Mandolins

• The mandolin is a relatively inexpensive piece of kitchen equipment that is simple and easy to use. It works best with firm vegetables or firm fruits.

• The mandolin is used to slice foods or to chop them into matchstick sized pieces. In either case it does a better job than you could easily achieve with a knife, because it's much faster and produces a finer and more uniform cut.

• It's quite surprising what a difference a mandolin can make in raw food preparation and to the way you present your raw food dishes. Nicely prepared and presented food looks so much more edible and attractive.

• The mandolin has many uses. I use my mandolin for slicing beetroot or carrots into matchstick size pieces or for slicing courgettes along their length. It improves the presentation and ease with which these jobs can be done.

• Do be realistic. The harder roots can be made into very fine matchsticks, whereas it's best to use a coarser cut for the more watery produce like courgettes.

A typical mandolin has the following features

• It is basically a small board with a blade half way down. For slicing this is all you need.

• You can adjust the thickness of the cut by turning a thumb screw on the underside or a similar mechanism

• The mandolin should come with a finger guard. Please check that this is provided with the mandolin, as, for some inexplicable reason, on some of the expensive models, these are sometimes available separately.

• Take great care not to let your fingers go anywhere near the blades as they are very sharp, and do use the finger guard. You might want to buy some cut resistant gloves.

• If you want to make matchstick pieces then one of the slotted blades needs to be inserted vertically.

• There is a choice of fine, medium or course blades for making matchstick pieces. The vertical blades are easily removed for cleaning.

• Take great care when cleaning too!

Benriner mandolin