Turn your veggies into noodles

This spiralizer easily turns zucchini, cucumber, and even butternut squash into noodles Michael Hession YOUR GUIDE Grant Clauser Every spring finds me spending hours in my backyard garden, tilling and fertilizing soil, digging small trenches, securing trellises and tomato cages, and rigging a deer fence. And eventually I’m rewarded with the burden of figuring out what to do with all those excess fresh vegetables. As any gardener knows, zucchini, among other squashy things, is the main offender in this overabundance. Seriously, there’s only so much zucchini bread a person can eat. And this is where my [OXO Good Grips Spiralizer]( comes in: With a few handcranks, I can turn a humble courgette into an elegant dish of noodly goodness. Without the spiralizer, I’d probably be forced to sneak more zukes onto my neighbors’ porches. Maybe I think it’s fun to use because it reminds me of a Play-Doh Buzz ’n Cut Fuzzy Pumper Barber Shop. But instead of worm lengths of colorful Play-Doh, you get consistent strands of cucumber curls for salads or butternut squash noods ready to sizzle in a pan with tomatoes and basil (also freshly picked, of course). I haven’t yet tried sweet potatoes in the spiralizer, but as I write this I’m adding sweet potatoes to my shopping list. The OXO spiralizer comes with three blades: two for spaghetti-like noodles and one that makes a wider ribbon. I mostly use the noodle blades, but the ribbon blade makes nice work of cucumbers. For fun I used it on a few large dill pickles to create a more interesting Beyond Burger topper. “With a few handcranks, I can turn a humble courgette into a dish of noodly goodness.” One of my favorite, simple summer lunches is a cucumber noodle salad. Since I work at home, I can walk out to the garden, pick a fresh cuke off the vine, and run it through the ringer in a minute. If I have a carrot around, I’ll noodle that too. Then I toss them in a bowl and add some chopped chili pepper and halved cherry tomatoes (if those are also ripe). Finally, I top it all with some sesame dressing. What makes the spiralizer a pleasure is it’s just so easy to use. Its base suction-cups onto your kitchen counter, so the spiralizer stays in one place even if you’re cranking through a dense butternut squash. The ends grip your veggies securely, and the handle has a smooth cranking motion. It does make a mess on my countertop, but it cleans up easily and includes a box to safely store the blades. The blade box fits into the spiralizer, so you probably won’t lose them in your cabinet. After two years of use, the blades on mine are still very sharp. If there’s anything I don’t like about the OXO spiralizer, it’s the wasted cores you get from every vegetable you run through it. With zucchini and cucumbers, that core is going to be the soft center of the veggie anyway. But with a large squash or potato, you’ll have pinky-width scraps to deal with. I toss those into my compost heap. Since zucchini is a mainstay of my spiralizer, I have to be watchful over my garden so the squashes don’t grow to the size of a baseball bat. At that point they become too soft in the middle for making noodles—but they are still good for scooping and refilling for zucchini boats. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. [Learn More ›]( How it compares After testing more than 10 tabletop spiralizers, plus six handheld attachments and one food processor attachment—as well as consulting with multiple professional chefs—we found the OXO Good Grips Spiralizer to be the best. - It has been a Wirecutter pick since 2016. - Compared with those on other models, the blades on the OXO are sharper. So they can cut through heavier vegetables like butternut squash, and the sharp blades don’t clog as easily as others. - Other models didn’t stay in place as easily when in use, and they didn’t include a safe place to store all the sharp blades. Read more in our review of [the best spiralizers](. When to buy We usually see deals on this spiralizer during Black Friday and other deal events. But note that the street price has gone up recently, and we haven’t seen a deal yet this year. The numbers $42 Average street price $24 Best price we've seen Make it last Dried-on vegetable scraps can be harder to clean off than fresh ones, so it’s important to clean the spiralizer right after using it; this will also prevent staining. To keep the blades sharp, always store them in the supplied compartment. Otherwise, they could dull by rubbing against other things in your drawer or cabinet (as well as cut your fingers). Make sure you keep the suction-cup base clean so you always get a good grip on your counter. Some users have observed that it doesn’t grip well on butcher-block counters. [View email in browser]( You are receiving this email because you signed up for Wirecutter’s Newsletter. Getting too many emails from us? [Unsubscribe here](. 
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