Lakeland Easy-Store Spiralizer

I don’t know about you, but as the nights draw in I start lusting after more filling foods. I often prefer to fill my plate with “empty” carbs instead of extra salad. This can be a bit of a problem for the old waistline. Worse still, if I give in to the temptation to binge on Netflix instead of going out in the wind and rain to get some exercise.

That was before I discovered courgettini. I thought there must be some dark magic involved here to be fair. To turn this slightly damp member of the squash family into such a wonderful (and low carb/low calorie) replacement for spaghetti I find nothing short of miraculous.

Spiralizing

The trend for spiralized foods has been around for a couple of years now. You take a vegetable like a courgette, carrot, butternut squash (well anything really as long as it’s not too mushy) and cut it into long thin ribbons that can take the place of noodles or pasta in most noodle or pasta based dishes.  Done properly you don’t even need to cook the spiralized noodles. You simply bring your sauce up to boiling point and stir the noodles in – the heat of the sauce will be enough to soften your noodles without causing them to start disintegrating.

When the trend first started your choice was either to improvise with the grater (which doesn’t really do ribbons and believe me grated carrot is no substitute for spaghetti) or to buy extremely expensive bags of vegetables from the supermarket. They don’t last as long either. When you can buy 250g of spiralized courgette for the price of 2kg fresh from the plant you know someone is cashing in. And it’s not Merlin.

No Dark Magic After All

Now, as we all know, Lakeland is the home of all great kitchen gadgets. Therefore, it really didn’t come as a surprise that they should start selling a spiralizer once it was clear there was a demand for it. This is so easy to use. You simply prepare your veg, stick it in the machine and turn the handle. Out comes beautiful, long, spaghetti-like strands of spiralized goodness. They’re all ready to be tossed with that glorious warming Bolognase or spicy sweet chilli sauce you were lusting after.

With a choice of three thicknesses of noodles, you can choose the right blade for the vegetable and recipe you have in mind. It also comes with a flat blade so you can create ribbons of vegetables. These are perfect for inclusion in salads and stir-fries. The blades slot underneath for storage.  Better still, it comes with a neat little dust cover. This allows you to put things on top of it if storage is at a premium in your kitchen. The non-slip feet hold it still whilst you’re cranking the handle. It’s also easy enough to swap it round for both left- and right-handed use. It even comes with an attachment to allow you to make spiral-cut skewers. This is perfect if you fancy something a little different one evening.

Now I don’t know about you, but with this little gadget, I’m prepared for an autumn menu that won’t have me looking as round as Santa by Christmas!