I have put together a list of my top 10 favorite kitchen gadgets and tools. These are all the things that I either use on a very regular basis, or that I have just found useful and I feel were worth the purchase.

1. A good blender.
The blender that my husband and I received from our wedding has worked great for us! We use it every single morning for our shakes and it’s still working marvelously for us. Our hope someday is to get a Blendtec or a Vitamix, but until then, this one is great!

2.My food processor.
If you know anything about me or my husband it’s that we LOVE a good deal! We searched all over and researched a bunch of these babies and finally determined that this Black and Decker food processor was the right one for us based on price and functionality. I use it to make my lentil meatballs, bean burgers, hummus, and to shred and chop things. I use this at least 2-3 times a week.

3. My fine mesh strainer.
I use this on a daily basis and most of the time I use it multiple time in one meal preparation. I am a fan! I use this to strain and wash canned beans, to strain smaller amounts of pasta, to rinse my chopped lettuce..etc I highly recommend having one of these. They are just great for a quick rinse on things you don’t want to get your large strainer out for.

4. A hand blender.
I use this quite often. I use it for blending up soups that I don’t want to be fully blended. It’s perfect because you can watch it more closely than when you blend things in your blender. Because you can watch it more closely, you can stop it when the soup is blended to your liking. I also use it to mix up salad dressings. I have a little pampered chef salad mixer that this hand blender fits perfectly inside. Here is the link for that salad dressing mixer I use:

5. A good knife set.
If you are vegan or plant-based then you know how often you have to use your knives. Invest in a good set! It will make such a big difference on the length of time you have to spend when making your meals. I recently cooked in a friends kitchen and it took me almost double the amount of time to chop my veggies as it would if I had my knife set.

6. Good storage containers.
We searched for a long time and finally came across these Rubbermaid storage containers. They are the perfect sizes for us and have worked out great. The little containers are the perfect size for dips and such for my husbands lunch and the medium sized ones work great for storage in our fridge along with sending casseroles for lunch with my husband to work. We liked them so much we even got the large storage containers for storing all our flour, rice, beans, nutritional yeast..etc. They are perfect sizes for what we need them for. Here are the links to the two different sizes of food storage that we recently bought:

7. A good turner spatula.
I’m sure everyone has experienced using a pathetic little floppy turner spatula to flip your pancakes and how extremely frustrating that can be. I use this spatula all the time and I feel it’s the perfect size and doesn’t let the pancakes just flop off. I prefer this over a metal one as well because I am often using my non-stick pan when making pancakes or burger patties. I have loved this spatula.

8. A spoon spatula.
This is one of my absolute favorite things in my kitchen! I have a pack of 3 spatulas and it only came with one that’s the spoon type. I have been so tempted to go and buy a second one. I pretty much never use my other 2 spatulas because I love how the spoon spatula works and the shape is perfect for scraping the sides of your food processor, blender, or bowls. They are fantastic!

9. A small whisk.
Yes, you should also have a large whisk, but I have found this little 9 inch whisk to be a handy little tool. It’s nice to use when I’m just making little batches of things like sauces or syrups..etc. It’s also nice when you are making 2 different things that you need whisks for.. such as pancakes and syrup. I use mine often.

10. Pastry Scraper.
I don’t use this extremely often, but it was worth it for the times that I do use it. I really dislike the clean-up that comes with making pizza doughs, breads, cinnamon rolls..etc. This cuts the time in half! Maybe even more! I just use it to scrape off the left-over flour and encrusted stuff and then scoop it right into my trash can. If you bake often, this might just be your next best friend!

I hope you find this useful and maybe learned something new.

What are your favorite kitchen gadgets?

Kristin