A dish that makes spiralizing worth it

I have been slow to spiralize. For one, I didn’t have a spiralizer — and didn’t really want another large tool cluttering up my countertop. Then there is the whole idea of using a vegetable instead of pasta. It might look close, but the taste and texture are anything but. And don’t get me started on the word “zoodles,” which I apologize for using and promise never to write again.

Yet zucchini are everywhere in the last gasp of summer, and it’s still too hot to really cook, so I caved in and bought a little handheld spiralizer. The reason? I wanted to make a zucchininoodle dish that caught my eye in Kim-Julie Hansen’s new book, “Vegan Reset,” a guide to eating a plant-based diet for 28 days. The appeal of the recipe was twofold: It involves no cooking, and it’s cold. The latter quality makes it less of a pasta dish and more of a salad.

The spiralizer, small enough to fit into a drawer, reminds me of an oversize pencil sharpener: You just twist the zucchini (or any other long vegetable) into one end and julienned strips curl out the side. If you don’t have one, you can accomplish the same thing (with noodles that aren’t nearly as long, of course) with a vegetable peeler and a knife.

The noodles get tossed with mushrooms, scallions and cherry tomatoes and topped with walnuts. But the star is the sweet-tart dressing, a combination of avocado, mango, herbs and lime juice. It coats the zucchini — particularly once it’s cut into noodles — just beautifully.

DEB LINDSEY/ WASHINGTON POST Creamy Zucchini Noodle Salad involves no cooking and is served cold.