Amie - The complete vegetable spiralizer cookbook : delicious gluten-free, paleo, weight loss and low carb recipes for zoodle, paderno and veggetti slicers!

Best for: quick set up, small quantities of noodles, small footprint on the counter, and traveling.

This inventive, hourglass-shaped kitchen utensil is easy to use, easy to clean, and lightweight enough to carry with you when you travel. If you can imagine a pencil sharpener large enough to accommodate a zucchini, then youve just imagined the Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Slicer and how it works.

As with anything in your kitchen that has a bladeblender, food processor, silverware drawer the Veggetti can bite if youre not careful. The blades are extremely sharp, so you need to be alert while youre turning your vegetables into delicious, low-calorie spaghetti strands. Most mishaps occur when a hand slips while guiding the vegetable through the blades, or when someone sticks a finger into the blade during cleaning.

Keep in mind that very little force is necessary. All you need to do is gently twist your vegetables through, preferably using the Veggettis cap to grip the vegetable while youre twisting it.

Heres how to use the Veggetti safely:

STEP 1: Leave the skin on the gripping end of the vegetable. This gives you a more solid and less slippery surface to grip while youre twisting the vegetable into the Veggetti.

Notes: For most vegetablessuch as zucchinis, carrots, yellow squashI simply grip the end of the vegetable with my hand. However, the Veggetti comes with a cap that has little spikes which help to grip slippery vegetables. I find that this cap works well for dense vegetables (carrots), but not for soft vegetables (zucchini). In my experience, the cap will shred the end of soft vegetables, making it even more difficult to push them through the Veggetti. Another option to get the last inch of goodness out of each vegetable, is to stab a fork into the vegetable instead of using your fingers or the cap.

STEP 2: the Veggetti cutter looks like an hourglass with two open ends. Each funnel has a different blade so that you can vary the type of vegetable pasta you getspaghetti-type strands or wider, udon noodles. Choose the width of noodle you want and guide your vegetable into that blade.

Notes: Youll quickly develop a preference for either the spaghetti or the udon noodle size for each vegetable. I love both, depending on the dish. Generally, I prefer the thinner spaghetti noodles for denser vegetables (carrots, beets, etc). For raw or lightly cooked dishes, I also prefer the thinner spaghetti noodles. However, the thicker udon noodles are great for soups, or dishes with thick sauces.

STEP 3 : Once your vegetable is cleaned, scrubbed, or peeled, simply place the end you want to cut into the Veggetti and begin turning it, just as you would when sharpening a pencil. The pasta strands will begin appearing as soon as the turning starts. Discard the left over portion of the vegetable or save it for another use, like enriching soup.

Notes: Keep your fingers away from the blades! The Veggetti is known to bite if youre not careful. The best way to keep your fingers safe is to make sure the part of the vegetable youre gripping is dry, unpeeled, and firm. Otherwise use the Veggettis cap or use a fork to grip the vegetable while youre spiralizing it.

For zucchini, I like to leave the stem on and use it as a grip while spiralizing. I find this to work so well that I never use the Veggettis cap or a fork when spiralizing zucchini.