Inspiralized and Beyond: Spiralize, Chop, Rice, and Mash Your Vegetables into Creative, Craveable Meals: A Cookbook - Softcover

Combining her deep-rooted love for pasta with her desire for a healthy lifestyle, Ali Maffucci launched Inspiralized.com, the only blog dedicated to cooking creatively and nutritiously with the spiralizer. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of Inspiralized and Inspiralize Everything. She lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with her husband, Lu.

INTRODUCTION

The question I get asked most is, “Do you only eat spiralized food?” I am the self-proclaimed biggest proponent and fan of spiralizing, so it’s a completely warranted question.

But let me back up. If you’re new to Inspiralized, allow me to introduce myself. (If you’re already familiar with Inspiralized and you’re flipping through this book wondering why you’re seeing non-spiralized recipes, hang tight and I’ll explain that, too.)

In 2013, I quit my corporate job to pursue a dream of building Inspiralized, a healthy brand and community dedicated to cooking with the spiralizer, a kitchen tool that transforms vegetables and fruits into noodles. Inspiralized started off as a food blog, but over these past few years, it’s grown to much more than that, including the creation of my own branded spiralizer and the publishing of two cookbooks on the topic. Needless to say, I’ve been busy spiralizing for a while now!

I never get bored of spiralizing—not with so many fruits and vegetables that can be spiralized and so many ways to cook spiralized noodles. And I’m constantly discovering new produce to use. I recently did pineapple for the first time! But while, yes, I do spiralize almost every single day . . . I don’t exclusively eat spiralized food. Cue the gasps!

What initially drew me to spiralizing was how it unleashed my creative side in the kitchen, where I had previously been in a rut. I felt inspired to transform all my food into something exciting. Every meal could be a magical, inventive piece of art—a masterful Bolognese over zucchini noodles or the perfect chicken and carrot noodle soup. I don’t think I’ve made a boring meal since!

Most important, these recipes became integral to my own personal health journey. After launching Inspiralized, my spiralized recipes helped me lose thirty pounds. As someone who had struggled with portion control and weight yo-yoing in the past, I found that spiralizing was a way to have my cake and eat it, too—I could eat piping-hot bowls of noodles and still trim my waistline and get in the essential nutrients my body needed to thrive. I loved spiralizing for its health benefits, but also because of its versatility—a simple pasta dish could take on dozens of new flavors by simply swapping in a different spiralized vegetable. Talk about ditching the dinner rut!

After losing the weight, I went into maintenance mode and knew I needed to find more creative ways to cook vegetables to keep up the momentum and to adopt a lifelong healthy lifestyle, not just a diet.

I started experimenting, and so began the next phase of my healthyeating journey. I looked at every vegetable in the grocery store as something that could be transformed into something else, or incorporated ingeniously into a meal. When I started posting my nonspiralized healthy creations on Instagram, instead of saying, “But this isn’t spiralized!” my followers asked, “Where’s the recipe?!”

Bursting at the seams, I could not be more excited (and ready!) to share those meals and recipes with you now. I’ve written this cookbook as a direct reflection of how I eat: healthfully and creatively, both spiralized and non-spiralized.

Say good-bye to your basic steamed veggies forever, and keep reading. We’re about to go beyond Inspiralized—are you ready? I am.

Cinnamon-Raisin Sweet Potato Bagels with Maple Cashew Cream Cheese

Spiralized / Saves Well / Vegetarian / Gluten-Free / Paleo / Dairy-Free / Low-Cal

You’ll never get a Jersey girl to give up her bagel, because if you didn’t know, New Jersey produces the world’s best bagels. It’s a fact. While walking through a kitchenware store, I spotted a doughnut pan and thought, “If I stuff these with spiralized veggies, they’ll come out looking like bagels!” Allow me to introduce you to the spiralized bagel. This cinnamon-raisin version is made with sweet potato noodles and smeared with a vegan cream cheese made from cashews and sweetened with maple syrup. However you top your bagels, you’ll love having these in your clean-eating breakfast arsenal.

Time to Prepare: 15 minutes plus 3 hours soaking
Time to Cook: 30 minutes
Serves: 6

Ingredients
For the bagels
Neutral oil or cooking spray
1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and spiralized with Blade D
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins

For the maple cashew cream cheese
1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight
3 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk, plus more as needed
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons pure maple syrup
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a nonstick doughnut pan with neutral oil or cooking spray.

2. Make the bagels. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the sweet potato noodles. Cook the noodles, tossing occasionally, until wilted, about 10 minutes. Transfer the noodles to a large bowl and refrigerate until cool, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the eggs, cinnamon, and raisins to the cooled sweet potato noodles and toss well to coat. Pack the noodles into the doughnut pan. Bake until the bagels are firm and the tops are crisp, about 15 minutes.

4. While bagels cook, make the maple cashew cream cheese. In a food processor, process the cashews, almond milk, cinnamon, vanilla, maple syrup, and salt until smooth. If the mixture is too thick to blend, add another tablespoon of almond milk.

5. Carefully pop the bagels out of the pan and let cool for 5 minutes. Spread with the maple cashew cheese and serve.

TIP If you want to make these bagels in your favorite traditional bagel flavor, use russet potatoes, skip the raisins, and season appropriately.

Nutritional Information Per Serving
Calories 161 / Fat 8g / Sat Fat 2g / Sodium 55mg / Carbs 18g / Fiber 2g / Sugar 8g / Protein 5g