Technically, these kitchen tools aren’t absolutely necessary for your Whole30 kitchen, but they sure will cut your prep time and expand your range of cooking techniques. Plus, most of these cost under ten dollars—a steal, given how easy they make so many of your Whole30-related kitchen tasks.
Mincing garlic is one of our least-favorite tasks; it’s a challenge to get the pieces small enough before you’re bored out of your mind with chopping. However, mincing by hand is only one option—there’s also the garlic press. Peel the clove, put it in the press, squeeze the handle, and you’ve got perfectly minced garlic in ten seconds. They key to this tool is making sure you rinse the leftover garlic pulp out of the press as soon as you’re done (before it dries and hardens), and use a kitchen brush or toothbrush to keep the holes clean.
Or, just buy minced garlic in a jar and call it good. It’s more expensive, but it’s definitely got the convenience factor going for it.
Vegetable noodles are an easy way to add variety to your Whole30 meals in a way that’s fun for the whole family. Our Roasted Spaghetti Squash is naturally spaghetti-like, but for vegetables like zucchini or cucumber, you need a way to turn them into noodles.
Enter the julienne peeler.
It looks just like a normal peeler (and works the same way), but its special grooves turns vegetables into long, thin strings, just like noodles. You can find them for under $10 at any kitchen store, and it only takes about a minute to julienne an entire zucchini.
If you want to splurge a bit here, you could also buy a fancy tool called a spiral slicer for about $40. This nifty gadget slices, grates, or juliennes any vegetable in a way that basically guarantees your kids will help with your dinner prep, and makes things like Melissa’s Chicken Hash a breeze to prepare.
Trust us on this one—squeezing lemons and limes by hand is messy, and doesn’t ever get all the juice out. Buy a hand-held combination lemon/lime squeezer for around $10. The end.
Many of our recipes call for citrus zest—that is, tiny pieces of the lemon, lime, or orange peel mixed right into the dish. You’d be surprised at how much flavor a small amount of zest can add, but getting to it can be a pain without the right tool. You could use a vegetable peeler to remove strips of the skin, then tediously chop them into skinny strips or tiny pieces.
Or, you could use a $5 zester and do the same job in three seconds.
A zester has tiny holes designed to remove long, skinny pieces of skin as you scrape it down the outside of your citrus fruit, no extra chopping required. Or, for about $15, buy a Microplane—a multifunctional miniature grater perfect for zesting fruit or grating spices (like nutmeg) or roots (like ginger).
This handy and inexpensive kitchen tool looks like a hammer of sorts, with a long handle, one flat end, and one texturized end. It’s pretty literal in name—you essentially whack your steak, chicken breast, or pork shoulder to break up the muscle fibers.
It’s been described as “pre-chewing the meat,” only less messy.
This is one easy way to make tougher cuts more tender, or to ensure those who prefer well-done meat aren’t chewing for hours. It’s also a great way to speed up cooking times, and get more consistent results. You know how there’s always one end of the chicken breast that’s thicker than the other? Without pounding it flat, you’ll end up with the thin end overcooked by the time the thicker end is cooked through. Use a meat tenderizer to make the chicken from our Perfect Seared Chicken Breasts or Harvest Grilled Chicken Salad uniform in thickness so it cooks faster and more evenly all around.
To minimize mess, place a sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper over your meat before you start hammering away, and make sure you properly clean and sanitize your meat tenderizer immediately after use.
Our final recommendation isn’t a necessity—we give you two other ways to grill vegetables and fruit in our recipe for Perfect Grilled Vegetables—but none as easy as using a basket. Chop your veggies up, toss them in some oil, throw them in the basket, and leave them on the grill while you tend to the rest of your food.
Every once in a while, give them a shake. Yep, that’s it.
You can buy a grill basket for around $20; some even have heat-proof handles to make taking it on and off the grill easier. One tip to make the most of this kitchen tool—put it on the grill while you’re preheating. A warmed grill basket will cook your vegetables faster and with less “stick” than a cold one.
We may mention other kitchen items, like cheesecloth for straining Clarified Butter or a basting brush to use with our Baby Back Ribs, but there are easy workarounds if you don’t have these. We also mention some pretty specific tools with our Fancypants Meals—these are important for this particular dish, even though you may only use them once a year.
In summary, there are more kitchen gadgets, appliances, and tools than you could ever hope to use in a single year, and it’s up to you to decide what’s important to you, and what fits your budget. (We love our avocado saver, although even we think it’s a little silly.) Make notes as you work your way through these recipes of tools you’re missing, or tools that might make your prep a little easier. Then, figure out what’s most important to you, and add to your collection over time, as you can.
Don’t stress about outfitting it all at once.
You have the rest of your life to build your kitchen, because the Whole30 is just your first step in a long, rewarding, delicious journey of cooking (and eating) real food. So now that your kitchen is well stocked with the basics, it’s high-time you start cooking!
For our kitchen tool recommendations, including brands and models we like, visit www.whole30.com/whole30kitchen.