Need a helping hand in the kitchen? Try one of these appliances.
Some appliances may collect dust on the counter—think those products that are good for one thing, but not much else. A good appliance should serve multiple purposes, there to improve your skills as a home cook. Here are the best kitchen appliances for your vegan cooking.
Stand mixers are one of those appliances that often get passed down from generation to generation. With good reason—they last forever. A stand mixer has several uses, including mixing dough for homemade bread, kneading seitan, and whipping dairy-free frosting.
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A high-speed blender like a Vitamix or Ninja is strong enough to take on many tasks, like transforming frozen bananas into ice cream, blending nuts and seeds into dairy-free alfredo sauce, and pureeing soups. You can also use it to blend oats into flour—add water and you can even make your own oat milk, provided you have a cheesecloth or wire mesh strainer.
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A food processor can take on hummus, dips, and it can even make meal prep easier. Don’t feel like chopping a bunch of vegetables? Let the chop or slice setting do the work for you. Some models even have attachments that let you mix bread dough or whip up cake batter.
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An air fryer circulates hot air to cook food (kind of like a mini convection oven), using it to create perfectly crispy fries, meaty tofu, and roasted vegetables. Because of this, you need only a fraction of the oil that you would when roasting something in the oven. It also solves the tricky problem of not having enough space in your oven while meal prepping.
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The cult-hit Instant Pot is a multipurpose device that can pressure cook beans without having to soak them, steam rice, and slow-cook stews all day long. It’s programmable, so you can set it up with ingredients the morning of and go about your day. You can even get accessories, such as a steamer basket, for those meal-prepping days where your stovetop runs out of room.
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Bakers swear by using a kitchen scale to measure their ingredients with precision, with superior results to relying on measuring cups and spoons. It’s also helpful in savory recipes when the size of “one medium potato” and “one small carrot” is up for debate.
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An electric kettle is great for when you need to heat up water fast, like for cooking pasta, grains, noodles, or steaming vegetables. Oh, and boiling water for coffee and tea—lots of coffee and tea.
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An indoor griddle is more versatile than you would think, from grilling vegan burgers and hot dogs to pressing a grilled cheese sandwich made with dairy-free cheddar. The LCD display makes controlling the time and temperature easy.
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An immersion blender is a must-have for small kitchens and people who don’t like washing blenders. Compact, but powerful, an immersion blender can puree silky-smooth soups, sauces, and more.
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A hand mixer can take the place of a stand mixer in many ways and it doesn’t take up the counter space. Use it to make vegan whipped cream, whipped coffee, and even egg-free meringue.
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A waffle maker may be only good for making waffles, but what it lacks in versatility it makes up for in delicious Sunday brunches. Plus, you need not only be limited to classic Belgian waffles—you can experiment with flours (spelt, sourdough, etc), flavors (chocolate chip, blueberry, raspberry), and you can even make savory hash brown waffles.
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Need an additional cooktop? An electric countertop burner can give you that much-needed extra space without having to wait for free space on your stove. It can also boil kettles or heat up your stovetop espresso maker. These are also great for apartments that don’t have a stove.
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A toaster is a welcome addition to most kitchens. Heat up frozen bread, crisp up an English muffin for brunch, toast your bagels, and more.
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Manual can openers are hard on the hand for a lot of people. An electric can opener makes opening tins of beans, sauces, coconut milk, you name it, painless.
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If you’re a frequent bread baker, a bread maker can be a huge time-saver. This device takes care of mixing, kneading, proofing, rising, and baking for you. All you need to do is add the ingredients and pick the type of bread you want to make. Most bread makers will offer options for sandwich loaves, ciabatta, and more.
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This post was last modified on December 15, 2020 6:56 am