These are the time-saving tools that we use most in our kitchens, along with tips on how to use them. You may already have many of these, which should give you a jumpstart to cooking more vegan food right away.
Apart from your own hands, these are probably your most essential tools in the kitchen. If you cook from scratch most of the time (which I hope you do), then you’ll be doing a lot of vegetable chopping, which requires good knives. Be sure to get a chef’s knife with a size and weight that fits well in your hand. And don’t forget the knife sharpener. Keeping your knives sharp will help make chopping much easier and will protect your hands from slips that happen more readily with a dull knife.
I use my citrus juicer just about every day for freshly squeezed lemon juice. I find it’s much easier to extract more juice this way than by hand.
Using an electric Crock-Pot (or slow cooker) makes it easy to cook a big batch of beans, rice, stew, chili, and other dishes on the weekend to eat from during the week. Or you can use it to cook while you’re away from home or sleeping or just doing other things. You won’t have to constantly check on the food, and when it’s hot outside, you won’t have to turn on the stove or oven. Crock-Pots are also energy efficient, which makes them cost-effective to use, as well.
Chopping vegetables, onions, garlic, and nuts are much easier with a food processor. It’s also great for easily making sauces, dips, and pesto.
These are my favorite containers for storing my leftover smoothies and green drinks in the refrigerator and they are great portable containers. I also use them to store dry staples like beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.
I highly recommend investing in a good-quality high-speed blender if you can, because it makes eating more plant foods a breeze. I use a Vitamix, which can be a bit costly, but it lasts. I’ve used mine every day for many years to make daily green smoothies or vegetable drinks that come out silky smooth, with no or low visible pulp. I also use it to blend just about anything else, from soups to pie fillings to cashew cream to puréed fruit.
A handheld immersion blender is a convenient, lightweight, and simple way to blend and mix ingredients directly in a bowl or hot soup pot, eliminating the extra steps needed to place ingredients in a standard mixer or blender. And they’re surprisingly affordable, which makes them even more appealing.
I use my kitchen scissors to cut my baked tortillas and pitas into chip-size pieces for dips and soups. They also work well to cut stalks away from greens, especially if neatness counts for making wraps or rolls.
Besides my blender, this is probably my most-used kitchen tool. Salad spinners help take away the pain of washing and drying dark leafy greens. You can easily wash and spin-dry your greens without the mess, then store them in the refrigerator right in the spinner. Here’s my secret: I actually have two salad spinners. One I use to store my washed and cleaned kale for my daily salads. And the other I use to wash, dry, and store the other vegetables I eat during the week, including broccoli, collards, mustard greens, chard, and others.
A spiral slicer (or spiralizer) is especially useful to help you eat more fresh vegetables during the summer months when there’s much more fresh produce available. You can use the spiral slicer to make paper-thin slices of a variety of vegetables or spaghetti-like strands of zucchini and squash. You can also use it to julienne strips and half rounds of vegetables to easily add to salads, stir-fries, and soups or to dip in hummus or salsa. You can take many dishes from plain to gorgeous with this tool.
In addition to using stainless steel tongs to toss salads, I use them to toss leafy greens, string beans, or bell peppers when I’m lightly sautéing them on the stove. I also use them to turn grilled tempeh or tofu in the oven. Be sure to get long tongs to handle these hot cooking tasks.
Stainless steel whisks are essential for stirring dry mixes when baking or when mixing together marinades. You can also use them to stir ingredients directly into a soup pot on the stove.
When you’re using these kitchen tools, be sure to have designated counter space that’s cleared for food preparation. And be sure the appliances you use the most are easily accessible so you’re more likely to use them.