs.
- Toss the cucumber slices with the salt and sugar and let sit for 15-20 minutes. Drain away any liquid that gathered in the bottom of the bowl.
- Add the vinegar, oil, and red onion and toss to combine.
- Just before serving, top with the toasted sesame seeds, if using.
Looks like a great kitchen item; small enough to where it wouldn’t take up much room.
I don’t own a spiralizer tool of any kind. Wish I did cause I would love to make spiral French fries
Your salad looks wonderful. Thanks for sharing your recipe
This is the first spiralizer recipe I have seen that treats a vegetable as a vegetable and not a noodle. Therefore, since we love cucumber/onion/sweet peppers marinated overnight in a vinegar/sugar/water (with some dillweed and mustard seed thrown in) solution, this would be a welcome addition to my kitchen! Noodles will remain as my delicious homemade noodles forever, however. ☺ Bring on other spiral sliced veggies, too, and they too will be recognized and revered as what they are. Cauliflower is not rice, and squash and cucumbers are not noodles, but spiral french fries are wonderful.
Have you tried doing carrots with it? It seems to me if that would work with them being relatively tough this would be a good tool for things that would fit in the cup.
Looks like it would lovely zucchini spirals .
Cucumbers! I’ll have to make the pickled salad, it sounds delicious!
Mmm, spiral sunomono… It would give my V-slicer a break, since it’s what I’ve been making with half of this year’s cucumbers. Spiral-sliced beets would look very pretty in salad.
Favourite thing to spiralize: zucchini. I know, it’s not original in the least but very useful for lowering the calorie content of pasta dishes. The one I have was a gift and an ‘as seen on tv’ brand…takes up too much room, never stays attached to the counter so it is a fight to keep it from slipping but for all the annoyance the end product is fun. And for those who wonder, you can very nicely dehydrate ‘zoodles’ and rehydrate them. Between blanching/freezing chunks of zucchini and dehydrating ‘zoodles’ I’ve never had the need to sneak squash onto any neighbour’s porch this summer.
That salad sounds so refreshing! My mom used to make a similar quick-pickled cucumber salad when I was growing up. Of course, at the time, she made slices, not noodles! But I bet it would be even better with the spiralized texture. 🙂
I’ve never spiralized anything, and only tried to make “noodles” from a cucumber by hand once (too much work!). At this time of year with cucumbers and zucchini all over the place, I’ll bet I could come up with all sorts of things to try.
Mmmmmmm . . . . never seen a spiralizing gadget before but I’d sure use that one!!!! Like others have said, zucchini would be the favorite veggie but I think I’d use it on daikon radish, carrots & beets as well. I’m a big lover of raw salads but get tired of the same old ‘leafy’ things.
I was searching for a good cucumber salad recipe just last week. This one looks delicious – can’t wait to try it.
I’m always trying to get my kids to eat more vegetables. Spiralizing veggies might be the trick!
This DOES look like a very handy gadget. We have one of the older Japanese models with a hand crank that we drag out when we get an urge to go raw for a while. Still just love zucchini “noodles” with a sun dried tomato, fresh basil, and garlic “sauce.” Sooo good. Have even used it to shred carrots, then chop the shreds up a bit for carrot cake! (No, we don’t use a food processor. Too much trouble for no more than we would use it. We have all the attachments for the Kitchen Aid instead. Well, it made sense for us…)
Zucchini and yellow squash would make pretty dish!
I love to do carrots and beets. So pretty and crunchy!
this looks like a great tool that will do a lot!
Wonder if this tool would work on “hard” vegetables like carrots?? Best way to find out is to win one and try it!
Sandy, this isn’t a giveaway.
I have NEVER spiralized. But your meal definitely has me realizing all the ways I could make easy slaws. Would have been a game changer at the start of the summer! Would love to try it!
Now, at the height of cucumber salad season, I could definitely use this every day.
After looking and disregarding the idea of spiralizing for over a year, I decided to give one a try to see if it could help reduce the starch in our diet. Can’t imagine not doing this! It is a great way to get additional vegetables into the diet. Many veggies can be eaten raw after spiralizing: zucchini, jicama, cukes of course, daikon, beets, carrots, etc. My favorite has to be zucchini just because it’s so good and versatile. I have the newest Paderno spiralizer which easily breaks down into a small enclosed package when not in use and is very easy to store. It’s also easy to clean and can be used by right or left handed folks. It is very fast and easy to use. I also use it to slice up cabbage for sauerkraut because it’s faster and easier to use than a mandolin or food processor. For folks who love potatoes and sweet potatoes, spiralizing them speeds up the cooking time and if you put seasoning on them, the flavor really comes through since the shreds are thin. Great for making latkes. Someone here mentioned dehydrating spiralized zucchini and I’ll have to try that–if I can keep enough off the lunch and dinner plate to try!
Hi Marisa, is this something that could be canned? How would you can it? I’m trying hard to have more ready-made things we can eat that I know I made myself and don’t require freezer space.
No. This salad would turn into mush if you canned it.