Nigella Lawson: Spiralizers have no place in my kitchen (except to make chips)

She writes: "If you are one of the fad-resistant few who have never either bought a spiralizer or don't even know what one is, turn the page now. Don't give it another thought.

"But, mindful of the several tonnes of spiralizers lying dormant in kitchen cupboards up and down the length of the country, I have found a new use for them.

"While you will never find me making zoodles or courgetti or allowing any other vegetables to masquerade as pasta, I can say this for my spiralizer: it does make very fine shoestring fries".

The recipe calls for potatoes, salt and oil, and involves deep-fat frying. It is not one which would be found in a clean eating recipe book.

Spiralizers are hand-held devices that turn vegetables into thin noodle shapes. In a trend made popular by clean eating celebrities  and bloggers, many use the kitchen equipment to substitute vegetables for pasta.

Nigella has spoken out against clean eating in the past.

In 2015, she said: "People are using certain diets as a way to hide an eating disorder or a great sense of unhappiness with their own body.

"There is a way in which food is used to either self-congratulate - you're a better person because you're eating like that - or to self-persecute, because you'll not allow yourself to eat what you want."

She also said that clean eating is a fad and said following a balanced diet should not involve "being smug".

"I wouldn’t want a life where I lived on chia seed pudding, just as I wouldn’t want a life where I lived on eggs Benedict or steak and chips.

"I love kale and I'm an avocado obsessive. But life is about balance, it's not about being smug. You don't eat things because you think they're good for you." 

Nigella Lawson's new recipe book At My Table is out now — and recipes from it are to feature in her new BBC show, which will be out later in Autumn.