The Julienne peeler is the key to how chefs obtain those beautiful curls of veggies onto their salads. You can learn, with practice, to produce spirals and curlicues in addition to straight strips of vegetables and transform veggies into spirals.

Consider a Julienne peeler as the less complex, more compact option to a spiralizer. It is merely a peeler with sharp teeth and results in a pile of noodles and ribbons when pulled along with veggies, including carrots, sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, and squash.

Let’s look into all the great capabilities and benefits of the Julienne peeler.

What Is a Julienne Peeler?

A julienne peeler is a stylish, hand-held kitchen tool that creates the julienne cut, a technique for cutting vegetables into highly satisfying, even ribbons. These julienne strips can be added to stir-fries and other prepared dishes and used to garnish foods like pasta and salads. 

This is a nice alternative to using a spiralizer if you don’t have space for one while preparing slaws out of carrots and zucchini— their uniform size guarantees that they cook uniformly and maintain their aesthetic appeal, two crucial qualities in professional food. Julienne peelers are sold at many kitchen supply stores and can also be purchased online.

A julienne peeler is built similarly to a potato peeler. It shaves the vegetable into uniform sheets with a thin blade and divides them into little strips by serrations.

A julienne peeler must be used correctly by being dragged uniformly across a vegetable to maintain a uniform sheet size. A different tool will be required if the vegetable needs to be peeled first, as may be the case with thick-skin items like carrots. 

Your imagination is the only true restriction on how to use the julienned veggies; you may use them in stir-fries, soups, sushi, and even as garnishes.

Although not necessary for all recipes, julienne strips look nice and sometimes are more practical than unevenly sized bits of vegetable material. Cooks can use Julienne peelers to slice vegetables into uniformly sized strips, unlike mandoline blades that are famously sharp, making julienne peelers faster and safer. Although it is less effective with apples, squash, or potatoes, it is a wonderful, more portable alternative to large countertop gadgets or learning how to use a knife.

A decent julienne peeler will have a sturdy, comfortable handle that makes it simple to use even after spending a lot of time in the kitchen. The blade should ideally contain a safety element, such as a guard, to prevent the cook from also julienne their hands.

In general, hand washing and drying a Julienne peeler is preferable to using the dishwasher because of the small parts. Hand cleaning is better for the blade’s longevity because dishwashers can dull blades and ensure that all parts are thoroughly cleaned.

The Benefits and Uses of a Julienne Peeler

To begin with, you can purchase one for under $10, saving you money. Next, think about the grip. When using a swivel peeler, you are compelled to adopt a strange stance with your elbows out, and the rotating blade constantly seems to turn away from where you need it to go.

The ergonomic shape of a Julienne peeler allows you to quickly and easily drag it down from the top while holding whatever needs to be peeled in one hand, whether a kiwi, mango, cucumber, eggplant, potato, or carrot. There are no carpal tunnel syndromes, nicks and scrapes, or uneven, sloppy peeling. 

Here are some ideas for using your Julienne peeler.

Making Vegetable Peels

Everything becomes substantially simpler with the Julienne peeler. Due to its sweet, c-shaped blade, it can easily glide around the edges of curved produce and quickly handle whatever fruit or vegetable it comes across. As much food as obtainable is left behind, while peels are removed in extremely little pieces.

Starting Salad Bases

The Julienne peeler is the perfect tool to get you started making non-leafy salads if you have yet to do so. A salad is the quickest and simplest way to use your Julienne peeler. Instead of greens, build your salad on tougher vegetables like carrots, zucchini, turnips, and beets.

Developing Food Ribbons

What’s more entertaining than eating baby carrots? Eating ribbons of carrot. They are not only attractive, but they also cook more quickly and make excellent raw salads.

Additionally, add a variety of veggie ribbons to your favorite stir-fry combinations to spice things up. Using vegetable ribbons further reduces the cooking time for this already-quick supper.

Cocktail Zesting

Citrus zest is a crucial component of numerous cocktails, including Old Fashioneds, Manhattans, and martinis, even though it may look like a silly garnish. The secret to getting nice zest is removing as little pith as possible, which is impossible for an average person to do with a paring knife.

Shredding the Best Cheese Shards

Shreds of cheese sometimes blend into the background of a dish, but shaved cheese stands out, whether it be salad, pasta, or grilled veggies. A Julienne peeler’s ability to shave off tasty wisps of hard cheese nearly outranks all other capabilities.

Assembling Chocolate Shaving Piles

Shavings of chocolate are crucial. They taste better than simply biting into a bar and are great for tempering (melting more evenly and faster). The Julienne peeler produces perfect mounds of tiny chocolate shavings that beg to be sprinkled over ice cream or eaten straight off the cutting board.

Softening Butter

Are you a scatterbrain who consistently forgets to leave the butter out so it can warm up? If you are, you can drastically reduce the time it takes for cold butter to soften and become flexible by shaving it into ribbons.

Making Sandwiches and Wraps

Stop limiting yourself to sliced tomatoes, leafy greens, and shaved onions; the Julienne peeler opens up many more options for adding that veggie crunch to your wraps and sandwiches.

Of course, you can use a spoon to perform some peeling tasks. However, the Julienne peeler will take care of the bulk of your peeling requirements. Even if this peeler’s main purpose were to speed up the potato peeling process a little, that would still be a fairly decent single function because it is far more fascinating than we give it credit for. 

You can also read our article about Understanding How to Pick the Right Peeler for the Job if you need tips and recommendations.