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See why.The Best Spiralizers
Spiral vegetable cutters, or spiralizers, cut fruits and vegetables into long noodles and ribbons for “pastas,” salads, and side dishes.
Last Updated July 15, 2022. Appears in Cook's Illustrated March/April 2023, America's Test Kitchen TV Season 18: Vegan for Everyone
We still like the Paderno World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer, but it has become more difficult to find, so we decided to test a few additional spiralizers. The OXO Good Grips 3-Blade Tabletop Spiralizer impressed us with its ability to spiralize a wide range of vegetables and its simple design, which made it exceptionally easy to assemble, use, and clean. It’s also more durable than the Paderno model, so it is our new winner.
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See Everything We TestedWhat You Need To Know
Spiral vegetable cutters, or spiralizers, cut fruits and vegetables into long noodles and ribbons for “pastas,” salads, and side dishes. Since we last tested these devices, many more models have come on the market, and the manufacturer of our favorite machine released a more advanced version. We decided that it was time to revisit these gadgets, so we surveyed the market and selected a lineup of countertop and electric spiralizers to test against our winner.
Some of the countertop spiralizers are constructed like old-fashioned apple peelers: one end has a vertical slot to hold the blade, and the other has a pronged food holder with a crank handle. With one hand you turn the crank to feed the produce through the blade while you push a lever to exert pressure on the produce with your other hand. Every machine comes with blades to make 1/4-inch-thick noodles, 1/8-inch-thick noodles, and accordion-pleated “ribbon slices.” Some of the machines had additional blades for grating or for making even thinner noodles, which we appreciated but found inessential.
We also tested an electric model, which mechanizes the spiralizing process and thus requires no elbow grease to use. It holds the produce horizontally, similar to the manual versions.
We knew we wanted a spiralizer that could accommodate fruits and vegetables of different sizes, shapes, and densities and that would be stable and easy to set up, use, and clean. A good spiralizer should also create long, unbroken noodles and generate little waste. We spiralized zucchini, apples, beets, potatoes, and butternut squash, weighing each item before and after spiralizing to calculate how much was wasted and how much was turned into long noodles.
None of these machines worked perfectly. A few of them mashed softer apples into pulp, and most of them struggled to cut the butternut squash; for those that could produce noodles from the hard squash, we had to choke up on the turning handle to muster the requisite power. After three rounds of cutting squash, even our top model developed a stress fracture on its handle from the extra exertion. Although none of the manufacturers say to avoid winter squash, we recommend caution when attempting to spiralize hard, dense vegetables.
With the zucchini, beets, and potatoes, only one machine consistently produced long, even noodles and ribbons. The reason for its success: stability. The base of this manual machine had a low profile, keeping it relatively grounded over the suction cups that anchored it to the table and preventing it from slipping forward quite as frequently as with other models. More important, it had a large food holder that allowed us t...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Waste: 3 stars out of 3.
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Footprint: 2 stars out of 3.
- Stability: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Setup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Noodle Quality: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Cleanup: 2.5 stars out of 3.
Simple to set up and intuitive to use, our winner spiralized zucchini, beets, and butternut squash with ease. The suction cup on the base kept the machine in place even when spiralizing hardier vegetables, and its removable blades and food holder were easy to clean.
Recommended
- Waste: 3 stars out of 3.
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Footprint: 2 stars out of 3.
- Stability: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Setup: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Noodle Quality: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
Simple, intuitive, inexpensive, and stable, the winner of our previous test easily spiralized apples, beets, potatoes, and zucchini with relatively little waste. Better yet, the Paderno Tri-Blade was able to turn almost all of the produce into even, consistent noodles and ribbons. It was one of the only machines capable of spiralizing butternut squash into long, regular strands—although the stress of this endeavor caused the handle to crack on its last round of testing.
- Waste: 3 stars out of 3.
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Footprint: 2 stars out of 3.
- Stability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Setup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Noodle Quality: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
Nearly identical to the Paderno Tri-Blade in both appearance and performance, the Spiralizer Tri-Blade was just a bit more awkward and less secure; its vegetable holder rocked from side to side slightly during use. It was also prone to staining from vegetable juices. Although the noodles weren’t always pretty, it did manage to process all of the produce we threw at it, and it produced little waste.
- Waste: 3 stars out of 3.
- Design: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Footprint: 2 stars out of 3.
- Stability: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Setup: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Noodle Quality: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Cleanup: NaN stars out of 3.
This upgraded version of the Paderno Tri-Blade is ambidextrous, similarly efficient, and more compact. But the design changes—including a smaller vegetable holder and pusher handle—introduced new problems that made the machine fussier, less stable, and more awkward to use. The machine also took some experience to set up. Still, the Paderno 4-Blade was able to cut all of the produce we put in it, and it includes a handy angel-hair slicer blade and a skewer for making accordion cuts.
Recommended with reservations
- Waste: 1 stars out of 3.
- Design: 1 stars out of 3.
- Footprint: 2 stars out of 3.
- Stability: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Setup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Noodle Quality: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
This lefty-friendly KitchenAid attachment lets the stand mixer’s motor do the hard work, effortlessly making long noodles out of zucchini, beets, apples, and potatoes. It was the easiest machine to clean, and its extra blades were handy. But it was fussy to use and generated a lot of waste. With butternut squash, the machine’s powerful motor was all for naught since the tiny vegetable holder couldn’t stabilize the squash enough to produce even a single noodle.
- Waste: 2 stars out of 3.
- Design: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Footprint: 2 stars out of 3.
- Stability: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Setup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Noodle Quality: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Cleanup: 1 stars out of 3.
The Bella 4-in-1 Automatic Electric Spiralizer & Slicer was simple to set up and handled zucchini with ease, but with beets, it failed to fully cut through the vegetable and produce spaghetti-like noodles. When tested on the ribbon setting with butternut squash, it stalled out. It was also nearly impossible to clean, as few of the elements detached from the main machine, and it couldn’t be washed directly under water because it’s electric. If you stick to less dense vegetables, such as zucchini, the Bella may still be an appropriate choice for cooks with accessibility concerns since it requires no muscle to use and is ambidextrous.
Not Recommended
- Waste: 1 stars out of 3.
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Footprint: 2 stars out of 3.
- Stability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Setup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Noodle Quality: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
Stabilized by a single large suction cup with a release valve, the Veggetti Pro was surprisingly secure on the countertop. But produce larger than 6¾ inches had to be cut to fit inside the holders, increasing waste. This model couldn’t handle butternut squash at all and made somewhat uneven noodles with the other produce.
- Waste: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Design: 1 stars out of 3.
- Footprint: 2 stars out of 3.
- Stability: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Setup: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Noodle Quality: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Cleanup: 1.5 stars out of 3.
The Müeller Spiral-Ultra claimed to make spiral cuts, grate, slice like a mandoline, and even juice citrus. Unfortunately, it didn’t perform any of these functions well. Poor design made setup and use tricky. The vertical handle made the Spiral-Ultra ambidextrous but was awkward for both lefties and righties. A collection bin under the blades seemed handy but was badly positioned, catching only one-third of all spiralized produce. Worst, the two suction cups did not fully stabilize the machine, which rocked back and forth dangerously while spiralizing.
- Waste: 1 stars out of 3.
- Design: 1 stars out of 3.
- Footprint: 2 stars out of 3.
- Stability: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Setup: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Noodle Quality: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
The simple, supersharp Benriner makes noodles and ribbons, but they’re fine and paper-thin—better suited for garnishes than for the pasta-like noodles and side dishes most people expect to generate from a spiralizer. It’s got a small capacity—produce must be under 4 inches long to fit under the handle, thus generating a lot of waste. And with no suction cups or clamps to secure it to the counter, it’s highly unstable, rocking back and forth on its plastic feet while in use.
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The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Miye Bromberg
Miye is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She covers booze, blades, and gadgets of questionable value.
Sarah Sandler
Sarah is an assistant editor for ATK Reviews who is deeply passionate about anchovies and sourdough bread.