Who knew? Pasta made from veggies can offer great taste

If you resolved to eat better this year, maybe you're wondering where to start. How can you eat more vegetables without eating the same broccoli and carrots every day? A new kitchen gadget, the spiralizer, may just turn the way you prepare vegetables on its head.

Picture noodles made from a variety of vegetables that taste as good as pasta and can be oh so good for you.

Heather Rutledge, 31, of Cedar Rapids, bought a spiralizer last year and it is now her go-to kitchen gadget, as she regularly cooks recipes like Zucchini Noodle Pad Thai and Butternut Squash Lasagna.

Perhaps the beauty of the spiralizer is in its simplicity. It's a kitchen tool, not a true appliance because it doesn't require electricity. A spiralizer comes with three interchangeable blades that can cut larger vegetables into spaghetti-like noodles; flatter, fettucine-like noodles or even flat round discs that resemble lasagna noodles.

'When I stumbled upon an easier way to create more filling dishes, but that uses vegetables instead of pasta, that automatically appealed to me,' Rutledge says.

So how does it work? You simply insert the vegetable into the chamber and then crank out the noodles. Because the vegetable noodles don't need to be boiled like pasta, you can eat them warm or cold. 'I prefer mine warm,' Rutledge says. You can add the vegetable noodles to your heated pasta sauce or seasoned olive oil for a few minutes right before serving.

Not only are vegetable noodles good for you, 'the texture tastes just like spaghetti,' Rutledge says.

The possibilities are seemingly endless. Rutledge has prepared dishes using a wide variety of vegetable noodles. Zucchini and cucumbers are both popular choices. Potatoes, sweet potatoes and squash also work well.

'One of my favorite things to do is sweet potato noodles. I make a Mexican hash with chorizo and tomatoes and corn,' she says.

Rutledge says her spiralizer has encouraged her to cook vegetables she hadn't tried before, like kohlrabi.

'I found a recipe for a steak and pasta salad with kohlrabi pasta. It's one of my favorite recipes I've made so far. I was pleasantly surprised how fantastic it was,' she says.

Rutledge also tried making parsnip noodles, 'but I was not a fan. They have a very earthy, almost a kind of vanilla taste to them. The taste was just not my thing.'

Carrots and onions can be spiralized, but can be a little difficult '​because all of the vegetables have to be a certain diameter,' she says. General guidelines suggest that each vegetable be at least 1.5 inches in diameter and at least 2.5 inches in length.

In addition to vegetables, several types of fruit can be spiralized. 'I've done apple noodles in salads before. That's a good cold one, if you enjoy fruit in your salad,' Rutledge says. She also has used spiralized apples in an apple crisp dessert.

By day, Rutledge is a product manager at The Gazette/KCRG-TV9, but nights and weekends, she blogs about food and cooking at www.creativelifeexplored.com. 'I'm always online looking for recipes because I love to cook,' she says.

Over the last year, she's often written about and photographed new dishes made with her spiralizer.

Recently a friend asked Rutledge to put on a cooking demonstration for a small group.

'The class wasn't anything formal,' Rutledge says. 'It was a pretty even mix of people who had bought a spiralizer, but hadn't used it before and a handful of people who were interested in learning more.'

The group was surprised how easy a spiralizer is to use. 'It's actually very easy,' she says. 'It takes less than five minutes to spiralize your noodles.' And because 'you're not having to boil water and cook noodles, most of the meals I cook take under 30 minutes from start to finish. It's very easy to do on a busy weeknight.'

If you're interested in learning more about the spiralizer, Rutledge steers people to www.Inspiralized.com, a food blog dedicated to the spiralizer. Rutledge says, 'I've made mistakes. There are certain vegetables you have to peel (carrots, squash, potatoes). Some you don't have to peel (like zucchini and cucumbers). The site gives lots of tips, has video tutorials and tells you how to shop for vegetables that will work well.'

Looking for more inspiration in the kitchen? Rutledge highly recommends adding a food processor to your kitchen arsenal. 'A food processor can take the place of a regular blender. I find with more and more recipes, it's so nice and easy to throw everything in the food processor and pulse it until it's the consistency you need it to be.' She notes that many food processors have come down in price in recent years.

Rutledge also is a big fan of the NutriBullet high speed blender. 'Yes, I love my NutriBullet. I use it almost every day for smoothies and things like that. It's so easy to clean up.' Just like the spiralizer, it helps her add more fruit- to her diet. 'And if you don't like vegetables, it's so easy to throw in a handful of greens.'