Review: Veggie Slicer

If you follow me on Facebook you know how excited I was to finally get a chance to try a veggie spiralizer gadget. So many of my friends had been talking about it online and how amazing it was that I was getting a little jealous. The company apparently took pity on me because they were kind enough to send me one for an honest review. I was over the moon. I started pinning recipes left and right on Pinterest. I even watched some how-to videos on what vegetables to use it on. I mean this thing can spiralize anything from a beet to butternut squash. *mind blown*

Then I got the device and the first thing I tried were carrots. Now, I don't know about you but my grocery store's carrots are not massive in size. They are larger than the ones you get in those pre-packaged bags, but apparently not big enough for the Veggie Slicer. I wanted to make carrot "noodles" for a salad but due to the carrots shape and size, I was getting more rice, than noodle shapes. It didn't matter though, I just got this gadget and I would not be deterred. I ate my carrot rice salad and I loved it!

Sweet potato failure

Next I tried sweet potato. I really wanted curly sweet potato string "fries". So I grabbed the straightest and most narrow sweet potato I could find at the grocery store, went home, and got to work. Let me tell you, it is NOT as easy as you see on T.V. Let's just say that this is a good arm workout. Which wouldn't be a huge issue for me if the device wasn't so awkward to hold. It has these paper thin metal side things that are not the most pleasant to grip, let alone they feel like they would snap on you with the littlest pressure. There really is no easy way to hold this thing... so I gave up and handed it to the Mr. He tried for a while but I was getting too hungry and we weren't making much progress. So I told him to stop and that I'd just make normal fries.

Like cutting butter

Then I tried using the Veggie Slicer on zucchini. The experience was night and day. Sure it was awkward holding the device but zucchini is so soft that the device cut through it like melted butter. I didn't need to hold it in a death grip while I made "noodles". I was able to go through four zucchini in the time it took me to make that tiny pile of sweet potato. I made a really delicious shrimp scampi with the zucchini noodles and it was pretty easy. I actually plan on making the scampi again this week for dinner.

Conclusion: While this device can make an awesomely healthy shrimp scampi, I'm not sold on it. It's uncomfortable to hold onto, difficult to use on harder vegetables, and isn't the easiest thing in the world to clean. I spent more time cleaning the zucchini bits out of the blades than I did spiralizing the zucchini in the first place. I think it's a nifty gadget and it's an amazing way to eat more vegetables but it needs to be a little more user friendly.