Sometimes it feels like I spend all day cooking so I’m a big fan of products that make it easier or the food more delicious. I was happy to receive two interesting products from Vremi to review: a handheld spiralizer and a silicone baking mat set. Find out what I thought of them in this post and there is a chance to win both in a giveaway too.

I’ve got lots of silicone products in my kitchen: cupcake cases, cake tins, a microwave casserole dish and a few utensils including a spatula. They are great because they can be used at high temperatures and they are non stick so easy to clean. I hadn’t previously considered silicone baking sheets, but having received this set from Vremi (affiliate link) I am a total convert: they reduce waste (compared to the use of foil or greaseproof paper), they make cooking easier and they are easy to clean.

The most obvious use for silcone making mats is to line a baking sheet when cooking biscuits or other sweet baked goods. This works well because it saves the need for greaseproof paper and you don’t risk braking the biscuits when trying to get them off the tray. I don’t bake sweet goods that often so I put them to the test with the sort of savoury foods I make regularly instead.

The baking sheets can handle temperatures of roughly -40C all the way up to 249C so I thought I would see how they helped my roasts. I make fantastically crunchy roast potatoes (even if I do say so myself), but it’s frustrating when I lose some of the crispy bits because they stick to the pan instead of the potato. The pan with baked on potato is a pain to clean too.

I cooked my potatoes as normal, but I lined the pan with one of the larger silicone sheets. It was larger than the pan so it didn’t lie flat, but this kept all the oil in. 

So how were my potatoes? Amazing. They were just as crisp as ever and I didn’t lose any of them to the pan. Washing up was really easy too as I just washed the sheet in soapy water to remove the oil.

The best way to get really crisp roast potatoes is to use plenty of oil and a high heat, but if you want to cut down on the fat silicone baking sheets are a great way to cook roasties. You can use just a small amount of oil to coat the vegetables and not worry about them sticking. I cooked the parsnips in this way and they crisped up really well. There is also the option to use no oil at all, but personally I don’t think they look or taste right without at least some fat.

The set contains 3 silicone sheets with different coloured trims. Two 29.21 x 41.91 cm and one  22.86 x 33.02 cm. 

Spiralizers are a great way to eat more vegetables and cut down on starchy foods while still feeling full. I love to pad out my noodles with some spiralized carrots and courgette (steamed in that fab silicone microwave casserole dish I mentioned earlier). I’ve had a spiralizer for about a year, but I don’t use it as often as I should because it’s quite big, I have to get it out a cupboard with a child lock on and it has lots of pieces to wash. The Vremi Handheld Spiralizer (affiliate link) is much smaller and makes creating courgetti really quick. 

The pack contains: a peeler, the spiralizer and a cleaning tool. The spiralizer can cut 2 different thicknesses which is an impressive feature for such a small gadget. As a handheld device it is a good size for carrots, courgettes or similar shape vegetables. If you want to use wider vegetables (like squash) you will need to cut them up. The top of the spiralizer comes off and has spikes on it to stick into the top of the vegetable so you can turn it using the top. I found the spikes a little too short for the courgette so it didn’t grip it properly. It was easier to use my hand to turn the vegetable directly, at least until I got close to the blades. 

Like any spiralizer there is some waste which doesn’t get cut, in this case you get a 3 cm (ish) pencil shape. It’s worth using longer vegetables to avoid as much waste as possible.

The spiralizer is easy to clean and reassemble. It even has a cleaning brush which helps you get any small bit out of the blades without risking your fingers.