I’ve decided to buy a Paderno
I’m looking for a veggie spiralizer that goes beyond what I can do with a vegetable peeler or a mandolin. The ones made by Paderno World Cuisine look good to me. Paderno makes several different models, though… Which is the right one for me to buy?
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What I want out of my new spiralizer:
I don’t have room in my kitchen for a uni-tasker (a tool with only one job), so I’m going to be looking for something that I can use for lots of jobs. It needs to be useful for making more than just zoodles obviously. It can’t take up too much space for the amount of use I’ll get out of it, either. I know you are looking for the same things in the kitchen tools you buy, so let me show you what I’ve learned when I studied four different top-selling models.
All the units I considered had these things in common:
Paderno has been making kitchen tools since 1925, and certified buyers give their spiralizers overall glowing reviews. That’s a good track record, and I can certainly expect their tools to be useful. Nearly 100 years of experience puts Paderno in a very good position to make a quality unit.
It’s simple to use these units, by pressing the food onto the nubs of the handle and aligning the core or center of the food with the core cutter on the blade. Turn the handle while using consistent pressure to keep the food against the blades, and spiral away.
There will be some veggie left behind after the spiralizing is complete. The units don’t spiralize the center core and a small nub of veggie that was attached to the prongs of the unit. For some people, that’s wasteful, but it doesn’t have to be. I’d either chop up and freeze the extra pieces for soup or stock later, or go ahead and prepare those pieces right along with my dinner and eat them for lunch the next day. Preparing two meals at once is a good use of time, anyway, so… win/win. It’s all in how you look at it.
All of the units have suction cups for the feet, to attach them to smooth countertops. They are all manually-powered, all are made of BPA-free ABS plastic, have stainless steel blades, and are top-rack dishwasher safe. I gotta admit, being dishwasher safe is a big deal to me. If I can’t rinse off the big chunks and put the tool in the dishwasher, I’m likely to pass it up in favor of one I can. Reviewers say these are easy to clean, though, just be careful and aware that the blades are sharp.
The veggie or fruit can be a very generous size in these units (not like those handheld cone-shaped ones that won’t accept anything bigger than a zucchini). Food can be up to 10″ long and 7″ wide. Hello, cabbage! The food also needs to be at least 1/2″ in diameter, and reviewers who are spiralizing carrots sometimes had difficultly. So, choose the chubby carrots for spiralizing. Sometimes the little core that’s left as a result of the spiralizing can cause a problem with the veggie feeding through the blades when it gets long, and it’s recommended by users that you break off the core from time to time on big items. Harder items like potatoes need a little extra pressure to get through the blades. This isn’t unexpected with a manually-powered machine.
The spiralized foods take up more space than a solid veggie, obviously, when they come through the blades. Place a cutting board in front of the blades to catch the food, rather than expecting all of the food to land in a bowl. Or let the food land on your clean countertop and move it to a bowl afterward. The food lands pretty close to the unit, which makes it a bit impractical to try to get the food to land directly into a bowl.
Now let’s look at the four units that topped my list:
Paderno World Cuisine 3-blade folding spiralizer
- The three blades included with the unit are a 1/8″ straight blade for ribbons and accordion cuts, and two Julienne blades (1/8″ and 1/4″) for vegetable strands and zucchini noodles.
- Foldable design takes up little space. The enclosed blade compartment keeps the blades on the unit when not in use, so they don’t get lost. The unit is 10.6 x 5 x 4″ in it’s folded position.
Reviewers say this model’s blades are difficult to change. The blades slide in laterally (from the side) which some people had trouble doing. Another complaint was that the blade sizes are small, and don’t allow for cutting thicker items like curly potato fries. I love me some curly fries. This might not be the one for me…
Paderno World Cuisine 3-blade Original spiralizer
- The size of the unit is 9.5 x 6.25 x 8.75″, which is a little bigger than I’d like to have sitting on my countertops all the time, although not too bad, honestly. Envision something the size of a two-slice toaster.
- The included blades are a straight blade for ribbon cuts, a shredder blade for long spirals, and a chipper blade for thick spirals.
- This unit does not fold flat.
The blades on this unit slide in from the top. I like this better than sliding the blade in from the side. It seems a bit safer to me. And as someone who’s shaved off some finger skin on her mandolin, trust me, I’m very conscious of blade safety nowadays. Two blades store in the body of the unit when not in use. The other blade is stored in the “ready” position. I’d much rather have all the blades stored under cover… If I get this one, I’ll be storing the entire thing in it’s original box in a cabinet to make sure the blade doesn’t accidentally get touched.
I was particularly impressed when I read a review written by a person who had owned their unit for over three years… and still loved it.
Paderno World Cuisine 4-blade folding spiralizer
- The four blades included with the unit are a 1/8″ straight blade, a shredding blade, a chipper blade, and an angel hair blade.
- New design allows for all the blades to store completely covered, and compactly within the unit itself. The unit is 9.4 x 5.6 x 5.6″.
- Available in white, red, and black.
Some reviewers say that this model, which was redesigned not only to have better blade storage but also to minimize the core size of the spiralized veggie, is not as good at cutting softer veggies like cucumbers. Other people had no problem with it, though, so it may be a matter of each veggie’s state of freshness. Due to the thinner core, some veggies need to be supported in the unit by threading a wooden skewer through the center. A metal skewer is included to make a hole for the wooden skewer to go through.
This unit is noticeably smaller than either of the 3-blade models.
Paderno World Cuisine 6-blade spiralizer
- The six blades included with the unit are a wavy blade, two straight blades (1.2mm and 2mm), an angel hair blade, a shredder blade, and a chipper blade. The wavy, the angel hair, and one of the straight blades in their additional storage case are the main difference between this unit and the 3-blade Original.
- Includes a cleaning brush to safely scrub the blades, and a cookbook.
This is the 3-blade unit with three additional blades, so you can look at my thoughts on the 3-blade Original above to see what I think of it. Sometimes Amazon has a deal on the 6-blade unit, making it only a few bucks more than the 3-blader, and if you can catch a deal like that, I’d say go for it. You may like the extra blades.
So, which one did I pick?
While I do like the 3-blade Original, and I can honestly say I’d recommend it, my pick is the 4-blade folding spiralizer. I like the smaller size of it and think this is the best spiralizer for cramped quarters. There’s a lot this unit can do in the smallest possible off-duty storage space. Ironically, it’s more expensive than the 6-blade unit when it goes on sale, but space is a concern in my kitchen. I need to be sure the countertop real estate I have is used as efficiently as possible. If I have to spend a few extra dollars up front – in this case, it’s not much – to use my limited space to the best advantage, I will. I also like that the redesign leaves me with a smaller food core than the older models. It’s a plus that there are different colors available, since it will be on the counter at least some of the time, and I like my tools to make me happy when I look at them.
If you like serving fun foods in fun shapes, don’t have a lot of space to give to a new gadget, want to shred or spiral large foods, and want a quality tool that will last, Paderno is the brand for you and the redesigned 4-blade unit is the right model.
(And you know you want to make curly fries.)
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Featured image courtesy of Paderno World Cuisine.