Cooking Essentials.

Bare Bones Necesities

I get asked all the time what are the top essential tools one should have in their kitchen arsenal. I always say to keep it to a minimum unless you’re a caterer/chef and need heavy-duty cookware. Buying every single product that is advertised will clutter your kitchen, empty your wallet, and make you live with buyers remorse. Here are my top 5 items that I can’t live without and you shouldn’t either!

Vegetable Peeler

Personally, I like to use this one but feel free to use any veggie peeler that works for you. Peelers are great to peel fruit + vegetable skins in a quicker/safer way than a traditional paring knife. Peelers are also a great way to peel super thin pieces of veggies and make veggie pasta (forget investing in a spiralizer!).

Food Processor

It does not need to be a fancy 10-cup capacity machine with a ton of bells and whistles. It can be a small compact machine that gets the job done. Food processors make my life easier when I want to make hummus, salsas, falafel, bean burgers, or anything that I need to be pulverized or mashed quickly.

Immersion Blender

I own both an immersion blender and a regular stand blender, but if I had to choose one to keep I’d choose the hand blender. It takes up little to no space + is super easy to use.  When making hot soups that need to be blended this makes it much easier than using a stand blender that might explode with hot liquid. Also, did I mention they’re usually pretty cheap?

Cast Iron Skillet

The cast iron is literally an heirloom in the making. If you take care of it you can pass it down to your kids! You can cook just about anything in it and it withstands exceptionally high heat. Perfect for frying, camping, making perfect cornbread, roasting, searing, the list goes on. If you only own one pan let it be a cast iron one!

Cutting Board

Super basic tool to have, but you’d be surprised how many folks I’ve met who didn’t have one or used their plates as cutting boards. You should have two different boards. A plastic one for meat/animal proteins (if you consume them) + a wooden one for everything else. There should be a separation of boards because wood is porous so you wouldn’t want meat juices penetrating the surface of your board. Also, you don’t want to heavily wash your wooden boards. You just want to give it a good quick cleaning with soap + water and make sure you dry it quickly. Wood warps if exposed to too much water, which can make using your board dangerous. You definitely don’t want to cut a carrot on a wobbly unleveled surface!

FYI: I don’t get any money from this post or from sharing the products I use!