These vegan kitchen tools will make eating plant-based easy, quick and simple! These are basic tools to elevate your cooking and make sure you can enjoy the great variety of ingredients you will be cooking with.
Having the right equipment in the kitchen can make such a difference! With the right tools, you will be able to create great recipes and get more comfortable with trying new things.
As you venture into the world of Veganism, you might see recipes that require tools you have never heard of before, such as spiralizer and dehydrators. Do you need all of these? In short, no you do not need fancy equipment, but there are some kitchen tools that can be really helpful for a vegan diet.
There’s not many differences between vegan and non vegan kitchen tools, but this list looks at items that have helped me master vegan cooking and are either essential or make cooking so much quicker and easier! I specify that these are for a vegan kitchen because for example I will not be talking about steak knives or meat shredders. I also have a guide on sustainable kitchen products to reduce waste.
Even if you’re just exploring eating more plants, this list of kitchen tools can make your life a lot easier and enable you to enjoy cooking more! You don’t need many gadgets and some of these you might own already, I believe the items on this list are kitchen tools every vegan needs.
In this guide I’ve put together a list of essential vegan kitchen tools based on items that I use daily as well as some other options for all budgets. Let’s have a look!
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GOOD KNIVES
As plant based home cooks or chefs, we don’t need to worry about many different knives. You will just need three types:
- Pairing kinfe a small knife for peeling and hand cutting.
- Chef’s knife a medium knife for chopping vegetables and things like tofu and tempeh.
- Serrated bread knife for cutting bread and sourdough.
Tip: do not put your knives in the dishwasher as they will get ruined. Instead, wash them by hand and dry them immediately. To keep them sharp you can buy a knife sharpener like the one pictured or an electric one.
GOOD FRYING PANS AND POTS
Frying pans and pots are an essential in the kitchen and I don’t think you will come across a kitchen that does not have these. You need a pan for stir frying pretty much anything or to make pancakes or toast. You need pots to make boil pasta and rice and to make things like soups. Good quality and non toxic pots and pans will las a long time and you will be using them everyday.
It’s good to have different sizes, ideally 2 pots or saucepans and 2 frying pans, for each a small and big one. A wok is also a great tool in my opinion, great for stir fries.
There are some great non toxic cookware sets online that include pots and pans, such as and Cuisinart and Caraway Cookware which are great if you’re starting with basically no items.
For individual items check out:
- GreenPan SearSmart Frying Pans set of 2 ($79.95)
- Sensarte Frying Pan ($20.39)
- Utopia Kitchen Nonstick Saucepan Set set of 2 ($28.99)
- Stainless Steel Sauce Saucepan ($25.34)
- Kenmore Hammond Carbon Steel Wok ($44.99)
CUTTING BOARDS
A cutting board is another essential item in a kitchen. I have 2 cutting boards. One big one and a smaller one. A big cutting board is great to cutting bread, large amounts of food and large vegetables. A smaller one is good for smaller foods.
Tip: I usually use a separate chopping board for onions because sometimes even if I wash the cutting board the onion stays and when I cut fruit for my breakfast I can taste the onion.
HIGH SPEED BLENDER
A good high-speed blender goes a long way. My high speed blender is my number one kitchen tool, I use it for everything. If I had to choose one thing to recommend, it’s definitely this.
It can be used for many things. It;s great to make smoothies, sauces, pesto, vegan cheese, dressings, dips, creamy soups, nut butters and much more!
A high-speed blender is more powerful than a normal blender, its motor is 1000 to 1500 watts. I was always fed up with my blender because it just would not work well sometimes, if there wasn’t enough liquid the ingredients would get stuck and I could not use it as I wanted.
In my kitchen I’ve had two kinds, one is the Thermomix and one is the Colzer. They are both very high speed and they have very different prices but they both work perfectly. The Thermomix has more features.
You might think high speed blenders are expensive, and some are but there are options for all budgets, and I think it’s a great investment. They range from around 80/90$ to 500$ and more. Here are the best high speed blenders based on budgets:
- Low budget: Colzer ($89.99)OR Nutribullet Blender ($109.99)
- Medium bugdet: Kitched Aid ($199.99)
- High Budget: Thermomix($1,499) or Vitamix ($249.95 to $599.95)
If you love to make your sauce from scratch, you like creamy smoothies, nut-based sauces, you want to make your own nut butter and you just use blenders a lot a high-speed blender is for you! Otherwise stick to a normal blender like Nutri Bullet ($79.99).
FOOD PROCESSOR
A good food processor is another great investment in the kitchen. It might look similar to a blender, and they do share some functions but a food processor, differently to a blender, has different blades and can slice, grate, dice and cut food into different ways.
A blender is mainly used for things you can drink, drizzle, or dip while a food processor is used for chunkier results. Furthermore, food processors are wider so they can process larger and wider ingredients.
- Low budget: Chefman or Oster or EZBASICS(small)
- Medium budget Cuisinart
- High budget: Breville Sous Chef 16
BAKING DISHES AND TRAYS
I love to use the oven to roast vegetables, making veggie burgers, quiches and to bake anything from bread, cookies, granola and more. I think having a few buying trays and baking dishes is essential.
What I recommend:
- Aluminum Baking Sheet Pan set of 2 ($23.37)
- Pyrex Basics Clear Glass Baking Dishes set of 2($25.80)
- 6-Piece Bakeware Baking Set ($25.34)
- Loaf Baking Pan ($11.99)
For a sustainable baking paper option try these reusable silicone papers, I have been using them for years and they are great to reduce waste
REUSABLE GLASS CONTAINERS
I find reusable glass containers incredibly useful. They are perfect to store food in cupboards, to store leftovers in the fridge or the freezer, and also for packed lunch. I purchased a set of glass containers ($24.37) with lids and I use them so much I cannot recommend them enough!
SPOONS, WHISKS, SPATULAS, VEGETABLE PEELER
There are many utensils that I use, the ones I cannot live without are:
- Wooden and solid spoons
- Ladle
- Turner
- Skimmer
- Spatula
- Whisk
- Vegetable Peeler
STRAINER/ COLANDER
I am Italian and I eat a lot of pasta. A colander is essential for this but also to strain anything that you cook in boiling water, from rice and noodles to vegetables. I have two types fo strainers, one made of stainless steel ($8.99) with bigger holes that I use for pasta and a fine mesh strainer ($15) that I use to sift things like flour.
GRATER
I have to types of graters. I use a box grater to make vegetable fritters, shred carrots into salad and to grate parmesan. I use a finer one to grate things like lemon and orange to get the zest. Sometimes box grates have this too so that would be the better option.
MEASURING CUPS/SPOONS OR SCALE
I love using cups and spoons in recipes because it’s a more straightforward way of measuring ingredients. I use them daily. My recipes are all with cups and spoons, but I try to write metric measurements too. I use this measuring cups and spoons set ($22.90) and I love it!
For baked goods, a kitchen scale is sometimes better as it is more accurate. This is also a great substitutes if you don’t like the idea of cups and most recipes have the equivalents in grams so you’re good. There are different types of scales, and I suggest electronic ones with batteries, like this one ($9.59) as they are more precise.
I find battery-operated scales the easiest as I can go between kilos, pounds, ounces and millilitres in seconds.
MIXING BOWLS
I use bowls a lot, wether for baking or to make salads. I have two large bowls, one in pyrex ($17) and one stainless steel bowl ($8) I think one bowl is enough though, unless you are a big family and you might need more for serving dishes like pasta, rice etc.
HAND BLENDER
A hand blender is a great alternative to a blender for some recipes like soups, some smoothies and creams when the ingredients are soft. High speed blenders will blend anything, a hand blender is more limiting but I still use it for many things because it’s an immersion blender and can be used easily with less mess!
If you don’t want to get a normal blender this is really useful and a lot cheaper. It’s great to make soups, mayo, smoothies, hummus but also veggie burgers. Even if you have a blender you might want to consider getting an immersion blender, why? Because it is small and light, can be stored easily, and it can be used directly in the pot/bowl. So it’s super easy to clean and sometimes using the countertop blender can be unnecessarily messy.
INSTANT POT
An instant pot is an extra kitchen gadget that can help you drastically reduce the time you spend in the kitchen and automate some cooking processes. With an instant pot you don’t have to worry about the cooking process at all, or making sure that things are going as planned, as the machine does everything for you.
- Instant pot for beginners: Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1
- Instant pot advanced: Instant Pot Pro
WHAT TOOLS CAN YOU NOT LIVE WITHOUT?
This is my list of things that I cannot live without as a vegan. When I go to a new place or rent a kitchen, I struggle without all my tools! This might not be you, but I think most of the tools are essential for a great cooking experience!
Although I would love to hear from you! What kitchen tools can you not live without? Let me know in the comments
