Essential Kitchen Tools for Plant-Based Cooking
If you’re eating plant-based or considering a transition to a plant-based lifestyle, you’ll soon discover you’ll be doing more cooking at home. Hopefully, that doesn’t scare you away. Many non-cooks tell me they now love cooking because it’s so much easier. Plus no oily stove to clean-up and no worry about food cross-contamination. While that maybe true, it does require a little more planning and a few nifty kitchen tools that will have you cooking like a pro!
I’m all about presentation when I serve a meal. When it looks good, it tastes good. Who’s with me on this? Here are are a few essential tools that will have you whipping up beautiful, healthy and delicious plant-based meals in no time. Perfectly shaded burgers, Buddha Bowls with uniformly grated carrots, sliced cucumber, and avocado. Most of them are available on Amazon so be sure and add them to your wishlist.
*** PLEASE NOTE*** I’m showing photos of a few items for descriptive purposes. That doesn’t mean you need to go buy brand new gadgets. What I do want you to do is scout out your nearest thrift stores, they are chock full of kitchen supplies and we all know one man’s trash is another man’s treasure! Plus, it’s better for the earth when we reuse. Some things will be hard to find, but items like mandolins are a dime a dozen!
Burger Press
Black bean burgers, chickpea burgers, falafel burgers, burgers, burgers, and more burgers. Ever wonder how you can achieve the perfect shape? You need to pick-up this gadget right here. A Food Press Round. You can find it Amazon for under $15 bucks. You get two, so you can even share one with a friend!
Mandolin Slicer
I honestly don’t know how I could survive without my Mandolin Slicer. Find one with a turn knob to designate the thickness you desire or to slice in a julienne fashion.
Quality Chef’s Knife
None of my suggestions are going to break the bank and you can most likely find everything at thrift or consignment shops. But this will be the one thing that I would recommend splurging on because a quality Chef’s Knife will bring precision to your slicing and dicing. Get yourself to a quality kitchen store and try on some knives. A knife is NOT a one-size-fits-all. A good knife is weighted and the comfort of the handle can vary greatly, that’s why it’s so important to try a knife on before you buy it. I could do a entire blog post on purchasing knives, that’s how important it is. So go to Sur La Table, Crate and Barrel or Williams Sonoma and get professionally fitted for the most important tool in your kitchen. You will spend upwards of $75 for one good chef’s knife. This is not the item to go cheap on, trust me.
Julienne Easy Grip Peeler
I adore this little kitchen work horse. This Julienne Easy Grip Peeler will make all your Buddha Bowls look so fancy, you’ll feel like you’re dining out!
Silicone Spatulas
You can never have too many spatulas when cooking. Keep in mind, plant-based eaters need not worry about cross-contamination because we don’t cook with animal protein, but we do need to be concerned about contamination from saliva. We need to be even more mindful of this since the COVID-19 virus reared it’s ugly head. No double dipping! Have a good assortment of various sized spatulas for stirring your tasty dishes. I have every size imaginable. Just make sure you’re buying BPA free and heat resistant up to at least 450F.
Grapefruit Spoon
Who knew something so inexpensive was going to be the handiest gadget ever. Use this nifty Grapefruit Spoon to remove gills from portobello mushrooms and scoop out the ribs and seeds from the inside of halved jalapenos, tomatoes, and bell peppers. The serrated edge makes this a must-have spoon!
Prep Bowls
The key to cooking a good plant-based meal is having your ingredients chopped and ready to use, prior to beginning the cooking process. There’s actually a French culinary phrase for this. Mise en place, which means “putting in place” or “everything in its place”. It refers to having your ingredients set-up prior to beginning cooking. This is particularly important in plant-based cooking because vegetables can easily become overcooked when you’re not paying close attention, while you’re busy chopping and dicing other ingredients. This is where prep bowls come in handy. Have all ingredients prepared and measured before you begin cooking. And all in order nearby on the counter. This will save you so much time. You don’t need anything fancy and they don’t even need to be matching. Stainless steel nesting bowls are great, as well as any nesting glass or Rubbermaid food storage container. Nesting bowls store nicely for those who are short on kitchen storage.
3 in 1 Avocado Slicer
I can safely cut, split open, pit, and create uniform avocado slices all with one tool. This affordable 3 in 1 Avocado Slicer is available from Amazon and quite honestly if you eat a lot of avocado like I do, you need this!
Measuring Spoons
Have a minimum of 2 sets on-hand so as you’re measuring, you have a separate set for dry and liquid ingredients. There’s nothing worse than having to wash and dry measuring spoons between measuring different ingredients. Do you agree? I prefer stainless steel over plastic but that’s just my personal preference.
Nesting Mesh Strainers
Whether you wash fruit, strain steamed vegetables or drain pasta, mesh strainers are useful for a variety of kitchen tasks. Stainless-Steel Fine Mesh Strainers are the way to go. No need to worry about them melting if you get them close to a hot burner and they’re dishwasher safe for easy cleaning.
Airtight Food Storage Canisters
You’ll no doubt be purchasing much of your dry beans, grains, flour, and nuts from the bulk department and you’re going to need something to store them in. While I started out storing dry ingredients in glass jars, I found I’m too clumsy and after cleaning up broken glass a couple times, I switched to plastic containers. Walmart’s Mainstays Canister brand are BPA free and come in a variety of sizes. Now I have all my dry food storage nicely organized in my pantry and everything is labeled so it can be easily identified.
Label Maker
Which brings me to the final tool suggestion. A label maker. This comes in handy when buying bulk items. There’s nothing worse than having a pantry full of grains, beans and legumes and you don’t know which one is which. You can also label spice jars! Buying spice in bulk is a great way to stock your cupboard and only purchase what you need. I recently purchased 6 star anise in bulk because I don’t use it often, so no need to purchase an entire jar. You’ll be using a lot of smoked paprika, cumin, herbs de Provence and other wonderful herbs and spices to flavor your meals, and you’ll soon realize that with many items, it’s cost effective to purchase in bulk.
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