Paderno World Cuisine 3-Blade Vegetable Slicer / Spiralizer, Counter-Mounted and includes 3 Stainless Steel Blades

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

For the price I think this might be the best and funnest thing I have ever purchased for food. It's really easy to use, and on my first use making zucchini noodles, the result was great. I was vaguely interested in this type of product but only after I had seen it recommended through a page I follow on facebook and from one of my friends in the same week, I decided to buy it. It took some testing with the different blades to see what the different thicknesses and options would turn out like but overall I love this thing. I am not the kind of person that loves cooking, mostly bc the food prep beforehand ends up taking me three times longer than any recipe I am following says it should, and after working all day and then working out, when I finally get home I don't like spending a ton of time prepping ingredients for meals and tend to rush things along. I didn't even think about time when I was using this tho, bc I thought it was so fun to use and see if I could keep the veggies in one whole strand. I will say that the handle on the base below the turn wheel that you are supposed to press as you turn was nice, but if you don't apply pressure evenly while you're turning, the "noodles" can thin out or stop coming out. Not a huge deal at all. I just adjusted my grip and instead of just gripping the handle, held the handle and placed my thumb against the base under the turn wheel as I pressed to help even out the pressure and the noodles came out perfect! I've seen a couple of reviews where it says the product feels like cheap plastic. I thought so too at first but overall when using it, it feels sturdy and just fine for what I paid. It's super easy to clean and I love that the different blades are stored in the side. I have dreams now about all the things I can use this on and would highly recommend it to any of my friends and family.

When a dear friend sent me a link to this kitchen gizmo, my first impression was that it was one of those cheap gadgets that look great on TV commercials but have little practical use once you get them home. Not so. I was very pleasantly surprised by the results and possibilities of this Paderno spiral vegetable slicer. It comes with three different blade options which each produce a different effect. My primary interest initially was as a way to produce veggie spaghetti...long skinny vegetable strands to use in place of carb-heavy pasta. And, yes, it's super for that; but I also enjoy ruffling vegetables for salads and side dishes. Here are just a few ideas for some vegetable options (Hint - for long skinny veggies, choose ones that are as straight as possible). Cucumbers, radishes, and carrots look great in short ruffled sections in a salad (use straight blade). Zucchini and Yellow Squash make lovely "spaghetti" (use either small or medium strand cutter). You can top with a pasta topping of your choice. It's also wonderful sautéd with olive oil and garlic until al denté with a few slivers of sun-dried tomatoes tossed in. As a sautéd side dish, you could use the straight blade to make ruffled squash. Sweet potatoes are great ruffled (straight blade) and deep-fried as fancy chips OR spiraled into strands and sautéd with butter and roasted pecans (and topped with gorgonzola). You'll lose the middle 3/8" core of every vegetable. For veggies like cucumbers, this is ideal since it removes most of the seed section. For other vegetables, if you're concerned about the loss of that amount, you can save those cores to add to soups or other meals. When you're buying carrots for this slicer, you'll want to find the fattest ones available because, otherwise, there's not much left after it removes the core. The slicer is extremely easy to use (I didn't read directions until AFTER I'd already tried it). It's quite easy to get your vegetable lined up and then you just apply pressure to the slide-handle with one hand while turning the crank with the other hand. Suction cups on the bottom held it firmly in place on my counter. The unit itself is lightweight plastic. I would question its durability, but I accidentally dropped it on our hard slate kitchen floor after the first use and the thin plastic showed no cracks whatsoever. It's a well-organized gadget in that it has two slots for storing the extra blades. It's a fun, easy way to add a more interesting look to some of your meals.

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.

So this spiralizer (Paderno tri-blade) lasted one year for me. I used it a pretty good amount of times though in that year. I have used it on zucchini, potato and sweet potato mainly. Mostly for sweet potato since I think it makes the best tasting noodles. I just threw it out because the part that screws the handle to the thing with the spikes broke. Now to be clear, I was using this about 80% on sweet potatoes, one of the hardest vegetables. It was pretty tough to run them through in comparison to the zucchini which goes through this thing effortlessly. The suction cups never worked for my much and the spike part often just tore mini chunks from the sweet potatoes and didnt grip it properly. As far as food waste: yes I was always left with the core and the litle bit at them end but it never bothered me much since i chopped it up and incorporated it to what i was making. I am awaiting the Impeccable (ICO) Spiralizer which is all metal and I think this one will be much more durable for what I need it for (I will make sure to post a review). I was considering ordering the four blade paderno and probably will purchase sometime this year to have it for zucchini and softer vegetables. I wish paderno would come out with an all metal version because the design and use is great but it just could not hold up to what I used it for. I still highly recommend this machine though because for most veggies and even regular potatoes it really delivers as promised while being easy and fun to use. I took off a star for durability and another for it bring pretty bulky and not having great suction cups- it moved quite a bit during use.

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.

This is a must-have kitchen item for anyone who loves pasta and wishes to keep off extra weight while still enjoying all they want of it. As so many others have stated, this unit is more than sturdy enough to handle the job it was designed to do, my favorite being to make spaghetti out of zucchini. While I love to eat healthy versions of childhood foods, my sister does not. She would not even try my zucchini pasta with marinara sauce the night I made it. So, I left some in a bowl for her to try later. The next day, I received a call from her to tell me she really liked the "fake pasta", BUT, she thought, it was because I had mixed it with real pasta. It took me a full 10 minutes to convince her that it was ALL zucchini, RAW zucchini, just warmed up by tossing it with hot spaghetti sauce! She was ready to concede that the strands with green skin on them were zucchini, but it was almost impossible to get her to believe that the pale strands from the center were not made from semolina wheat. :) I gave her this unit because she needs to lose about 20 lbs. and part of her problem is she loves to eat spaghetti in the colder months. Unfortunately, I don't think she is actually using it because I still don't think she believes me! So, please know that this is NOT too good to be true: Zucchini spaghetti made with the tiniest cutting blade on this unit has the same texture and taste as real spaghetti when served warm with tomato sauce. The best thing, though, is that besides being nutritionally superior to pasta made from grain, one can eat as much of it as one wants without ever feeling bloated or heavy - or putting on extra weight as a result. Just cut the zucchini into 2" long sections, set a section in place, and twirl it against the blade of this unit. Voila! Freshly made spaghetti pasta. You'll have no pot to clean and need no time for cooking. This unit rinses off very easily after using; and it takes me less than 5 minutes to wash a couple large zucchinis, cut them into 2" pieces, and run them through the spiral slicer. It seems almost effortless to make a huge bowl of al dente (zucchini) pasta, which I serve mixed with hot spaghetti sauce to warm (not cook) it up. Don't hesitate to buy and try it. It's actually FUN to use, too - it's like I'm a kid playing with my Play-Doh machine again, only what comes out is very healthy to eat!

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...