Being kitchen smart means doing what it takes to make cooking easy, fast, and fun! Kitchen tips, gadgets, appliances, and other kitchen necessities can help. If you want to know what works well, just take a look at what we keep in our kitchen — here at Now That’s Vegan!
Kitchen Tips
- Add Zing to Salad: Rub a clove of garlic on the inside of a large serving bowl, add the salad ingredients and a light vinaigrette, then toss and serve. This will add just enough garlic flavor to your salad to give it a little zing.
- Better Broiling: Broiling requires cooking food in an oven at a very high temperature. Gas ovens broil food better, but an electric oven can broil nearly as good by preheating the oven and using a rack placed on the highest level. Broiling cooks quickly, so watch it carefully, unless you like your food burnt to a crisp.
- Blanching for Success: Blanching, also known as parboiling, partially cooks the food in boiling water for a minute or two. Blanching vegetables before grilling helps to cook them fully without burning the outside, and can loosen the skin of tomatoes to make peeling easier.
- Easily Aerate Flour: Formally known as sifting (passing through a sifter or fine mesh), aerating removes any lumps in dry ingredients. Aerating flour for fine pastries may still require sifting. Otherwise, using a whisk is easier and does the job just as well.
Kitchen Gadgets
- Citrus Reamer or Squeezer: To make juice from fresh citrus fruits.
- Citrus Zester: A zester removes the outer layer of a lemon or lime that can be used to add flavor or make a garnish. There are different kinds. A classic Citrus Zester can be found at Williams-Sonoma, and the Microplane Grater-Zester from Crate&Barrrel will give you a lot of zest.
- Mandoline Slicer: Kyocera Ceramic Adjustable Slicer is perfect for every day use. A dial on the back adjusts the thickness to 0.5 mm, 1.3 mm, 2.0 mm or 3.0 mm. The blade is ceramic for perfect slices. The body is plastic, making it rust proof. Fits well over bowls and easily stores in a kitchen draw.
- Rolling Pin: For rolling out gluten-free pizza dough and pie crust.
- Salad Spinner: For easy salad preparation, and an easy way to wash broad-leafed herbs and leafy greens prior to juicing. There are many on the market to choose from, but the OXO Salad Spinner is especially nice. It has a soft non-slip knob to start the basket spinning and a button to stop it, which makes its contents clean and dry.
- Scissors: Useful for a number of things, including cutting open gluten-free flour bags and bags of dried beans, and snipping kitchen grown herbs.
- Spiralizer: The Paderno spiralizer cuts vegetables and fruits into curly, ribbon-like slices and long spiral strands. Great for making pasta-like dishes and fancy garnishes.
- Vegetable Peeler: Easier than using a knife, in some cases, for peeling potatoes, carrots, squash and more.
Kitchen Necessities
- Colander: To drain steamed vegetables and cooked pastas. Also good for rinsing beans.
- Cutting Board: Choose wood or plastic.
- Glass Canisters: To store flour, rice, nuts, dried beans and more. Set them on a countertop or shelf for easy access. Glass lets you see what’s inside without having to open it. An airtight lit keeps the food fresh.
- Knives: Both a long knife and a short paring knife are necessary. Other knives are useful, but may not be used as often.
- Measuring Cups and Spoons: Glass liquid measuring cups help to get an accurate measurement by looking at the markings on the side of the cup, and metal or plastic measuring cups give an accurate measurement for dry ingredients where you can level off the top with the back of a knife. Measuring spoons are fine for both liquid and dry ingredients. An array of standard sizes are needed for all.
Helpful Appliances
- Food Processor: Perfect for chopping vegetables, and for making dips and spreads. The Cuisinart DLC-10SY Pro Classic 7-Cup Food Processor is what we use at Now That’s Vegan! It’s reasonably priced, sturdy, powerful, and durable. Even though it’s small it size, it’s big enough for our needs. If you have a large family or like throwing parties, you might try the KitchenAid 12-Cup food processor.
- Immersion Blender: This is a great hand-held tool for making creamy blends right in the pot. The Cuisinart Smart Stick Cordless Hand Blender has a lightweight, easy to grip “stick” design that lets you blend in a pot, bowl, or pitcher.
- Juicer: There are many to choose from. You might consider the Omega VSJ843QS Vertical Square Low-Speed Juicer Juicer, which features a cold press juicing system for a high degree of extraction and nutrients. Ideal for commercial environments due to its high quality and durability, yet its compact design also makes it perfect for home use.
- Blender: Not all blenders are the same. The best are of good quality and high-powered. You could try a Vitmix blender. Vitamix blenders are used daily by professional chefs and at-home cooks around the world in order to make meals fast and with ease.
Pantry Essentials
Besides having an equipped kitchen, you will need some pantry items. Visit our Pantry page for a list of vegan and gluten-free foods that you might want to keep in stock.
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