Whenever I hear the word mandoline, I think of the instrument, not the kitchen tool. And when I mention the mandoline kitchen tool, my friends often stare at my blankly in confusion.

A mandoline is a lean, mean veggie slicing machine! I have the Progressive Folding Mandoline. It’s simple but easy to use, easy to clean and slices and shreds those tasty veggies!

I never owned a mandoline until after I went low carb and started cooking my own food. I was afraid it’d be something that would collect dust in the cabinets. But my fears were unfounded! Cue action shot of my shredding cabbage and carrots for colelsaw with my mandoline:

So my mandoline comes with three slats that you can pop in to the mandoline base that lets you do extra thin, thin, medium and thick slices. This is great for say, slicing along the body of a zuchinni or eggplant to make eggplant mini pizzas or veggie lasagna noodles. Granted I got lazy and used a knife with the eggplant mini pizza recipe I posted, but a good reason to use a mandoline is because you will have evenly sliced pieces that will cook more consistently (versus some getting under or overcooked because they are thicker/thinner than their buddies).

The other sides of the slices have a ‘shred’ option, so you can have fine/coarse shredding. I used this for carrots (fine) and cabbage (coarse) for dishes like coleslaw. Quick way to have a sexy, consistent cut for salads, stews, etc.

The device will come with a hand held device that you can stick the veggie on, so you don’t have to get your hand near the blade. IT IS SHARP so don’t be silly, use the hand device to shovel the veggie down on the mandoline blade.

There are mandolines that have cheese shredder attachments (although I think you can use the one I have for that, too – I’ll have to give that a try!) and come in pretty colors (damn you, KitchenAid, for all your purple and magenta kitchen tools!).

What food to you like to prep with a mandoline?