"EDITED 2014 - This is a review of the original 3 blade version of this slicer which I far prefer to the newer four blade model. If you are deciding between the two I think there is no comparison. While the newer version looks slicker and is more self contained, it just doesn't handle the veggies near as well as this one does. I've reviewed the other machine if you want to have a look and see my issues with it. But this 3 blade version is phenomenal and a staple in my kitchen. Easily one of the best gadgets ever made in my opinion. Read on..... -- I had to interrupt my cooking to write this review. Believe me, I am not easily moved to write product reviews. This would be my second here on amazon (since the writing of this review three years ago I have added many more product reviews here on amazon). But, this little turning slicer is amazing. Simply amazing. It makes quick work of everything I throw at it and to date that would include: radishes carrots cucumbers onions (they work a little differently from the other vegetables) kohlrabi (makes a fabulous, refreshing salad) zucchini (I can never remember how many "Ns" are in that vegetable) apples and, sweet potatoes I may even have done a celeriac but I can't recall for sure. This device never balks. And it is a pleasure to clean. I had to give up pasta a few months back and I found myself missing the act of twirling long strands of food on a fork. It was then that I searched for a spiral slicer, not sure if one existed that could meet my fork twirling needs. I bought this little gem because I figured it was inexpensive enough that if I didn't like it all that much, it wouldn't be too much of a hardship. Honestly, for what this does I would easily pay twice or three times the price. As I write this I am in the middle of spiralling cucumbers for the old family cucumber salad recipe. Many of the strands that come out of this thing get close to 2 feet long. Food prep doesn't get much more fun than that. The First four (large) cucumbers took all of 4 minutes to break down into perfect, long, spirally strands. I have four more to go when I finish this review. Okay, some of the reviewers here have complained that you lose about 3/8ths from the center of anything you are spiraling, and this is indeed true. In the case of cucumbers, that means that the device is essentially getting rid of those pesky seeds for you but in the case of a carrot, you lose a bit of viable vegetable. Do I mind this? NO, who cares. Use that center 3/8ths carrot piece for something else, or snack on it while you shred the rest of your veggies. Its not as if the center 3/8ths isn't usable, it just isn't made into long spirally strands. So, it wouldn't make sense to try to shred baby carrots or asparagus because they aren't much larger than 3/8ths of an inch so there wouldn't be much to spiral. I can't speak to the durability of this slicer because, alas, I've only owned it for two months as of this writing. So far so good however and it does seem durable. It is well designed. The extra blades snap into a holder in the middle of the slicer so you aren't likely to lose them nor are you likely to cut yourself on them inadvertantly. Though lightweight, the whole unit feels fairly sturdy and I can't imagine needing to replace it for a long long time. The whole thing suctions onto your work surface which makes it very manageable. I've started using it in preparations where hitherto I've used a mandolin slicer. This spiral slicer doesn't make it easy to cut off fingertips the way you can with a mandolin. On a final note before I get back to the cucumber salad.... I do not like kitchen devices that make a job longer than it needs to be and that includes gadgets that take forever to clean or have sharp edges to wash and be careful of. You could hurt yourself with this thing but honestly you would have to try pretty hard to do that. it doesn't want to hurt you and the company seem to have thought of everything so that it would only really injure someone determined to draw blood. it is not a child's toy however and so it requires the same respect you would give any other item with sharp blades. There is one minor quibble I have with the device and hope that the company reads this and deals with it in a future incarnation of the product... when the spirals come out it is a little bit difficult to manage where they will end up. It would be nice if they design a catch basin type thing for the strands as they fall from the blades. This is a minor quibble because you really can catch all the strands if you're careful but I just don't want to have to be careful all the time. Okay, that's it, back to my cucumber salad. EDITED July 2013 -- THOUGHTS AFTER 3 YEARS OF OWNERSHIP: I still absolutely love this thing. It continues to work flawlessly and fairly effortlessly, breaking down all kinds of vegetables. Admittedly my favorites are cucumbers and zucchini but I have spiralized many others as noted above. In all this time it hasn't stained (as many of these gadgets do) and the blades don't seem to have lost any of their effectiveness. I admit that cleaning it, while still relatively easy, is not child's play. Still, it doesn't take long. I used to put my zucchini noodles in a vegetable basket on the grill with some spiralized onions and coated with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and they were a crowd pleaser every time. But it has been brutally hot and humid here so I thought I would go for something a little more refreshing. I served the noodles raw (using the smallest blade) and coated them with a homemade "guacamole" sauce. This was another crowd pleaser and rivals the cucumber salad. 3 years later and I can't sing the praises of this thing highly enough. I just really don't understand the naysayers.... particularly the folks who complain about the wasted vegetable "core" Get creative and find something to do with it. Challenge yourself! Most of all I am impressed by how well this thing has held up. UPDATE AUGUST 2013.... There seems to be much debate about whether this little unit suctions effectively to the work surface. For me, it does. I have a polished granite countertop. I am going to guess that this suctions much less well (if at all) to some lightly textured formicas. That may well be where the debate stems from. RECIPES.... UPDATE: A BLOG AT LAST! I am just starting to blog my recipes. The first four have been posted but am hoping to get many more up and running..... okay. here's the blog address spelled out.... my website is s n o o t y d o g - dot - c o m. There is a link at the top of the page for my blog. Let me know if you find it useful"
Paderno World Cuisine A4982799 Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer (Compare deals from $33.24
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" There was an episode of The Chew in which Clinton made zucchini noodles. He used a hand-held device that you had to manually twist the zucchini in. I was intrigued with the concept of zucchini noodles but the idea of having to use that device turned me off because it seemed tedious. Found this product and bought it after reading all the rave reviews. Now let me say I am actually not a big pasta eater. But I love noodles. Ramen, egg, lo mein, rice, bean thread, these are the types of noodles I grew up on and crave. Not only do I love noodles, but I hate vegetables. I'm almost 40 and I still hate veggies almost as much as I did when I was a kid. It's not so much the taste I dislike but rather the texture. Enter the spiralizer and 2 birds are killed with 1 stone. We served pot roast over zucchini noodles, and it was great. It didn't feel like I was eating zucchini at all. Of course, in no way did I mistake them for "real" noodles. Another reviewer said her daughter or friend couldn't believe she wasn't eating real pasta noodles. I honestly don't see how anyone could think that, but I guess it depends on how you cook your zucchini noodles and/or how you normally cook your pasta noodles. Anyway, while I wasn't fooled into thinking I was eating real noodles, the fact that the zucchini was now shaped like noodles made them so much easier to eat. As easy, in fact, as eating real noodles. I went through 2 goodly sized zucchinis worth of zoodles in 1 sitting, and it didn't feel at all like I was eating vegetables, let alone that much of them. There is a website, inspiralized dot com, that has so many amazing, creative recipes geared around this spiralizer. You would be shocked at how many things could be made, even spiralized "rice" from sweet potato or daikon radish. We haven't had this thing for even a week yet, but between hubby and me, we have already eaten 6 zucchinis, 3 yellow squashes, and 3 carrots, all noodle-lized, in only 3 meals. That's more than we usually eat in a full month! We've also made curly fries, which came out crazy good. I already have plans for butternut squash, sweet potatoes, beets, apples and broccoli stems and plan to make noodle soups, salads, and desserts. Not only are the results of this spiralizer great, it's also extremely easy to use. I can spiralize a whole zucchini in about 30 seconds (see video--that was my first try). Clean-up is easy. The thing comes with 3 different blades, and there's a storage space at the bottom for the 2 unused blades, which is a great design. The bottom has suction cups which keep the thing mounted on your countertop so it's not shifting, although I don't usually find it necessary to use them. Plus, easy to clean! Here are some minor issues to be aware of: - you do need a hard bristle brush to clean the blades. I just use the one that came with my juicer. - the blade you are using slides down in a guillotine style when you install it. It's easy to put in but a little tricky to pull out. I can't just pull it out. There is a little tab at the bottom of the blade that I have to use my fingertip to press out to release first, then I can pull the blade up. This, for me, is the hardest part of using the spiralizer, but really, it's a minor inconvenience at worst. - there will be a leftover piece of whatever you are slicing/spiralizing. It will be about a 1/4"-1/2" thick disc. No biggie, I just chop it up and add it to whatever I happen to be cooking. For example, I made spaghetti sauce. It didn't call for zucchini, yellow squash, or carrots, but I just threw those little pieces in and the world did not collapse. - the thicker/wider the veggie, the better. For example, a thin carrot isn't going to work very well. Being so slim, it won't be very stable when you spin it in the spiralizer and will tend to break or fall out. - it's made of white plastic, and I've found it stains rather easily when dealing with colored veggies like carrots and beets, and the stains don't easily wash out. Overall, this is a really nifty gadget. It's actually fun to use. And it puts some fun in eating veggies for both children and adults."
"Let me begin this review by establishing a bit of credibility. I am a long time proponent of the original Paderno Tri Blade slicer. I have one of the top (5 star) reviews of it here on amazon (http://smile.amazon.com/review/R1WN790YI25X21/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm), use it often, know its strengths and weaknesses, have a small blog of spiralized recipes, and genuinely think it is one of the greatest kitchen gadgets ever invented. So it was that I was very eager to get my hands on this brand new Paderno Slicer. At first glance this looks like an incredible upgrade of the tri blade slicer. While keeping the basic premise the same, Paderno has done a major design overhaul. It truly looks like it would be a huge functional improvement. But looks can be deceiving. With the original slicer some people complained that they lost too much of the veggie to the center coring blade. Paderno answered this complaint by making the central coring blade significantly thinner. Unfortunately, this thin blade is just not strong enough to hold the softer veggies in place while spiralizing. With the original slicer I was able to effortlessly spiralize 10 cucumbers in less than 15 minutes. With this upgraded version the cucumbers kept popping off the center coring blade and the net result was that instead of cucumber "noodles" I had mangled cucumber bits and short cucumber half circles. That was with the widest noodle blade. I had a tad more success using the flat ribbon blade on the cucumbers, but it still wasn't ideal. The noodle cutting blades didn't seem as sharp, either. As a result of all these changes, it took me longer to spiralize than it had with the original slicer. Far longer. Onions fared better with the widest noodle blade. I assume this is because of their firmer texture. Likewise carrots, Radishes, Kohlrabi and similar "hard" veggies will fare better than the cucumbers or zucchini. There is a very thin blade which works well with the firmer vegetables and if you want angel hair carrots this updated slicer will do a very good job. In fact, the angel hair blade is a real positive improvement but you have to make sure to use firm veggies. My cucumbers turned to mush with the angel hair blade. In truth, I wouldn't expect this to be a good blade for cucumbers though. This updated version comes with a little catch basin for the noodles as they come off the spiralizer. It was one of the suggestions I made in my original review. But here we find a design flaw.... first of all, I can't imagine what the engineers at Paderno were spiralizing that would fit in this little "trough." One normal sized cucumber easily will overflow that basin when sent through the spiralizer. Also, the design of the machine leaves a bit of a black hole where all the veggies fall. There is no way to get a plate or bowl under the part of the spiralizer that the veggies fall from. I had more vegetables on my counter than I ever had with the original spiralizer. There was an awful lot to clean up when I was done. Speaking of cleaning up.... the original spiralizer was very easy to clean. Yes, you had to be careful not to manhandle the blades lest you draw blood, but beyond that, it cleaned and dried fairly effortlessly. This upgraded version has a lot of parts and many more construction nooks and crannies to clean. Cleaning it is not an awful job but it is a bit more cumbersome. It also takes a long time to dry because water finds its way into all the nooks. Are any of the improvements worthwhile? Yes, I suppose so... because the core cutting blade is significantly smaller, you can now spiralize narrower veggies like the little finger carrots. Also, the "teeth" that hold the vegetables in place are a better and sturdier design. Another plus is the design of the blade storage as well as how it the blade plates now slide in sideways. I liked this sideways design... it seems a bit safer somehow. I like the little door that covers the plates that are not in use, and I kind of like the fact that they labelled the plates with squiggly little graphics to show what size and shape noodle each blade plate will make. But here's the BOTTOM LINE.... None of these improvements are at all useful if the actual purpose of this gadget can't be achieved and honestly, the machine failed with softer veggies. It seems to me from the feedback I get that the most frequently spiralized veggie is zucchini and for that this machine just doesn't compare to the original. If you're looking for a spiralizer for only carrots, potatos, kohlrabi, radishes, onions and other firm veggies and fruits then this would be an acceptable choice. But for me, I most often like to spiralize cucumbers, zucchini and other softer textured veggies and this spiralizer just can't handle those. For my money I want a spiralizer that can handle all the veggies. I will stick with Paderno's original spiralizer. It has kept me happy all these years. Hopefully Paderno will send their engineers back to the drawing board. I will look forward to their next upgrade. I am changing my rating from two to three stars because it does work okay with the firmer veggies. I still swear by this company and love the original spiralizer."
"After literally years of searching for and experimenting with vegetable slicers that can create pasta-like ribbons from zucchinis, apples or any firm vegetable or fruit to satisfy our Paleo-Diet needs, I have one product that is worth recommending. World Cuisine's Tri-blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer is simple to use, easy to clean and delivers a crisp-edged product with very little inconsistency when used over and over. It is a matter of understanding the mechanics of the machine, aligning the vegetables in the slicer for accurate cutting and expecting great results. There are five parts to the slicer: the base, three slicing blades and the sliding food holder that holds the vegetables firm and guides them into the aperture. One of the interchangeable blade panels always remains in the base and the remaining two blades are held in place in storage openings in the base of the machine. You do have to make sure that they are securely snapped into place, otherwise they will slide out when you wash the base. A soft bristle vegetable brush with a little soap and water will extract any fresh food particles that are left stuck in the blades. I rinse it directly after use, so I cannot attest to what happens in the dishwasher. I am cautious about placing anything with blade that needs to be kept sharp in the dishwasher anyway... The slicing options are: 1) long thin strands like a medium -sized spaghetti. These strands are a long as the vegetable is sliced, so a medium-sized zucchini will yield almost two cups of "noodles"! One or two cuts into manageable lengths is a good idea; this option is great if you experiment with and serve various dressings for raw dishes like I do at TOM TOM GALLERY; 2) The second blade yields long, curly ringlets. If you like curly fries, this is the blade for you. It works well with white, red and sweet potatoes. They can be quickly sauteed if you are serving cooked foods. I've also used this for radishes and jicama to add as salad ingredients. Carrots, apples and even fennel bulbs (before sauteeing) also are good selections. The third blade is for long, broad curls that be manipulated into rosettes or other shapes to add visual texture to your plated presentations. The center or core of the food is held firmly in place as the outer flesh is peeled away in thin layers or strips. This leaves a long cylinder of the vegetable and about a quarter inch of it where it is held into the base. This end product is obviously edible ad looks very much like a mushroom cap and a long stem. Cut it and add it to your dishes! We've been able to eliminate the seeds from cucumbers by simply placing the vegetable into the slicer and rotating it around the seedcenter. The experimentation comes in trying various fresh vegetables and fruits; practice comes from learning to affix the vegetable directly into the center of the holder and applying downward pressure on the handle provided just for that purpose. The spiral turning handle is just to guide and push the food through the machine. The slicer has suction cups on its base, presumably to keep it stationary while in use. I could never get these to stick to any surface yet, so I simply place the machine on a damp dish towel -- similar to the way I use a salad spinner to dry large batches of leafy greens. I purchased the Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer from Amazon and it arrived within three days, through regular shipping options. All product recommendations should come with a caveat, and here is mine: We eat 90 percent raw at TOM TOM GALLERY on Long Island where we create and serve cocktail meals and cater vintage-inspired parties. We do not eat any grains, but sometime I miss that pasta texture! We use this spiral slicer almost everyday, sometimes twice a day. The machine is sturdy, but it is plastic and care must be taken that it does not crack. It hasn't happened to us, but If we banged in around a little more, or treated it as if it were a stainless steel appliance, it could easily happen. This is not an industrial machine and is built for home or artisan cafe use and that it how we use it! World Cuisine 48297-99 Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer"
"I just bought this utensil when it came on sale for just under $23 two weeks ago. When I first received the slicer I was a little skeptical about the plastic handle and the plastic resistance bar you use to push the vegetable towards the blade. However, overall the piece looked very nice for the very low price I paid. I really liked how the 2 other blades were neatly tucked into the utensil right under the tray along with the suction cups on all 4 legs. Good use of space! I decided to use a very large zucchini I had to test it out and make some, what I like to call, zughetti. I was amazed at how easily the tool turned my zucchini into spaghetti. It was like magic. I had to apply very little pressure on the resistance bar and the crank to get it to work. The strands came out so even and beautiful with very few strands breaking in the process. The little 1/4 inch part of the zucchini that remained didn't bug me one bit. I just threw it in with the rest of the zuggheti I lightly sautéed on the pan. I don't understand why people are complaining about that. It's STILL a VEGETABLE! Cut it up and use it for something, anything! The next thing I tried was a potato using the straight slicing blade. It very neatly spiralized my potato into perfectly thin slices. Most of them were connected which I thought was pretty cool. You could easily deep fry or pan fry the potato slices to make potato chips or really anything you want. When slicing the potato, a lot of liquid was oozing down the side of the slicer down to the bottom of the tool because I did not dry off my potato well enough. To avoid extra clean-up in the case that this happens, I highly recommend removing the 2 other blades from the storage section and placing them somewhere clean and dry while using the slicer so you don't have to rewash those in the event that your vegetable is a bit juicy. One piece of advice while cleaning the blades. I made the mistake of scrubbing the blade attachments down with a bristled brush. This is ok to do on the side the blade sticks out. But beware of accidentally getting your bristles caught between the plastic and the blade. This will cut the bristles off your brush and probably eventually dull your blade. These blades are very sharp. I also found that it is easiest to use with larger vegetables. Things like thin carrots and zucchinis aren't going to work well unless you are really looking for a very small amount to add to something like a salad. In my opinion, the bigger the vegetable, the better, especially for things like vegetable spaghetti. I will update my review once I use the slicer more. For now, I think it's great. The reason I am giving this item 5 stars is because, for the price, this is a great tool. For those of you who are complaining about the device being plastic and "losing" part of the vegetable (which in reality you don't lose anything unless you choose to), good luck finding another slicer for the same price and functionality that is not made of plastic. I would love to see one. And since you do know it's plastic, treat it with care. No need to put rock hard vegetables through it and break it. I appreciated reading all the helpful reviews on here that helped me decide to buy this product. I love it."
"I found this device difficult to use. I'm an experienced cook, and I like new gadgets as long as they do what they say they will do. It's important that they make meal prep easier & more convenient. I also like quality, particularly when it comes to kitchen tools. Experienced cooks need reliable, solid, easy-to-use tools, and this is a.) not reliable because it sometimes takes 2 people to operate safely, b.) not solid because it is almost entirely made of molded plastic except for the razor-sharp exposed blades, and c.) not easy-to-use because the entire machine needs to be rinsed off with every use. It's not a matter of breaking it down into parts & cleaning the parts. I'm saying that food gets into every crevice, and you need to wipe or rinse the main cabinet which also contains the blade storage compartments. I have owned a Cuisinart for many years, as well as a Kitchenaid Mixer, so I don't have a problem taking apart a machine for cleaning. But, to clean this thing, you have to wipe or rinse the main body of the machine, as well as its individual moving parts. What a pain! I also don't have a problem with manually-operated devices, as long as they are safe and as long as they work. On my first attempt, I tried to spiralize a sweet potato for a sweet potato carbonara recipe. In order to grind this SOB potato, I had to hold & turn the potato in place because the very sharp plastic teeth on the gripping piece kept stripping through the raw end of the potato, and the plastic handle did not have the strength to continuously crank it over. You have to use smaller, softer veggies for the machine to work smoothly. In addition, my husband had to use both of his hands to keep the press moving forward and to keep the suction cups firmly attached to the counter. If the suction releases, the spiralizer becomes completely useless because the design relies on the force of pressing the vegetable through the blade. The shallow catch tray that doubles as a cover for the machine is another impractical aspect of an overall poor design. It is an inch deep, so you can imagine what happens when big piles of spirals start to build up almost immediately. I couldn't use my normal cutting board to catch the spirals because it has a textured surface and the suction feet could not get a secure hold. So, you have to dump the spirals as you go, which just adds another inconvenient step to using this device. In addition, the machine can't be moved easily because it is suctioned onto the countertop! All I can say is that this thing is way to flimsy for practical use, at least in my kitchen. I'll try it again with softer vegetables. The long spirals are pretty neat, but not worth hassling with this beast. As a side note, eating a plateful of sweet potato spirals is NOT like eating a plate of pasta. It's like having a plate of sweet potato fries for dinner. Not same. The basic side-ways design is flawed and potentially dangerous if you're fumbling around with a stubborn vegetable that keeps slipping away from the grip. A top-down feed would make more sense than a side-to-side feed. That way, gravity would be working with the direction of the feed, and the force of pressing down on the vegetable would help maintain the suction attachment to the counter. Spiralizers are a trend, but I'll wait until I see one that is a sturdier machine before I buy another one."
"I have been on a juice detox diet for the past 3 weeks and decided to purchase the spiralizer to add interest to my raw diet. I have been reading and following the Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss and she introduced me to the Spiralizer. Wow, this is opened a whole new world of preparing delicious, healthy, raw vegetables. Setup it super easy. Just pick the type of vegetable "noodle" you want and the associated blade for either of the 3 included in the box: 1/8 inch (like linguini) -- my favorite! 1/4" (like fettuccine) ribbon (fat fettuccine) Choose the vegetable. Of course the zucchini is the most popular with the spiralizer, but there's so many other yummy veggies you can spiralize. With zucchini it's not necessary to peel the skin off; it's so much more nutritious to leave it on, just make sure to wash real good before starting. Beets and carrots will probably need just a light peeling beforehand. My 3 favorites: zucchini beets carrots But you can also "spirialize": Turnip Sweet Potato (yes, you can eat raw or sauté briefly) Yams Cucumber (especially good with the ribbon cutter) Tomato (firm) radish kohlrabi Jerusalem artichoke (Sunchokes) Regular Potato (for curly fries...off the raw food diet here, but fun!) Really, any firm vegetable will spiralize. I wouldn't recommend spiralizing soft or small fruits and vegetables like banana & avocado (soft) or berries (small). The veggie needs to be somewhat firm. Also, you will end up with a cute little center piece of the veggie, that's how the unit holds the veggie in place while you spin it. HERE'S MY TRICK: Normally when you spiralize it makes one continuous spiral. To make short segments, simply put a slit along the length of the vegetable before placing it in the spiralizer. Don't cut all the way thru (or you will have a disaster), instead cut less than 1/4 inch to the center of the veggie. You can use this technique for any of the blades to make short spirals. If you want true "spaghetti" don't use this technique and you will have really long spirals! HERE'S MY FAVORITE DRESSING (so healthy!): YogaKat's Lemon Dressing using the Big Boss Citrus Juicer. Read my review and get the recipe here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RMUTMB3ME22SA/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00BLDWYPO&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag= Big Boss 8962 Electric Citrus Juicer, Black Some reviewers have commented on the suction cups being weak. I would agree to some extend, but not enough to pass up this product. Make sure to adhere to a solid flat surface, press down firmly, and it will work just fine. If you switch to a harder veggie, like a carrot, you may have to press down on the unit to really get a good suction, or have someone push on the opposite feed end. If you look on-line this is one of the best rated "spiralizer" and I totally agree. For $34 on Amazon, this is the best going!!! You can google or youTube spiralizer and get all sorts of receipts and demonstrations online. The best YouTube video is by PATHLESSTRODDEN, she give a quick demo on how easy the Spiralizer is to use with a zucchini. Clean-up is a total breeze. Just pop out the cutting blade (be careful) slide the feeder out from the stand and quickly rinse everything in warm water and air dry. Compared to my mandoline slicer, this thing is a breeze to use. I have an older, cheezy mandoline which I'm donating to goodwill and will use this awesome spiralizer for by veggie meals! It's so cool!"
Paderno World Cuisine A4982799 Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer (Compare deals from $33.24)
