Ode to my Spiralizer

First let me begin by congratulating the person who decided to mince ginger and put it in a jar; will you marry me? Second, let me wax rhapsodic about one of e most useful kitchen gadgets one can own, the Spiralizer. Sounds like something you'd see on a late night infomercial, I know. And basically it only does one thing, which is to take a hunk of sweet potato, zucchini, carrot, or whatever else you might have handy, and slice it up into long thin spaghetti strips, or broader pappardelle type noodles if you have one with variable cutting options. Nothing to plug in, powered by elbow grease. At first the applications might seem limited, but trust me, I pull this contraption out more times than one would think,especially given my proclivity toward raw and vegan food preparation these days.

Last nights main course, for example, a zucchini "pasta" with a raw pomodoro sauce.
Start to finish in 10 minutes, and into the fridge to be consumed after my yoga class. I was running a little short on time, so it worked out nicely that I'd planned such an easy prep dish for Tuesday night, not to mention I don't like to do yoga on a full stomach. Once you've Spiralized a zucchini or two, perhaps about a cups worth per serving, it's a matter of throwing some veggies in the vitamix and pulsing a few times to get anime chunky, raw tomato sauce.

Raw Pomodoro Sauce ( from my Vitamix cookbook.)

3 Roma tomatoes
Fresh basil leaves to taste
Fresh oregano to taste ( be sure to get the leaves off the stems)
1 1/2 tbsp minced onion
Minced garlic to taste
Himalayan salt and fresh pepper to taste
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Of course, as with any tomato sauce if you ask me, you can feel free to add cilantro, or whatever other fresh herbs you might have on hand. Remember to give them a good chop before you put them in the blender, because you won't be setting the Vitamix to "liquefy" and forgetting about it. If you don't take some care here, you could end up with a sauce full of sticks and stems. I'm not saying it happened to me, but I'm not saying it didn't. I will say that last night was the last time I ignore instructions to chop or mince any ingredient before I put it into the vitamix.

If you have leftover sauce, why not serve it to guests as a nice bruschetta?

Of course I neglected to snap a pictures in my haste to run out the door, so I am including the first official photo of Orbiting Vegan's new official mascot, my cat Dusty Springfield. Isn't she adorable?


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Location:Madison, CT