I first learned about zucchini “noodles” as I was getting into raw foods years ago. It seemed like such a cool idea: create a familiar recipe foundation (pasta) using something a little greener than pasta (zucchini). I purchased my first spiralizer, and it was love at first crank. It didn’t take me long to make noodles out of turnips, cucumbers, carrots, and beets, as well as a whole lot of zucchini marinara.
As you all know, I’ve moved away from raw foods significantly, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve parted ways with vegetable noodles. One of the reasons that spiralizing is so popular is that it isn’t specific to a particular eating style. It appeals to raw foodies because it’s an uncooked, vegetable-based alternative to noodles. It appeals to paleo eaters because it offers a grain free approach to pasta recipes. It’s popular with folks who are trying to eat more vegetables because it helps to make veggies feel playful and different. The spiralizer has something to offer everyone.
This is the philosophy behind Ali Maffucci’s popular website and brand, Inspiralized. Ali’s only been blogging for a couple years, and I remember distinctly when her website first came to life. I was impressed with her fun, relaxed approach to making vegetable dishes for everyone, regardless of food philosophy or tastes. Ali’s own heritage is Italian, so she knows and loves pasta. Her goal is to create more nutritious, varied, and creative pasta offerings–turning to the vegetable kingdom for inspiration. She emphasizes health and wellness, but always with a playful attitude, and she’s passionate about great tasting food.
If blogging isn’t enough to keep her busy, Ali’s also the creator of her own spiralizer model, the Inspiralizer. The product grew out of her own experimentation with various spiralizer models and her desire to create something sleek and user friendly.
What makes this model so unique is that you can easily rotate between blades to create different shapes: you don’t have to rummage around for separate plates or blades, as is the case with other spiralizers. It has a counter clamp to keep it steady, 4 different veggie shapes, and a central coring blade that will hang on to smaller veggies, like carrots, while also supporting larger rutabagas and beets. You can read more about the Inspiralizer and its features here.
I’ve tried a lot of spiralizers in my day. There’s the Joyce Chen saladacco, which was my first spiralizer. I love the way it creates delicate, angel-hair textured zucchini noodles, but it’s not powerful enough to handle really hefty root veggies. I’ve also had the Paderno Spirooli, which I liked, but the detachable blades were definitely less convenient than the all-in-one, rotating Inspiralizer blade. The Inspiralizer is definitely my favorite to date: I appreciate the convenience and the range of shapes that it can create, as well as its durability.
Ali’s also the author of the best-selling cookbook Inspiralized, in which she shares her favorite spiralizer recipes. The subtitle of Ali’s book is “turn vegetables into healthy, creative, satisfying meals.” It’s rare that a subtitle sums up a book’s purpose so nicely. The book is really about creating whole meals with vegetable bases.
Vegan readers should be aware that it’s not a plant-based book; the majority of recipes do call for an animal protein. That said, the vegan offerings are great. They include vegan chipotle carrot mac n’ cheese, chana masala with kohlrabi, sesame almond butter kohlrabi bowl, tofu miso-tahini carrot bowl, and vegan celeriac alfredo with broccoli. A lot of other recipes, like the pesto spaghetti with heirloom grape tomatoes or carrot enchiladas, can be easily veganized.
The best thing about Inspiralized is that it’s a perfect cookbook for mixed-diet homes. A lot of my clients dwell in families or partnerships or group houses or college suites wherein a lot of different eating styles are represented. It can be tough to create dinners that suit everyone. Inspiralized offers recipes that all start with a vegetable foundation, so that animal proteins can be easily added or subtracted. It’s a terrific book for anyone who’s trying to customize meals to be vegan or omni-friendly–and that’s not something that’s true of many cookbooks. Ali’s website also offers a bunch of vegetarian and vegan options.
Now for the super fun part: Ali has generously agreed to share one copy of Inspiralized and one free Inspiralizer to a lucky US Choosing Raw reader. And in preparation of the giveaway, she was kind enough to share the Inspiralizer with me, too. I’ve had such a fun time playing around with it, and today’s recipe is evidence of that.
When I first got into spiralizing, I saw it as a means of creating raw food dishes. Now that I’m not hung up on keeping things cooked or uncooked, I can explore a greater variety of spiralized recipes–including spiralized sweet potato noodles! These can be eaten raw, but as you’ll see, lightly sautéing them makes them into a truly delicious meal, and I think it creates some of the heartiness and comfort that we associate with traditional pasta (and which zucchini pasta doesn’t really deliver).
I can think of so many ways I’d like to try sweet potato noodles, but this is a good place to be starting. It’s a simple veggie/noodle sautee with a rich, bold, and super flavorful peanut curry sauce. I’ll warn you that the sauce is addictive, and once you whisk it together, you’ll want to use it as an all-purpose dip, soba noodle dressing, salad dressing, and bowl condiment. But it complements the sweet, tender sweet potato noodles perfectly, and it makes this easy, one-pot dish come to life.
If you have a peanut allergy, you’re welcome to use almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, or any other nut/seed butter in place of peanut. You could also use 1/3 cup soaked nuts in place of nut butter, and use a high speed blender to create the creamy sauce.
As for the veggies in this recipe, feel free to mix them up a bit based on what you have. I had snow peas, pepper, and onions, which worked well with the Thai-inspired flavors, but this would be a good recipe to use any vegetable combination. If you’re short on groceries, you could use a frozen vegetable medley to make it even easier.
As you can see, I suggest jasmine rice as a serving option, but a bed of freshly steamed greens would be cool here, too, since the sweet potato noodles are already nice and hearty. Or you could use a nice scoop of each.
In all, this recipe is a winner, and it’s also a perfect weeknight meal option. I specifically had it on my menu plan this week with the knowledge that I’d be whipping it up this evening, and it was as doable as I hoped it would be. My sweet potato noodles aren’t quite as firm and crisp as I’ve seen them in photos–they definitely broke apart a bit–but I loved the tender texture, and I can’t wait to enjoy the leftovers today. I’m sure the flavors will be better after marrying overnight!
If you’re eager for more spiralizer ideas–and the device that allows you to bring them to life–then please enter my giveaway, below, to win a copy of Inspiralized and your own free Inspiralizer. US entries only, please. The giveaway will run for two weeks, and I can’t wait to pick a winner!
On that note, it’s time to get to work. Happy Friday!
xo
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I have eaten sweet potato raw before but I love the sound of these cooked noodles. And that sauce, yum. Gorgeous photos, Gena.
I love spiralized veggies – planning to make this later today!
Hi Gena, I’m a little “late to the table” on my blog post reading, but sure am glad I decided to read this one tonight! The spiralizer and book look great and I love the recipe–in fact, it looks so good to me that I might just try and cut matchstick pieces without a spiralizer and make it that way. What a yummy and colorful combination! Thanks xo
I’m also a traditionalist and have not branched out beyond zucchini, although this post is inspiring me to do so! Broccoli sounds like a great way to use up those huge stems, and sweet potato is very intriguing!
I don’t have a spiralizer yet. But sweet potato noodles sound wonderful! I would LOVE to win this machine and book!
spiralized potatoes!
I’ve only made zucchini and carrot noodles, but sweet potato and parsnip sound like they’d be amazing. Great giveaway!
This is my first time happening upon this site and I love it. 🙂
I don’t currently have a spiralizer, but if I did, I would make noodles out of zucchini.
I love to make noodles with Zucchini! Thank you for the wonderful giveaway.
Erin
This looks delicious. I love making “noodles” with carrots and cucumbers to make salads. I will have to try this recipe myself. 🙂
zucchini noodles but I’ve never made it myself.
I think these sweet potatoe noodles might just become my new fav.
zucchini noodles
I have only tried zucchini ones (I just have a handheld grater) but they were awesome!
I don’t have a spiralizer but I love shredding sweet potatoes or carrots with my food processor and using those.
I’ve never made veggie noodles! Now I am dying to try, and I think I’d have to start with this recipe!
I have never made veggie noodles. Maybe I’ll get lucky and win this spiralizer. Thanks for the giveaway!
Zucchini noodles
Classic zucchini!
I haven’t made any veggie noodles (yet) – I would love to try it!
zucchini is my current fave! so many possibilities for all meals!
I have actually never spiralized. We have made long thin strips of zucchini using a veggie peeler before. I’m not a big fan of raw zucchini, though. I think I would lightly saute like you did here!
This recipe looks amazing!
I’ve got zucchini coming out of my ears but I also love making a combo of beet and carrot noodles. Yum! Super excited to try your new spiralizer!
I’ve only ever tried spaghetti squash as noodles. Can’t wait to try more! Thanks for opening my eyes to this whole new world!
I have never made vegetable noodles before, but I would think to start with zucchini and then try other vegetables.
I think I’ve only spiralized zucchini. I need to explore other options.
I’ve only done this with zucchini, so it would be good to have a reason to branch out.
Zucchini because it’s so easy to spiralize and neutral tasting so it goes with any sauce!
Looks so yummy! Can’t wait to try it!
It looks absolutely delicious, I would love to try this really soon! I also love my spiralizer, in fact this reminds me of the zucchini noodles I made – tossed with a mix of tomatoes, spring onions, mint, watercress and spiked with a tart and tangy dressing.
I like to try to make noodles with carrots or parsnips.
zucchinis, because my garden is overflowing with them right now!
I love “oodles” of course, but would love to experiment this fall with sweet potato & winter squash!
Oops “zoodles” haha autocorrect!
I love zucchini noodles but now I’m excited to try sweet potato noodles.
I love zucchini noodles, but this sounds too good not to try!
OMG this recipe looks amazing! my mouth is watering at those delicious noodles!
I’m making those noodles ASAP! They look amazing!
beets!
I’ve only done zucchini and cucumbers, and I don’t like zucchini all that much so I need to try sweet potato! Baked sweet potato is already one of my favorite foods so I know I’ll love it!
I’ve never tried anything other than zucchini (and just with a peeler), but I’m excited to try sweet potato!
I’ve made zucchini noodles, but I’m eager to try sweet potatoes next!
I’ve never made any of them because I don’t own a spiralizer, but I’ve always been intrigued, and would love to try the sweet potato. This dish looks great!
I have a cut rate spiralizer. I would love a high quality one like this to try out lots of different veggies. I’ve only tried zucchini.
I love spiralizing zucchini and summer squash together…carrots are great too!
Favorite vegetable to make noodles with? I don’t have one currently, as I’ve never seen vegetable noodles outside of blogger photos! I would love to try all sorts, though, particularly zucchini due to how many recipes I’ve seen involving them.
I love cucumber and zucchini spiralized…never thought to do sweet potatoes!
zucchini!
I have never made vegetable noodles because I don’t have a spiralizer, but I would LOVE to try these sweet potato noodles!
Cool 🙂 not sure!
Zucchini!
Zucchini noodles and turnip noodles! I have yet to try sweet potato noodles (not sure why) but this recipe sounds delicious so I am thinking now is the perfect time.
I love classic zoodles or sweet potato noodles!
I’ve never had spiraled veggies, but I’d love to try! I love using shredded root veggies as a salad, though!
Zucchini…but I’d love to try others!
Zucchini!!! I know… SUPER original but I would love to try more!
My favorite vegetable to make noodles with is a turnip.
I’ve only ever tried zucchini but I’m off to try sweet potatoes now!
Carrot noodles are my go-to, so I love a recipe like this to remind me to give other orange vegetable noodles a chance. I love the idea of sweet potato noodles for a heartier dish!
I loooove zucchini noodles, mainly because my garden is full of them right now 🙂
my favorite veggie to make noodles with is sweet potatoes!! yum
I’ve never tried turning veggies into noodles, but it seems like a great way to incorporate more of them into your diet! I have a ton of zucchini right now and would love to try spiralizing them.
Zucchini, I’m still kinda new to it!
This looks amazing! Antsy for that giveaway, my spiralizer has been a great practice tool, but I need an upgrade 🙂
So far I’ve only made noodles from zucchini, but I have to do it on my mandolin as I don’t have a spiralizer. Also, I’m a huge fan of the easiest veg noodle ever — spaghetti squash!
I’ve never made veggie noodles before, though I’ve wanted to. I’d love to use this to make the sweet potato noodles, as my 5yo girl LOVES sweet potatoes!
This recipe looks delicious! I love all things curry, so I will have to try this one out!
My favorite veggie to spiralize is sweet potatoes! Can’t wait to check out this recipe!
I have only ever done zucchini!
I’m not sure but zucchini sounds good!
I bought a mandoline a few years ago for the specific purpose of making veggie noodles, but I found the process and the equipment sort of terrifying, so it hasn’t had as much use as I’d hoped. This is sad because I love zucchini and sweet potato noodles, and with autumn coming there’s going to be all those fabulous squashes and root vegetables just crying out to fulfill their noodle destinies. If I were the lucky winner of this spiralizer and its accompanying cookbook, they would both get a great deal of us win my kitchen!
I love spiralized carrots! So fun.
I love spiralizing zucchini and sweet potatoes!
I can’t choose between sweet potato and zucchini! So many dishes to make with these!
Sounds great! Can’t wait to try! My favorite is cucumber noodles. So fun in salads!
I love zucchini spiralized, but I tried sweet potatoes once and fell in love!
I have made tons of zoodles but have never thought about sweet potatoes! what a great idea!
I currently have just a plan vegetti. I love using it for zucchini, which is my personal favorite for a middle substitute. I would love to try the sprializer to get use of many more vegetables, especially this winter. This recipe looks so good and tasty!!!
So far just zucchini, I have the hand held veggietti and need an upgrade!
Zucchini!!! Love loveeee it with everything. I’m dying to try the sweet potato.
I spiralize all the time!
This recipe is stunning! O my goodness!
I think my favorite thing to spiralize though is beets!
I would try sweet potatoes if I owned one — thank you!!!
I’ve only tried zoodles, but I like those!
I always do zucchini but am pretty burned out, so I’d like to do sweet potatoes, but my spiralizer broke, so I’d love to win the one and the cookbook!
last night i made sweet potatoes «sushi» with a very similar dipping sauce and it was delicious. I will definitely try the sweet potatoes as noodles.
LOVE zucchini noodles and can’t wait for my kids to try and enjoy. So excited about the new breakfast ideas for my non-grain family.
I love spiralizing noodles, but my arm gives out after a while, so I’m all for new-fangled tools to make life easier ;). Looks so yum!
My favorite kitchen tool!!!
Thanks Gena for the great recipe!
I have been using a mandoline to get sorrrtta veggie noodles, but I’m excited to try out a true Spiralizer!
I’ve pretty much only spiralized zucchini, but I’m excited to do more!
I just bought Inspiralized, but it hasn’t arrived yet. I would love another copy to share with my daughter-in-law!
I can’t choose a favorite, but I’ll narrow it down to three. I’ve had fabulous luck with carrots, zukes, and sweet potato noodles! I’d love Ali’s cookbook and spiralizer!
So far, my favorite is zucchini, but I have experimented much. I am looking forward to trying this sweet potato recipe!!
Zuchinni but the sweet potato this way I will HAVE to try 🙂
I’ve never made veggie noodles because I’ve been waiting to get a spiralizer…. so this is perfect!
Zucchini noodles are my go-to but would love to explore other vegetable noodle options!
Wow, I had no idea there were so many possibilities with veggie noodles! Can’t wait to try the sweet potato with peanut sauce!
I love sweet potato noodles! (But now that fall is right around the corner, I’m very excited to try other seasonal things.)
my favorite vegetable to eat with noodles is broocoli:)
zucchini! i know, i need to branch out haha