This may not be a nutrition-related article, but I think having certain essential kitchen equipment can definitely support you on your journey to preparing healthier food at home. These items help you become a more efficient cook in the kitchen so you can spend less time cooking, and more time eating home-cooked meals with your family and friends. Want to find out other ways to spend less time cooking in the kitchen? Check out my other blog post here.
1. Food processor
If you find yourself always mincing up garlic, onion, ginger, or chilli for your meals, this is a handy equipment to have. It’s also useful if you are frequently making curries—be they Indian, Thai, or Indonesian. Because of the amount of paste you constantly have to grind up, a food processor will definitely be a good investment. It works for well for Western dishes too, when a recipe asks for chopped garlic, onion, celery, carrots and tomatoes to make a basic stew. Simply throw all these ingredients in the food processor, give it a blitz, and they will be nicely minced or chopped up for you according to the setting it’s on.
2. Garlic press
There is garlic in almost every recipe out there, so this is definitely a huge time saver. All you have to do is skin the garlic, put it through the press, and it becomes mince! This is an essential kitchen equipment for almost every home cook.
Have trouble peeling garlic? It’s easier to get that flimsy skin off by placing the garlic on your chopping board and smashing it with the flat side of your knife. Peeling becomes much easier after that.
3. Electric kettle
Not only does an electric kettle get you boiling water to make up hot beverages fast, it is also an essential kitchen equipment for cooking. When you cook pasta or blanch vegetables, you need boiling water. Water takes forever to boil in a thick stainless-steel saucepan, or in a wok without a lid. Having this really speeds things up so you have boiling water, pronto.
4. Hand held blender
If you’re a big fan of making mash potato or creamy soups, this one’s for you. It’s much more convenient than pouring all your soup out into a conventional blender, whizzing it in batches, and then pouring it all back into the pot to reheat. With this, all you have to do is stick the hand-held devise into your soup, turn it on, and your soup gets whirred into creamy goodness. This is also great if you have a baby who’s still weaning on to solids, as you can easily blend everything up.
These are definitely essential kitchen equipment for me, as they make meal preparation more seamless and enjoyable. They also support you in cooking a wider range of dishes belonging to different cuisines. If you want to get my list of top 10 essential kitchen items for fuss-free cooking (they’re not just equipment!) simply leave your e-mail when you next see the pop-up on my website.
