Inspiralized: Turn Vegetables into Healthy, Creative, Satisfying Meals: A Cookbook

I have the Kindle edition, and have just ordered two paperback copies, one for a gift. I use this all of the time. I feel better since I've started spiralizing and Ali's book is my go-to. I like the recipes and her creativity a lot. There are some veggies that I can't have, such as potatoes, beets, spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, (and it's nothing to do with carbohydrates), but she almost always has a list of successful veggies that you can use instead, such as swapping rutabagas for potatoes, butternut squash for sweet potatoes. There are also spices that I can't have, such as chili powder and curry powder, but over the years, I've grown adept at swapping them for things I can have, or just adapting the recipe, and although it won't be quite the same, it generally turns out to be quite edible. I've never been a huge fan of rice, and I really enjoyed her Butternut Risotto I made last night. Instead of chicken broth, I used the last of my Pace and a bit of water, and served it with homemade refried beans on the side. It turned out very well. It was fast, easy, and I didn't have to stand at the stove and stir for 20 minutes. That recipe is now in my rotation. I am even trying some "new" veggies. I stumbled across some Kalettes the other day, just after I had read her "Spicy Parmesan-Garlic Zucchini Pasta with Sausage and Kalettes" (on her Inspiralized.com website), and decided to try it. It turned out very well, and looks like its' picture. I am looking forward to trying kohlrabi, which my mother would never cook, even though the Savoy Cabbage wasn't so successful. It does make a good wrap for a burrito, but I am not all that chuffed about the taste of it. She gives you a good variety of recipes for all kinds of diets-if you are low-carb, vegetarian, or vegan, there are always swaps that you can make, or things that you can just leave out. Her instructions are generally clear, and she also has videos you can watch either at her website or on YouTube that show you how to clean her spiralizer (I don't have hers, I have the Paderno Pro 4-blade), or how to spiralize this or that vegetable. It's written in a friendly, informative, and uplifting style and the pictures are very nice and appetizing, too. I have been making zucchini spaghetti with a vegetable peeler for quite some time, and I think it turns out much better with the spiralizer, especially if you wrap it in paper towels, put it in a zip loc, stash it in the fridge, and let it hang out there until you need it. It's a lot easier to spiralize veggies all at one time, and use them over the next couple of days, and Ali gives you information on how to do this, or even freeze them. Although I can't make everything in it as is and across the board, I can highly recommend this cookbook. It's been very good for the things I can make, and is always good as a springboard for ideas.

So everything I have read about this book is true and then some. I realize it's a little extreme to say this book has changed our lives, but in many ways; it really has. First, my wife is already a fantastic home cook; and for the most part we ate pretty healthy already. But this book has taken it to a new level. Not only are we eating some of the best tasting food I have ever eaten, but we're not eating any crap anymore; and very unexpectedly are dropping tons of weight. Neither one of us we're large to begin with. My wife is 5'10 and weighed in the 165ish range. I'm 6.0" and approx 225. In two months, my wife has droppped 15# and I've dropped 20. Neither one of us really exercises, but we're also not super lazy people. We're active, but not in a go to the gym sort of way. But it's not just the book and the spiralizer. Outside of beer and alcohol, we have cut out carbs completely - no bagels, donuts, bread, pasta, rice, or potatoes, etc. etc. We had tried to go semi-paleo last year and really struggled with how to eat. This book completely solved that problem. The recipes in here are phenomenal. And like any other recipe; we do alot of substituting and personal changes so we can utilize what's in our pantry and not have to make an extra trip to the store. Take this book and be creative and don't be afraid to tweak on the recipes. The meals are very flavorful; the recipes are super fast and easy; and I love the use of so many fresh ingredients. While it's not a 1-1 substitute; I do think the food in here tastes just as good. For example; the Lasagna uses Zucchini as a pasta subsitute. And it works. If you think about it; plain pasta is pretty bland and flavorless. Plain zucchini is also bland and flavorless, but then you add homeade pasta sauce; riccotta cheese, mozarella cheese, and all the seasonings and it's very much like lasagna. the vegetables really absorb and hold the rest of the ingredient flavors very well. I would highly recommend this book to ANYONE. It's a great way to significantly increase your vegetable intake while reducing your cab intake at the same time. My kids are super picky and have been slow to adopt. We don't force feed them stuff they don't like, but they're still eating better than they were before - especially the salads. Some of the best salds I've ever had came from this book. This review is being done after my third book purchase. Our friends love coming over to eat so much that we're setting up some of them now.

Love this book and love the Inspiralized website. I mostly purchased the book to support the author, who publishes healthy, gluten-free, beautiful recipes (and stories to go with them) on her blog. She also has plenty of videos demonstrating how to spiralize different foods including a surprising number of veggies, and a few firm fruits. The recipes are inventive and satisfying. I like that each recipe lists other foods you could substitute to make your noodles right in the recipe. BTW, you can use the spiralizer to make a couple of different shapes. You can also process the noodles in the food processor to make something that resembles rice out of some foods. Anybody trying to figure how to get more fruits and veggies into their diets would appreciate this book. So would someone looking for low carb substitutes for pasta, noodles, rice, grains. Many of the non-dairy recipes could be paleo also. The only thing that is missing is in the nutrition information. It lists some macros like calories, protein, carbs and fat, but not fiber. Trying to ensure 30 grams a fiber per day, so wish I didn't have to go elsewhere to find that info. Otherwise, this would be a 5 star book.

Like the other reviewers here, I follow Ali's blog, so I was interested to see how much overlap there was between her blog and cookbook. There is actually not much overlap, most of the recipes in "Inspiralized" seem to be new (relative to her blog). There are about 3 from the breakfast chapter (sweet potato waffles, savoy cabbage breakfast burrito, and huevos rancheros) - but otherwise, those are really the only ones I noticed. Ali includes a stunning amount of variety, from "Everything bagel" breakfast buns (yum), chana masala with kohlrabi rice, Thai drunken zucchini noodles with pork (my favorite), to apple-potato buns as a gluten-free, healthier alternative to grilled cheese. Every recipe I have made from her blog has turned out well, so I am expecting similar results from this book. I love the layout of her cookbook - it's easy to see at a glance how much time everything will take, and unlike a lot of cookbooks I've used where it takes three times longer than promised - her estimates are pretty accurate for me. In addition, there's the nutritional information, a photo of what it should look like, whether it's GF, veggie, vegan, etc. My favorite feature though is probably the fact that each recipe includes an "also works with" box. She really encourages you to explore with your spiralizer and try new things. In case you don't like something, or can't find it, or have an overabundance of something else - Ali makes it really easy to adapt her recipes to suit your personal tastes, while staying as healthy as you want to stay (for instance, she says up front that her recipes don't include butter, cream, etc - but feel free to add if you desire). Also, the intro section where she talks about how to use your spiralizer, which veggies are permissible, special ways to deal with things like the soapy taste from daikon, how to prepare and store spiral veggies for cooking later - while it is all on her blog, it's nice to have in one place here. I thought that the spiralizer was just another huge kitchen gadget that I might not really use, but I've lost about 10 lbs since I got mine in December (yeah, two months ago) - just from cutting out pasta and rice. Even my cooking-phobic roommate uses my spiralizer weekly. Ali's blog has really helped me experiment with all the ways I can use the spiralizer, without giving up the dishes that I like. This book takes it even further.

Truly amazing book! I never write product reviewes, but I have to write this one because I was absolutely "inspiralized!" I'm not Italian, but I'm a 40 year old woman who loves pasta and bread, and you don't have to be a genius to know what pasta and all grains in general do to your body, especially for someone like me who doesn't have time to excersize regularly. Also, I'm an average cook, and have limited time on my hands. However, I do love vegetables of all kinds, shapes, colors, and sizes, and I love trying new recepies. I also like to look good in my clothes and maintain my weight, minus a few pounds ( in an ideal world) without sticking to any particular boring and expensive diet plan. So I wanted to give spirilizing method a try after reading about it in one of my cooking magazines. After all, spiralized veggies look so cute!!!! So, of course I needed a cook book to help me with my cooking adventure. After researching on Amazon, "Inspirilized... " by Ali Maffucci caught my eye, and I'm so glad I made that choice. I got it all in one delivery, and ran to local Publix to get some zucchini just to play with it a little bit. And I don't want to lie, but I made the most delicious creamy mushroom zucchini noodle soup ever by using my own recepie and cooking tips from the book. And after I started reading deeply into the book, I just couldn't put it down. It was like Ali made all the "homework" for me, and all I have to do is just to put it together and not to be afraid to try. It's so easy to read, so personable, funny, witty, and it's written so well, and it also gives you a feeling like an old friend sharing some recepies with you and encouraging you to try something different and refreshing for your own health benefits. And she doesn't stick to one diet, instead, she mixes things up for everyone's taste, and also gives you plenty of choices to substitute ingredients to your liking. No wonder it's a bestseller! I used a few recepies already (in 5 days since I had the book), and have no intention to slow down. My husband and I loved it, kids did too, and we all felt full but not heavy after eating our meals. I also want to try all the veggies Ali suggested in her book that are "spiralizable", but I used to avoid before because they looked ugly or weird, and now it's my chance to do it because I feel brave. After I realized that I can incorporate my own recepies using her suggestions and methods, I got really excited and can't wait till my next cooking adventure. Now I can honestly say that my cooking possibilities are unlimited, and hello bikini bathing suit without working my buns off on a treadmill. I'm so forever grateful for this wonderful cooking masterpiece. Thank you, Ali, you are like my sister I've never had, good luck to you, and I can't wait until you'll write another one to inspirilize me even more! Highly recommend it to all veggie lovers and adventurous cooks out there! A. Touma

I'm a huge fan of this author's blog, so I was extremely disappointed to have gotten my preordered copy of the book and find that the the experience of a book, instead of being more exciting than the blog, is actually somewhat less so. The biggest bummer for me was the lack of photos. In this day and age, no blogger would ever consider putting up a recipe without at least one photo of the finished product, and when I am paying for a recipe book, I expect the same quality as what bloggers everywhere are putting up for free. Only about half of the recipes had a photo to illustrate it, and I was disappointed that many of the recipes pictured were not ones that particularly needed a photo (such as salad with some spiralized shavings on top), while others that were more complex, such as tilapia tostadas with tomato corn salsa, were not pictured. I have no idea what a spiralized tostada made of plantain rice might look like, and one photo would have made this recipe a lot more useful. Then, I was disappointed in the quantity of cheese. While I do eat cheese and generally follow a primal diet (and expected to find some cheese in this cookbook), I would go so far as to say that the majority of the recipes here include cheese, and indeed rely on it as a key part of the flavor and texture. I expected something more similar to the breakdown of recipes on her blog, where there is a wide variety of dairy free options to supplement the cheese ones. For me, cheese is an occasional treat, not something I consider healthy every day eating. In her casserole section, for example, there is a Mediterranean beet and feta skillet bake which relies on the feta cheese as the focal point of the dish, a zucchini manicotti which again relies on Parmesan, ricotta, and mozzarella as the focal point of the flavor, a vegetarian carrot enchilada bake which has one and a half cups of cheese and in my view really needs it to balance the rest of the ingredients, a rutabaga turkey casserole with a cup of gruyere cheese, finally a vegan option with chipotle carrot macaroni and cheese which uses cashews and nutritional yeast, a parsnip and kale gratin using a stunning 3 cups of shredded Gouda cheese, a grape leaves casserole with no cheese, a fennel sausage and butternut squash casserole with half cup of Romano cheese, and a chicken and broccoli skillet bake with a cup and a half of shredded cheese. Of all of these recipes, only three of them seemed like they would still be tasty without the cheese - the two that already didn't include it, and the butternut squash casserole with fennel sausage. When you look at her blog, the breakdown of dairy free options versus other options is much different, and when I buy a cookbook from a blogger, I expect to generally find the same types of dishes in the cookbook as on the blog, maybe with more options for how to dress it up or fun variations on how to make it slightly different using different herbs or ingredients, and better photos. That said, there are still a lot of recipes in the book that I would like to try. My favorites: Huevos Rancheros with plaintain rice tortillas spicy jicama strings, which look a little bit like French fries spicy butternut squash nachos Tomatokeftedes and cauliflower tabouli salad beet rice nori rolls with chipotle teriyaki sauce chicken banh mi with Sriracha Greek yogurt Apple potato cheese bun vegan chipotle carrot mac & cheese fennel sausage and butternut squash casserole pork bibimbap with ginger gochugaru albondigas and chayote with tomato serrano sauce vegan celeriac Alfredo with broccolini Plaintain coconut rice pudding Overall, there are a lot of great ideas here, but the book was really hindered by a lack of photos and an overreliance on cheese. Given my experience reading her blog, I would've expected about a quarter vegan (possibly containing breadcrumbs or beans), half paleo, and a quarter containing cheese. I think if she had taken the time to develop just a couple of interesting sauces to substitute for cheese and mix things up a little bit, her cookbook would've been far better for it. She doesn't even have to eliminate the cheese, just say "substitute the coconut cream sauce on page 59 for the cheese if a dairy free dish is desired", or give us some other creative options to help us substitute on our own, as many other recipe writers have done. I am sure she is 100% aware that a HUGE number of her readers are either paleo, vegan, or are watching their weight and don't want to use 2 cups of cheese in a dish. A little bit of creative help in substituting would have served ALL of her readers without compromising the dish she wanted to share, That said, I feel that I got my money's worth given the fact that there are at least 10 recipes that I intend to make. I also appreciated having the opportunity to support a blogger that I love by purchasing her book. I only wish that her editors had pushed her to go outside the box just a little bit more, and had allowed the author to use ample photos, as I imagine she would have wanted to do.

I finally bit the bullet and purchased a spiral slicer -- in my case, the Paderno World Cuisine A4982799 Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer . The great thing is that the recipes in this book work just fine for ANY spiral slicer. And the recipes are VERY good! I always make at least 3 recipes from each cookbook I purchase, and I did that with this one. First up: the Pesto Sun-Dried Tomato Egg Muffins. You "spiralize" a large Yukon gold potato, then briefly pre-cook the potato noodles with garlic powder (I used finely minced fresh garlic). The "muffins" are a combination of egg, the pre-cooked potatoes, wilted fresh spinach, and chopped sun-dried tomato; bake, then top with pesto. Yum!! I'm a sucker for anything with a lot of flavor, and this has a lot of flavor. Plus, the "muffins" can be frozen, then reheated in the microwave. I'll make this again. Next: Sweet Potato Carbonara. It's just like it sounds: a "standard" carbonara recipe, but with sweet potato noodles instead of spaghetti. Yes, it has a different taste, but I really like it. I reduced the ingredients by 1/2 to make two servings (instead of 4), and it turned out just fine. Love the combination of pancetta, onion, garlic, and cheese with the slightly sweet orange sweet potato noodles. Really good! Ate half, saved half for another lunch a couple of days later. Finally: Spicy Garlic Crab with Parsnips. OK, I modified this, and used jumbo shrimp instead of crab because that's what I had on hand. All other ingredients and instructions were done according to the recipe. I LOVE parsnips, and consider them among the most underrated vegetables out there. I use it in stews, casseroles, etc. It has an almost sweet taste when cooked, and is just so yummy! This is one of those super simple recipes that will be useful when I need something quick and different. Will definitely make this one again. I feel that I've just tapped the surface of the wealth of tastiness in this cookbook, and look forward to trying more (and playing with my spiral slicer). Solid well-earned 5 stars!

Several months ago I purchased my spiralizer and absolutely love it. When I saw that Ali Maffucci (blogger from inspiralized.com) had a cookbook out, I couldn't wait to get it. Since then, I ordered another copy for my daughter who loves vegetables as much as I do and shipped it to her in California. My only regret from this book is that I wish I had waited and ordered Ali's new version of the spiralizer (called the Inspiralizer) that she invented. It might be an upgrade from mine. You know the drill...you order a mandoline from Pampered Chef and the next year they come out with a new model that has three more attachments than yours? HMPH! So, I have been cooking out of this book now for several weeks and if you are a vegetable lover, you will adore this book. If you are trying to cut out carbs, you will adore this book and if you are trying to pack more raw or just simply veggies into your life...this is the book for you. If you are picky and hate vegetables, it is not. However, I made a believer out of my husband when I cooked the Sweet Potato Carbonara for him. He loved it. I loved it. We want to make it often. The book is very informative and it's obvious the author, who is of Italian descent and whose family loves their pasta, has played around A LOT with the recipes and perfected them. She gives a lot of expertise on making the various noodles in different sizes and even instructs on how to convert the noodles to "rice" and specifics on what vegetables work and don't work when spiralizing and what to embrace and not try with different vegetables as well. I happen to adore different ethnicities of food so I appreciate the diversity of the recipes like Mexican and Thai flavors as well as Italian and southern dishes, etc. This is not a vegan or vegetarian book so meat is also included in many dishes. Recipes next on my list to try are Spicy Butternut Squash Nachos, Noodle Chicken Soup and Collard Hummus Wraps with Golden Beets and Sprouts. I am adventurous when it comes to vegetables but there are plenty of less adventurous recipes as well like Caprese Zucchini Salad, Pesto Spaghetti with Heirloom Tomatoes and Garlic Lemon Broccoli with Bacon. And it's not just a cookbook of pasta dishes. There are recipes for Breakfast, Soups Stews and Salads and even Rice Dishes and Casseroles and yes, there is even a dessert section. This book is quickly becoming well-loved and well-used at our house. I look forward to trying many of the recipes.